Candidates, Slurs Fly on Campaign Trail

Jan 28, 04:12 PM

Jan. 28--WEST PALM BEACH -- The top Republican presidential contenders spent the day before Tuesday's election flying from Florida city to city, and letting the accusations fly as soon as they hit the ground.

Mitt Romney says John McCain is a tax-and-spend buddy of the Democrats.

McCain says Romney is a tax-and-spend liberal.

Both say the other's flip-floppers: McCain on the president's tax cuts; Romney -- who has been dogged by his reversals on abortion -- on virtually everything else. And so it went in stop after stop. The candidates seemed as destined to campaign against each other as they are to run for president. Playing it nice: third-place contenders Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani -- who has acknowledged he might lose and will make an announcement about his campaign's future Wednesday.

Romney started it off at dawn at a West Palm Beach gas station -- a venue where he bashed McCain as a gas-tax-raiser because of his global-warming plan. Romney also used the loaded words "Clinton" and "Lieberman" to connect McCain with Democrats, while comparing himself to Ronald Reagan.

Romney listed three pieces of legislation bearing McCain's name: the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, which Romney called ineffective; the failed McCain-Kennedy measure, which he called the "amnesty bill," and a proposed McCain-Lieberman energy bill, which he said would increase energy costs for the typical Florida family by $1,000.

"He's known for some things that are frankly not conservative kinds of movements," Romney told a throng of cheering supporters at a Fort Myers airport. "But instead would have pulled the nation to the left. And I just don't think those liberal answers are what America is looking for. Not for the Republican Party or for any party for that matter. I believe that instead we should take our inspiration from Ronald Reagan and his vision of America."

In Jacksonville, McCain, surrounded by war vets and military figures who lauded his national security credentials, fired back, letting fly with the "L" word: Liberal.

"As the liberal governor of the state of Massachusetts, he raised taxes by $730 million. The state of Massachusetts was saddled with a quarter of a billion dollar debt for his government-mandated healthcare system," McCain said.

"One thing I have to give Romney credit for is he's consistently taken both sides of any major issue, he has consistently flip-flopped on every major issue of the campaign."

The back-and-forth has been waged ever since a cordial Thursday debate in which none of the candidates really separated himself from the pack. So they went negative. And they named names.

And any name attached to an opponent became fair game. That was true even of Gov. Charlie Crist, who issued a surprise endorsement of McCain, only to be dissed by one of his political pals, former Florida House Speaker Allan Bense. On Sunday Bense suggested that the wildly popular governor isn't conservative enough and will therefore hurt McCain in the Panhandle among conservative voters.

Romney steered clear of Crist mentions, but decided to invoke the name of another well-known if less estimable politician in the eyes of Republicans: John Kerry. Romney prompted a laugh from the audience of phone-bank volunteers at the West Palm Beach event, saying he recalled the talk of a possible Kerry-McCain ticket for the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential elections.

"Had someone asked me that question, there would not have been a nanosecond of thought about it; it would have been an immediate laugh," Romney said. "And, of course, if someone asked him if he would consider me as a running mate, he would have also laughed immediately."

Mike Huckabee, after a brief Pensacola appearance Monday, goes silent in Florida almost all day as he stumps in Nashville before returning to Tampa. Rudy Giuliani is cruising the state, smiling and all but acknowledging that he's finished in Florida and, perhaps, in his White House hunt.

Giuliani noted Sunday that the campaign is getting "nasty." Expect it to continue as Romney and McCain blitz the state. Romney's schedule includes flying by charter plane in order to hold rallies in six cities in the space of roughly 12 hours.

McCain's national security roundtable at Atlantic Marine shipyard in Jacksonville was the first of four events in three cities. He will end with a large rally in Tampa. After visiting a St. Petersburg polling station on Tuesday morning, he will head south to Miami, where he will have his primary night event at the Hilton at Miami International Airport.

Though he has acknowledged his campaign is sinking, Giuliani is acting like a fighter without taking any swings.

The Rocky theme song, Eye of the Tiger cranked from speakers and the crisp morning air buzzed with the murmur of voters. But a closer listen revealed the talk didn't bode well for the former New York mayor.

The crowd at the municipal airport in Sanford was small, maybe 100 people. And with Giuliani's poll numbers and momentum sagging, he badly needs a last-minute boost. He didn't seem to bet getting it Monday morning.At his next event in Clearwater, another disappointing crowd barely filled a corner of an airport hangar.

When asked what would happen after Tuesday's vote, Giuliani said, "Wednesday morning, we'll make a decision." His loyalists stuck close: actor Jon Voight, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum and Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

But the few voters who turned out Monday to see Giuliani speak in the morning were skeptical about his chances.

"I thought there would be more people here," said Anne Huttel, 19, a Clearwater voter who is studying at Florida State University. "It's important for our generation to go out to vote. We need to know what these candidates are all about."Huttel then confessed that she's a Democrat and wanted to see Giuliani out of curiosity more than anything else.Another woman in the crowd also confessed she's a Democrat. Two others declined to talk to a reporter because they said they were part of Giuliani's campaign staff.

Giuliani was flying around the state, from the Orlando area to the St. Petersburg area, and later on to Fort Lauderdale and Miami. His message stayed the same: massive tax cuts, especially for corporations; energy independence and a bigger military.

But early Monday, there were fewer people listening. Giuliani wasn't saying anything new. Or mean.

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