A rival campaign saw an argument for the Mitt’s-really-behind-it theory, in the wording of the denial from Romney campaign spokesman Kevin Madden in the Corner.

Look at Madden’s denial! this source in another campaign told me this morning. He’s using the term “push poll”! But this wasn’t a push poll; no campaign would run a push poll against themselves! What if they consider asking those questions not a push-poll but “message-testing,” to see where their weak spots are? Look for TargetPoint’s statement later today – if everybody’s using the term “push poll” in their denials, they’re being very careful not to give categorical denials! This controversy has ratcheted up everybody’s caffeine levels, methinks.

I’m rather skeptical of this theory – it seems like a stunt with enormous risk for only marginal reward — so I e-mailed Kevin Madden, whose heart is probably already brimming with joy at NRO this morning, told him of the statement-parsing I was hearing, and asked:

Have you in your campaign, or has anybody affiliated with the campaign, have anything to do with the questions asked by Western Wats to respondents in Iowa and New Hampshire?

He responded pretty clearly:

Empathically: no. I would have to conclude that your source in a rival campaign has unfortunately decided to abandon logic and reason in favor of an erroneous conspiracy theory.

So, once again, I’m a skeptic that the trail will lead back to the Romney camp – even though it is intriguing that Western Wats has done work for TargetPoint within the past few months.

The more I hear angry accusations from campaigns, and the more bad blood that is stirred, and the accusations that some campaigns employ bigoted arguments against a candidate, I start wondering… isn’t this what some deep-pocketed Democrat would want to see in the GOP primary?