Sharpest elbows aimed at Romney during GOP tussle

BY TOM BRUNE | tom.brune@newsday.com

10:40 PM EST, January 5, 2008

MANCHESTER, N.H. - As if going for a knockout blow, Republican presidential contenders in their most contentious debate yet took dead aim at Mitt Romney Saturday night, mixing attacks on substance with wisecracks at his expense.

Delivering some of the sharpest jabs at Romney, already wounded by an upset second-place finish in Iowa on Thursday, were Mike Huckabee, who took first in Iowa, and John McCain, the frontrunner for next Tuesday's primary here.

Rudy Giuliani, who ranks third in a new New Hampshire poll that shows McCain has overtaken former frontrunner Romney, sought to take the high road, once again using only Ron Paul as a foil.

But even Giuliani succumbed and took a shot at Romney, whose campaign badly needs to win Tuesday since his whole strategy depended on winning Iowa and New Hampshire to build momentum for the rest of the primaries.

Much was at stake in the 90-minute debate at St. Anselm College sponsored by Facebook, ABC News and its local affiliate, WMUR, the first of two that will occur in the five days between the Iowa caucuses and the primary here.

The debate opened with a clash over foreign policy, as Huckabee took a shot at what he called Romney's changing positions on the Iraq war.

"Don't try and characterize my position," Romney told Huckabee in the first testy exchange of the night.

"Which one?" Huckabee shot back, invoking the charge that Romney is a "flip-flopper."

Romney grimaced and tilted his head. "You know, we're wise to talk about policies and not to make personal attacks," he responded.

Romney came charging at McCain by accusing him of offering amnesty to the millions of illegal immigrants in the United States, a contention McCain rejected.

"And for you to describe it as you do in the attack ads, my friend, you can spend your whole fortune on these attack ads, but it still won't be true," McCain said to laughter.

Giuliani soon jumped in.

"Ronald Reagan did amnesty. He actually did amnesty," Giuliani said.

"Yeah, yeah," Romney responded.

"I think he'd be in one of Mitt's negative commercials," Giuliani continued. "And he is the hero of our party."

Giuliani, generally treated kindly as nonthreatening to either McCain or Romney in Tuesday's vote, did get attacked by Fred Thompson -- with one of his best performances -- and by Huckabee.

Asked about the principles he was running on, Giuliani cited his "12 commitments," the campaign promises he has made on issues ranging from national security to education.

Huckabee said the question was "not as much about our policies, because those can change with each generation, with each year, with each circumstance, but the principles."

Huckabee also used a question about Democratic candidate Barack Obama to say both party's Iowa winners are candidates of change, who can bring new voters to the election.

The debate began with the release of a new CNN-WMUR poll of 313 likely Republican voters here Friday and yesterday, showing McCain taking the lead with 33 percent to Romney's 27 percent, Giuliani with 14 percent and Huckabee 11 percent.

But the race for first and third is tied since the poll has a five-point margin of error.

Romney did have some good news: He won the Wyoming county nominating conventions Saturday, taking eight of the 12 delegates at stake. Fred Thompson won three and Duncan Hunter, not in Saturday night's debate, won one.

Romney, whose campaign is believed to be in trouble -- especially if he doesn't win New Hampshire -- used the occasion of winning the first delegates of the season to say, "This is just the beginning."

The candidates involved in the five-way race get a second chance tonight at 8 p.m. in a Fox News forum, though it has excluded Paul in a controversial move.

For Giuliani, who has downplayed New Hampshire so a third place or worse finish will not affect his campaign, the debates provide a badly needed national platform to keep him in the public eye as the attention focuses on Huckabee, Romney and McCain.