Romney, McCain Trade Attacks at Last Minute

Jan 29, 07:12 AM

By Libby Quaid

The Associated Press

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.

Mitt Romney and John McCain accused each other Monday of being liberals, a charge tantamount to blasphemy in the caustic campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

One day before the crucial Florida primary, Romney lambasted the Arizona senator for a host of "liberal answers" to the country's problems. Among them: McCain's legislation curbing money in politics, his more forgiving view of illegal immigration, and his backing of an energy bill that Romney said would raise consumer costs.

"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," Romney said in Fort Myers.

McCain accused Romney of "wholesale deception of voters" and of flip-flopping on the issues.

"On every one of the issues he has attacked us on, Mitt Romney was for it before he was against it," McCain said.

He added, "The truth is, Mitt Romney was a liberal governor of Massachusetts who raised taxes, imposed with Ted Kennedy a big government mandate health care plan that is now a quarter of a billion dollars in the red, and managed his state's economy incompetently, leaving Massachusetts with less job growth than 46 other states."

McCain told a Jacksonville audience that Romney has been "entirely consistent," then quipped: "He's consistently taken at least two sides of every issue, sometimes more than two."

Since Friday, McCain has been running negative radio commercials that criticize Romney. The campaign also has a Web ad superimposing Romney's face on the image of a windsurfing Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee.

The Romney campaign said voters have been receiving automated phone calls that say Romney supports taxpayer-funded abortions and opposes President Bush's tax cuts, neither of which is true. Another set of calls from an unknown critic claim Romney favors direct talks with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, said Mandy Fletcher, Romney's Florida campaign director.

The McCain campaign said it was not responsible for the calls.

Acrimony has replaced the recent civility of the GOP race as the candidates pin their hopes on Florida's primary before the weeklong sprint to the 20-plus states and more than 1,000 delegates at stake on Feb. 5. The latest Florida polls have McCain and Romney essentially tied.

Several factors are certain to affect the outcome. The Florida primary, with its winner-take-all 57 delegates, is open only to Republican voters; McCain's other wins, in New Hampshire and South Carolina, were fueled in part by independents able to cast ballots in the GOP contest.

Florida also has a property tax relief proposal on the ballot that could boost GOP turnout. State polls show Republicans favoring the measure by a nearly two-thirds margin.

Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee has said it would refuse to seat the state's delegation at the party's presidential convention in August. It is expected that the Democratic nominee will try to reverse that decision because of Florida's crucial role in the general election.

coming up

* Super Tuesday Feb. 5. Fifteen states will hold primaries, and an additional seven states and American Samoa will hold Democratic caucuses.

* Virginia primary Feb. 12.

(c) 2008 Virginian - Pilot. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved. Romney, McCain Trade Attacks at Last Minute
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