Howie Carr has been beating up on Tim Cahill pretty good as of late, continually pointing out that Cahill’s presence in the race could help Governor Deval Patrick. Howie has read the numbers, and he knows that Cahill splitting the right of center vote has enabled the Governor to continually hold on to a small lead in all surveys. And with Republicans everywhere savoring a big November rout of Democrats nationwide this is nothing short of an outrage to Howie.

There’s only one way the kleptocrats on Beacon Hill can stop the sales tax cut – by keeping Cahill in the fight as a straw, to drain off just enough votes to re-elect the disaster that is Deval Patrick.

Howie can taste the victory, but Tim Cahill plunges forward and is just ruining his good time. And Cahill picks up a good free media hit in today’s Herald taking on Howie, saying Howie’s dream is really a nightmare.

Howie, your latest column was confusing. You don’t want me in this race? Poor little Charlie Baker might not be able to win it on his own? Why do we bother having elections at all?

When Cahill gets serious he hits both Patrick and Baker, showing that he is going to spend some of that $2.5 million plus dollars he has left skewering Baker as well as Patrick.

Suddenly this fairy tale of yours is starting to look a bit more like Grimm’s rather than Disney, Howie. This state cannot afford four years of Charlie Baker any more than we can afford four more years of Deval Patrick. That is why I am running.

And Cahill does hit both Baker and Patrick in a new ad released yesterday. He also goes back to using his daughters to help the campaign, with an ad talking about why you should “leave a party when people start doing the wrong things”.

With all this back and forth I would have to say that the only thing Grimm are Cahill’s numbers. Carr is right to be worried, and his eval is basically sound. But Cahill did use Carr’s column to have an effective media day, and best of all it did not cost him any money. Basically a good day for Tim Cahill. I guess that means it was a bad day for Charlie Baker.

Read the Howie Carr column here.

Read the Cahill response to Howie here.