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Attacks Heat Up At GOP Debate

Tribune photo by KELVIN MA

Ted Faturos of Manhattan Beach, Calif., asks the Republican candidates about agricultural subsidies and their effect on international free trade at the CNN/YouTube Republican debate in St. Petersburg.

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By WILLIAM MARCH and BILLY TOWNSEND, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 29, 2007

Updated: 11/29/2007 12:27 am

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ST. PETERSBURG - The Republican presidential primary front-runners, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, took a pounding from each other and their competitors on red meat GOP issues including immigration, gun control, crime and abortion in the CNN/YouTube presidential candidates debate at the Mahaffey Theater on Wednesday.

In all these areas, candidates including Fred Thompson and Tom Tancredo sought to portray Giuliani and Romney as flip-floppers or closet liberals.

Meanwhile, Giuliani and Romney opened the debate with a harsh exchange over immigration, an issue that caused the debate to devolve at least twice into hostile exchanges of crosstalk. And they occasionally shot back at the attackers, as when Romney said listening to Mike Huckabee "reminds me of what it's like talking to liberals in Massachusetts."

The result was a debate in which the candidates appeared to be competing for favor with the Republican base, clearly spurred by the dwindling time until primary voting starts with the Iowa caucuses Jan. 3, five weeks away.

The primary in Florida, which could be the most decisive for Republicans in the early voting period before Feb. 5, comes Jan. 29.

The candidates, preoccupied by competing with one another, neglected a theme that has dominated previous debates and forums - bashing Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Clinton was a target in the campaign videos CNN showed during the debate, but rarely was mentioned by the candidates in their speeches. One exception - a joking suggestion by Huckabee, in response to a question on space exploration, that "maybe Hillary could be on the first rocket to Mars."

CNN chose to open the debate with a series of questions on one of the most divisive issues in the country and in the Republican Party, illegal immigration.

Romney accused Giuliani of running New York as a "sanctuary city" for illegal aliens, and Giuliani responded that Romney lived in a "sanctuary mansion" in Massachusetts, where illegal immigrants did his yardwork.

Each denied the accusations.

Giuliani acknowledged that New York under his leadership allowed illegal immigrants to send children to public schools, seek emergency medical care and report crimes without fear of being reported to authorities, but said the city reported all illegal immigrants suspected of committing crimes.

"How about the fact that the people who are here illegally have violated the law?" Romney shot back.

When Giuliani asked Romney, "You did have illegal immigrants working at your mansion, didn't you?" Romney responded, "No I did not."

It has been documented, in news reports Romney doesn't dispute, that illegal Guatemalan immigrants employed by his lawn care company worked at his home. Romney said neither he nor any homeowner should be held responsible for the employees of a firm hired for such tasks.

Thompson, meanwhile, lobbed firebombs at them and at Huckabee, who has surged in the race recently, challenging Thompson for the support of the religious right.

Thompson made what appeared to be a sarcastic reference to the controversy over Giuliani's former New York City police commissioner, Bernie Kerik, recently indicted in a case with connections to organized crime.

"I'm a little surprised, you know, the mayor says everybody's responsible for everybody that they hire," he said.

He noted that Romney "supported the Bush immigration plan until a short time ago. Now he's taken another position, surprisingly." And Thompson's campaign video included clips of Huckabee urging the Arkansas state legislature to pass a tax increase, and of Romney saying abortion should remain safe and legal.

John McCain, as he has been through the campaign, was the odd man out in the crowd of mostly hard-line candidates on the immigration issue. McCain, talking through boos from Ron Paul supporters in the crowd, defended his attempts over the last year - along with Florida Sen. Mel Martinez - to reform U.S. immigration policy and allow earned citizenship for illegals now in the country.

"This whole debate saddens me a little bit because we do have a serious situation in America," McCain said.

Mentioning Martinez, he said, "We thought the status quo was unacceptable ... we tried to get something done.

"We need to sit down as Americans and realize these are God's children as well," he added.

Huckabee provided the only other counterpoint to the tough line on immigration in the debate, responding to a question about allowing illegal immigrants' children to compete for college scholarships.

"We are a better country than to punish children for what their parents did."

If Clinton was absent from the debate, so was the sitting Republican president, George Bush, who went virtually unmentioned.

However, nearly all the candidates, except Ron Paul, supported the war that has done more than anything else to make Bush unpopular.

McCain was most forceful, citing the reduced violence in Iraq in recent months and declaring flatly, "We are winning in Iraq."

Only Paul, a strident and consistent anti-war voice during the campaign, called for a pull-out and what he called a "non-interventionist" foreign policy.

"Our foreign policy is costing us a trillion dollars, and we can spend most of that or a lot of that money at home if we would bring our troops home," Paul said.

A few moments later, McCain pounced: "That kind of isolationism is what caused World II," he said. Saying he spent Thanksgiving with U.S. troops, he said, "Their message to you is - the message of these brave men and women who are serving over there is, 'Let us win.'"

Thompson also talked about having a mentality of "victory" in Iraq, but neither he nor any other candidate laid out a vision of what he would consider victory in Iraq if he were president.

None of the YouTube questions presented by CNN appeared likely to arouse the kind of criticism generated by a talking snowman in the similar, Democratic debate in July, but several clearly put the Republican candidates on the spot.

When one questioner asked what the view of Jesus Christ on capital punishment would be, none of the candidates gave a direct answer.

Huckabee, a former pastor, however, scored with a response: "Jesus was too smart to run for office."

One questioner held up a Bible and asked whether the candidates believed it was literally true, saying the question "will tell us everything we need to know about you."

Huckabee, Giuliani and Romney all responded - but even Huckabee, who has said he doesn't accept the theory of evolution because it conflicts with the Bible, said parts of the book are allegorical.

One question turned out to be embarrassing for CNN - unknown to the network until after the debate ended. It came from a member of the Clinton campaign. The question, about gays in the military, was posed by a retired Army officer on a Clinton committee.

Reporter Ellen Gedalius contributed to this report. Reporter William March can be reached at (813) 259-7761 or wmarch@tampatrib.com. Reporter Billy Townsend can be reached at (863) 284-1409 or wtownsend@tampatrib.com.

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