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GOP Hopefuls Veer To Right

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By MICHAEL COOPER and MICHAEL LUO, The New York Times

Published: January 31, 2008

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. - In a fiercely contentious debate, Mitt Romney tried to halt the momentum propelling Sen. John McCain after his victory in the Florida primary by charging in a debate Wednesday that McCain's positions on immigration, campaign finance and the environment were "outside the mainstream of conservative Republican thought."

McCain countered that while he was proud of his conservative record, he was also proud of his ability to "reach across the aisle" to work with Democrats to get things done.

He, in turn, questioned Romney's conservative bona fides, charging that he had raised taxes as governor of Massachusetts and imposed a mandate in his health-care plan.

The exchange was one of several between the two throughout the 90-minute debate. At one point, they engaged in a slashing exchange over McCain's suggestion that Romney had called for a timetable for withdrawal in Iraq, a charge Romney vigorously denied.

It was the first debate in a Republican field that shrank earlier in the day when Rudy Giuliani dropped out of the race and endorsed McCain.

(One section of the modular desk on the debate stage at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library was removed soon after Giuliani's exit was made official.) It was the final GOP debate before Tuesday, when 22 states from here to New York will vote or caucus.

McCain and Romney seized on the new dynamic to try to cast the race as a two-man contest, drawing a protest from Mike Huckabee, who has struggled since his upset victory in Iowa.

"I want to make sure everybody understands, this isn't a two-man race," he said. "There's another guy, I would like to say, down here on the far right of the stage."

Conservative orthodoxy - and the perceived shortcomings that all the remaining Republican candidates have with the right wing of their party - was at the heart of the debate.

The debate got off to a rollicking start when Romney, struggling after his loss in Florida, questioned McCain's support of campaign finance reform that conservatives viewed as an assault on free speech, an immigration law that they decried as amnesty, and a program to limit carbon emissions that he charged would raise gas prices 50 cents a gallon.

"Those views are outside the mainstream of Republican conservative thought, and I guess I'd also note that if you get endorsed by The New York Times, you're probably not a conservative," he said,

McCain shot back, with a smile: "Let me note that I was endorsed by your two hometown newspapers, who know you best, including the very conservative Boston Herald. And I guarantee you the Arizona Republic will be endorsing me, my friend."

He charged that Romney had raised taxes in Massachusetts by $730 million.

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