It’s 2005, and the DNC is already requesting every public document pertaining to Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, a likely GOP 2008 contender. From the Boston Globe

Nearly three years before the 2008 presidential election, the Democratic National Committee is already digging for dirt on one potential candidate in the race: Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts.

Earlier this month, virtually every agency in state government received public records requests for ”any and all records of communication” involving Willard [Mitt] Romney dating to 1947, the year of his birth. The letters, each dated Dec. 7, are signed by Shauna Daly, who only provided a post office box in Washington, D.C., as her address.

A spokesman for the Democratic National Committee confirmed yesterday that Daly is employed as its deputy research director. Prior to that, she worked as a campaign staff member for presidential candidate John Edwards, the former Democratic senator from North Carolina. She also worked on other races since graduating from Smith College in 2001, including a US Senate race in Florida.

This, of course, comes approvingly from the same newspaper that just asked Romney to resign immediately as he has announced he was not seeking reelection to a second term

By thumbing his nose at Massachusetts after less than three-quarters of one term as its chief executive, Mitt Romney, yesterday surrendered his clout and squandered his legitimacy. If, as it appears, his heart and mind are no longer in Massachusetts, he should resign.

Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey is inexperienced. But the state would be far better off in the hands of someone focused on state problems, rather than someone touring the country ridiculing the people he was elected to serve. Romney has joked in several states that, as a Republican here, he feels like ”a cattle rancher at a vegetarian convention.”

It’s rather juvenile to blame Romney for winning statewide office despite their being so many socialists in Massachusetts. It’s clear, and has been for some time, that the Globe just doesn’t like him, and cannot fathom how a fiscally conservative Republican governor got elected in a state where the senior senator’s last name is Kennedy.

So remember, Republicans - let’s not forget to always take the kid gloves off. We tend to fight too nice.