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    As Primary Day Looms, Republican Rivals Go After One Another
    By Michael Luo and David D. Kirkpatrick
    The New York Times

    Monday 07 January 2008

    Portsmouth, NH - After being pounded at the Republican debate on Saturday, Mitt Romney struck back hard on Sunday against Senator John McCain of Arizona and Mike Huckabee on multiple fronts, including illegal immigration, taxes and the qualifications for the presidency.

    The exchanges, especially between Mr. Romney and Mr. Huckabee, on Sunday in a televised candidate forum from Manchester were some of the most testy and angry of the Republican campaign to date. After months of previous arguments among the same cast of candidates, however, no new accusations or issues emerged.

    But Mr. Romney, perhaps still smarting from the Saturday debate, gave as good as he got.

    Challenged by the Fox News commentator Chris Wallace about raising fees while governor of Massachusetts, Mr. Romney seized the opportunity to attack Mr. McCain for voting against President Bush's tax cuts.

    "Senator McCain was one of two Republicans who voted against the Bush tax cuts," Mr. Romney said, reiterating a line of attack he has used against Mr. McCain over the last few weeks in New Hampshire, where fiscal issues are paramount.

    Mr. McCain shot back that he had spent years crusading against wasteful Congressional earmarks.

    "Ask Jack Abramoff, who's in prison today, a guy who was a corrupt lobbyist and his friends, if I haven't cut spending," Mr. McCain said. "I think it was the reason why I wasn't elected Miss Congeniality in the United States Senate."

    Although there had been some speculation that the unusual format of the forum, in which five candidates sat side by side at a table, would lead to a more genial debate, Mr. Romney put to rest that notion almost right away when he turned to Mr. Huckabee and challenged him to refute Mr. Romney's accusation that he had raised taxes by more than $500 million. "Facts are stubborn things," Mr. Romney said.

    The two talked over each other for several minutes as Mr. Huckabee tried to turn the tables back to the $240 million increase in fees during Mr. Romney's one term as governor of Massachusetts. "You know, Mitt, let's talk about how stubborn the facts are. Answer the question."

    "You make up facts faster than you talk," Mr. Romney replied.

    Mr. Huckabee ultimately shifted to defending his record of improving his state's roads and schools. "Government is supposed to work," he said. "It is not about the politics of saying I never raised a tax. It is about saying I made government work."

    Only after Mr. Wallace stepped in did the discussion move on.

    Mr. McCain appeared to try to stay above the fray, perhaps in reaction to his performance at Saturday's debate, when he appeared to relish pelting Mr. Romney with sarcasm.

    Nevertheless, he was drawn in several times, once in an exchange over Mr. Romney's promise to bring change to Washington and his portrayal of Mr. McCain as a Washington insider.

    McCain promoted his "experience in leadership, not just in management," saying he had led his Navy squadron "not for profit but patriotism."

    Mr. Huckabee, whose campaign shares a common interest with Mr. McCain's in stopping Mr. Romney, their better-financed rival, repeatedly came to Mr. McCain's defense, as he often has over the last two weeks.

    "I don't think it is even fair to say that a senator can't be a good president," Mr. Huckabee said. "We have had senators who were."

    When Mr. McCain, 71, was asked about his age, he replied, "I am older than dirt and have more scars than Frankenstein," but he insisted that he still had "the vigor."

    Mr. Huckabee once again leapt to his defense. "I have met his mother," he said. "Of all the things we can criticize John McCain on, I wouldn't even go there."

    Mr. McCain, Mr. Romney and former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani continued to spar at length over the semantics of the term "amnesty." Mr. Huckabee was challenged by Mr. Wallace for proposing to send the children of illegal immigrants home with their parents in order to apply for legal entry, an apparent shift from his decision as governor to provide some benefits to such children.

    "As long as those children are here and people question their authenticity of being here, they live in the shadows, they live in hiding," Mr. Huckabee said. But he appeared to defend a proposal he championed that the children of illegal immigrants be eligible for tuition breaks at state colleges. "Do I still stand by that idea that we treat the children differently who didn't commit a crime? Let me just be very clear, yes I do."

    The candidates, clearly still tense from their heated exchanges at the Saturday debate, sometimes grew testy.

    When Mr. Romney leaned over to pose a question about the children of illegal immigrants to Mr. Huckabee, he snapped back, "Mitt, I am talking to Chris, if you don't mind."

    Mr. Romney addressed what has emerged as his greatest liability, the impression that he has changed his positions over time. "I am certainly not the only person at this table who has changed their mind on an issue," he said, arguing that a willingness to revise one's views - as he says he did on abortion rights - was better than being "stubborn."

    In the debate over leadership qualifications, Mr. McCain tacitly invoked his years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, alluding to his time leading men into battle and "my time deprived of America, when I really grew to love her."

    Trying to lighten the mood at points, Mr. McCain jokingly demanded a recount of Fred D. Thompson's narrow third-place victory over him at the Iowa caucuses last week. "I think there are some hanging chads," Mr. McCain said.

    When the subject of Mr. Romney's advertisements attacking Mr. Huckabee in Iowa and Mr. McCain in New Hampshire was raised, Mr. Huckabee joked that the martial arts expert Chuck Norris, who has been a constant presence at his side on the trail, was waiting outside.