Ladies and gentlemen, the gloves are now officially off among the GOP candidates for the White House. Not only is Donald Trump throwing elbows (as per his usual), but now we have Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio bringing out the wood as they attempt to knock Trump down to size.

It began last night in Houston, during a discussion of Obamacare. Trump said he would repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and replace it with something better. What main change would he make in his version of healthcare reform? Well, Trump started repeating (it seemed at least 150 times) that he would allow the sale of insurance across state lines. And he said it so many times that finally Rubio used a line that Chris Christie had so effectively deployed against him. Rubio remarked:

“He’s repeating himself!”

Trump did indeed seem rattled, and Rubio would not relent; not then, and as it turns out, not today, either.

At a rally in Dallas today, Rubio continued the attack on Trump, telling a crowd of supporters:

“Guys, we have a con artist as the front-runner of the Republican Party.”

Rubio also told the gathered faithful at the rally that Trump had been a failure in many business ventures:

“You ever heard of Trump vodka? You have? Well, it isn’t around anymore.”

But Rubio saved the best for last, regaling the crowd with this tale of last night’s debate, which most agree was Trump’s worst performance so far:

“He called me Mr. Meltdown. Let me tell you something last night in the debate during one of the breaks, two of the breaks, he went backstage. He was having a meltdown. First he had this little makeup thing applying like makeup around his mustache cuz he had one of those sweat mustaches. Then, then he asked for a full-length mirror. I don’t know why cuz the podium goes up to here but he wanted a full-length mirror. Maybe to make sure his pants weren’t wet. I don’t know.”

So if you want to know where the GOP race is at as of this moment, here’s a quick rundown: Trump is now the target, and Rubio has decided he will do whatever is necessary to destroy him, even if it means he has to lower himself to Trump’s level. Sometimes you gotta fight fire with fire.

Here’s Rubio at the Dallas rally, taking the fight to the Donald:

Rubio suggests Trump may have wet his pants during last nights debate….this is where we're at folks: pic.twitter.com/mNurp1LqKK”

— Saul Hubbard (@SaulAHubbard) February 26, 2016

This article was originally published by the same author at BipartisanReport.com.