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What if several of your comrades were lined up in a circular firing squad and you decided you needed a cigarette -- or maybe just a moment to think things over? Then you’d be Jon Huntsman, and this would be your first foray into the free-for-all known as the South Carolina Republican primary.

Newt Gingrich and the band of frustrated presidential candidates who breathed nothing but fumes from the Romney Express in New Hampshire came to South Carolina this week hoping that the conservative air of Dixie would prove restorative to their sputtering campaigns. But someone has to actually stand in the middle of the road and try and slow Mitt Romney’s caravan down.

Would it be Huntsman? His super PAC was offered a vehicle, the scathing "King of Bain" documentary, but turned it down. Told from the perspective of several teary-eyed workers left out of a job once Bain Capital restructured their employers' companies, the 28-minute film paints Romney as head of "a group of corporate raiders more ruthless than Wall Street."

Depending on whom you talk to, Huntsman’s guys were short on either time or cash -- or maybe, they just had a second thought: That maybe somebody else would do it. And somebody did. The movie, produced by a former consultant for a pro-Rick Perry group, now belongs to a super PAC supporting Gingrich, Winning Our Future, which purchased the film. The group was able to do so after receiving a cool $5 million donation from casino magnate Sheldon Adelson; it also bought ad time in South Carolina, using snippets from the film.

But the Huntsman folks can hardly be sorry how things are turning out. Romney has been thrown on the defensive in South Carolina, while Gingrich is taking flak in the media for pursuing precisely the kind of negative campaign he has been complaining about. He’s also enraging some conservatives by suddenly embracing a leftist critique of capitalism -- all in an effort to wound the Republican front-runner.

Huntsman -- and perhaps Rick Santorum and Ron Paul -- can reap the benefits of “King of Bain” being at the center of election conversation without having spent a dime, getting dirt under their own fingernails, or even having to watch the movie (viewable for free on the Internet).

While campaigning in Columbia, in fact, Huntsman has been encouraging his rivals to lay off the attacks on Bain. “If you have creative destruction in capitalism” -- a phrase Romney has used regarding his work at the private equity firm -- “which has always been a part of capitalism, it becomes a little disingenuous to take on Bain Capital. I think it’s more instructive to look at Governor Romney’s record as governor," he said.

But the Huntsman campaign isn't taking it easy on Romney. On Monday, as Romney's "I like being able to fire people" remark went viral (he had made the comment when asserting that people should be able to chose their own health insurance provider), Huntsman told reporters after a campaign stop, "Governor Romney enjoys firing people. I enjoy creating jobs."

The Huntsman camp is focusing on these types of "gaffes," as well as Romney’s record "both as governor and at Bain on jobs," to paint an electability problem for the former Massachusetts governor, spokesman Tim Miller says. It will also pound home a message developed after last weekend's debates: Huntsman puts country first while Romney prioritizes politics.

Meanwhile, Restore Our Future, a group supporting Romney, has released a bitter ad in South Carolina and Florida painting Gingrich as a "desperate" contender who attacks the former governor's record at the helm of Bain to hide his own. The spot uses quotes from conservatives calling Gingrich's attacks on Romney "foolish," "out of bounds" and "disgusting." "Newt attacks because he has more baggage than the airlines," says the narrator. (Restore Our Future’s ad buy in South Carolina is $2.3 million; in Florida, it’s $3.6 million.)

The ad is the latest shot fired in the duel between Gingrich and Romney that began before the Iowa caucuses. After Restore Our Future blanketed the Hawkeye State airwaves with anti-Gingrich ads, the former House speaker began hammering Romney as a greedy executive who made money by bankrupting companies while leading his venture capital firm.

Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry -- who has used the term "vulture capitalism" to characterize Romney’s work at Bain -- have been criticized for knocking capitalism while bullying Romney and taking a page out of the DNC's playbook. Their attacks on the front-runner essentially provide Democrats with ammunition for their own attacks on Romney, whom they presume will be President Obama's challenger in November.

The latest developments in the Romney vs. Gingrich war are "absolutely a plus for us since they're going to be punishing each other," says Huntsman spokesman Miller. And while the two rival campaigns go after each other personally and in super PAC ads, the Huntsman camp will watch the "heavy blows back and forth" from the sidelines and "focus on the electability issue."