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Sparks Fly At GOP Debate

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By WILLIAM MARCH | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 22, 2007

ORLANDO As expected, arguments about conservative credentials created the most fireworks in a debate among Republican presidential primary candidates Sunday night, but disagreements about education, health care and entitlement programs generated the most substance.

Two leading candidates, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, found themselves under attack from John McCain and Fred Thompson at the outset of the debate over Romney and Giuliani's past moderate stands on Republican litmus issues, including abortion and gun control.

Both fought back, with Giuliani questioning the candidate who claims to be the only "consistent conservative" among the top four, Thompson.

But questions about the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the candidates' health care proposals and how to deal with the future of entitlement programs generated disagreements more oriented toward issues than litmus tests.

The candidates disagreed about whether revamping entitlement programs or cutting health care costs is the way to solve the fiscal instability of Medicare and how to prevent the Social Security system from going bankrupt.

On most foreign policy questions, however, they seemed to compete to put forward the hardest line on a nuclear resurgence in Russia and on how to deal with a potentially nuclear Iran.

Throughout the debate, the candidates all made clear who they expect the Republican nominee to face next year, Hillary Clinton, and took turns blasting her.

They used her almost as a bogeywoman to scare their supporters, clearly trying to make her prospective candidacy a rallying point to inspire the Republican faithful with antipathy.

"She hasn't run a corner store. She hasn't run a state," Romney said. "She has never run anything, and the idea that she could learn to be president, you know, as an internship just doesn't make any sense."

Only McCain didn't participate in the Clinton bashing, saying he would anticipate a "respectful debate" with her.

Asked why Clinton is leading the GOP contenders in Fox News polls, Giuliani responded that he was "within the statistical margin of error," then said the polls were wrong.

President Bush, meanwhile, went nearly unmentioned in the debate.

Debate Ends Political Weekend

The debate capped a weekend of politicking at an Orlando resort where the state Republican Party held the convention it typically holds in years prior to Republican presidential primary races, called Presidency IV - the fourth such event since 1979.

During the weekend, the four leaders - former New York City Mayor Giuliani, Arizona Sen. McCain, former Massachusetts Gov. Romney and former Tennessee Sen.Thompson - courted the crowd of Republicans at receptions and at a rally Saturday afternoon.

The debate was open to those four and other contenders who are registering in the polls, adding former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, California Rep. Duncan Hunter, Texas Rep. Ron Paul and Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo. Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback was to participate until he dropped out of the race last week.
Thompson may have had the most to lose or gain from his performance in the debate.

He has drawn substantial interest from Florida Republicans, many of them looking for someone they would consider a more conservative alternative to Romney and Giuliani. But Saturday, he gave an uninspiring and surprisingly brief speech to a crowd of party insiders and activists, disappointing some undecided party regulars who were considering backing him.

With several pungent, easily remembered lines in the Sunday debate, Thompson may have recouped.

Asked whether his performance at the Saturday rally and a few other stumbles meant he was lazy, Thompson recited his resume as a U.S. attorney, senator, counselor to the Watergate investigative committee and other posts, and said: "If a man can do all that and be lazy, I recommend it to everybody."

Conservatism Ignites Debate

Questions from the panel of Fox News reporters ignited the debate over conservatism to begin the debate.

When Chris Wallace asked Thompson whether Giuliani and Romney are "consistent conservatives," he responded, "Well, we've got an hour and a half. Maybe they can work on it."

He then said Giuliani "sides with Hillary Clinton" on abortion, gun control and "sanctuary cities" for illegal aliens - the ultimate insult to the crowd of Clinton-bashers on the stage and in the audience.

McCain, meanwhile, blasted Romney.

"Governor Romney, you've been spending the last year trying to fool people about your record. I don't want you to start fooling them about mine," he said. "I don't think you can fool the American people."

Romney, who created a stir in the party last week by saying he represents "the Republican wing of the Republican Party" and suggesting the others weren't authentic Republicans, was comparatively restrained.

"All of us on the stage are Republican," he said. "But the question is, who will be able to build the house that Ronald Reagan built?"

When his own conservative credentials were challenged, Thompson responded by raising the issue of federalism - letting states rather than the federal government make decisions on conservative litmus issues.

"Fred was the single biggest obstacle to tort reform in the U.S. Senate," Giuliani charged. "Fred Thompson, along with very few other Republicans, blocked tort reform over and over again."

Thompson responded that he supported it with regard to national commerce, but said, "Local issues belong at the state level - that's our system."

Florida issues that many state Republicans expected to be part of the debate weren't raised by the panel of Fox News questioners, who stuck to national issues. Only one candidate, Giuliani, indirectly mentioned one such issue: the fallout over Florida's schedule-busting Jan. 29 primary date.

Issues important to state political leaders, including oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, Everglades restoration and the Republican Party's planned sanctions against Florida over the primary - all of which the candidates differ on - went unmentioned.

Republican relations with minorities, which is becoming an issue in the campaign and was a theme at the convention, also came up only briefly.
Huckabee, one of only two candidates who agreed to participate in a Hispanic-oriented debate, said he thought his competitors had made a mistake by skipping it.

When the debate turned to health care, Huckabee pressed an issue he's made a key point of his campaign: Americans' unhealthy lifestyles - in his view, the cause of America's health care problems.

"We don't have a health care crisis, we have a health crisis," he said.

Paul, another second-tier candidate, repeatedly excited boos from the crowd with unorthodox, libertarian stands on issues including gay marriage, and his call for an end to American military intervention.

Reporter William March can be reached at (813) 259-7761 or wmarch@tampatrib.com.

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