Fired-up Romney jabs at Gingrich

JACKSONVILLE — Personal bitterness over campaign tactics boiled over between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich in the Republican presidential candidates debate Thursday night, reflecting the increasingly nasty tone of the neck-and-neck campaign.

The candidates discussed differences on issues including immigration, health care and taxation, but much of the discussion was tinged with the hostility that has infected the race.

At one point, Rick Santorum appeared to shame both Romney and Gingrich, asking them to drop their attacks on each other over the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac housing agencies, and “Leave that alone and focus on the issues.”

He and Ron Paul — though neither appears to be in contention for the delegates Florida Republicans will award Tuesday — were both able on several occasions to look good by rising above the anger.

Paul hasn’t been campaigning in Florida except for the debates, and Santorum has told reporters he’ll leave the state after events in Miami today, hitting fundraisers in Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Nonetheless, several polls have suggested a tie or near-tie between Gingrich and Romney, with Santorum and Paul far behind.

Some polls have suggested the momentum Gingrich won from his upset win in South Carolina is starting to cool. At the same time, however, he’s seen large, enthusiastic crowds at his campaign events and has announced the backing of dozens of tea party groups.

And large numbers of absentee and early voters point a big turnout for Tuesday’s primary.

As of Wednesday, 501,316 Republicans had requested absentee ballots, 254,485 had voted and returned them, and another 151,678 had cast early votes — so about one in 10 of the state’s 4.1 million registered Republicans have already voted.

Immigration, and the Spanish-language ad war Gingrich and Romney waged in South Florida caused one of the angriest moments in the debate, when Romney demanded Gingrich apologize for calling him “anti-immigrant” in a radio ad.

Gingrich pulled the ad after Florida Sen. Marco Rubio came to Romney’s defense but stuck by the charge when moderator Wolf Blitzer asked him whether Romney was “the most anti-immigrant candidate.”

“Yes, of the four of us,” Gingrich replied.

Romney, visibly angry, demanded an apology, calling it “inexcusable” and “repulsive.”

“Having differences of opinion does not justify labeling people with highly charged epithets,” he said.

But Romney suffered an embarrassing moment over an ad of his own accusing Gingrich of calling Spanish “the language of the ghetto.” Asked by Blitzer about it, Romney said he wasn’t aware of the ad, suggesting it may have been run by an independent committee.

Blitzer later noted it was run by Romney’s campaign, and Romney asked Gingrich, “Did you say what the ad says or not? I don’t know.”

Gingrich contended the quote was “taken totally out of context.”

The ad referred to a 2007 speech in which Gingrich said bilingual education should be replaced by English immersion “so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto.”

The two argued over Gingrich’s proposal for allowing illegal immigrants, under certain conditions, to earn legal residency status, though not citizenship, which Romney opposes.

Many illegal immigrants with families and deep community roots, he said, won’t leave the country, as Romney suggests, simply if stricter enforcement makes them unable to find jobs.

“All I want to do is allow the grandmothers to be here legally,” he said, “to finish their life with dignity within the law.”

“Our problem is not 11 million grandmothers,” Romney shot back. “Our problem is 11 million people getting jobs that many Americans would like to have” and the costs of schools and health care serving illegal immigrants.

Gingrich sought during the debate to score the kind of points he has previously scored by attacking questions asked by moderators.

When Blitzer asked him whether he was satisfied with Romney’s release of his tax returns, he responded, “This is a nonsense question.”

Blitzer stuck by the question, insisting it was Gingrich who raised the issue. “You said, ‘He lives in a world of Swiss bank and Cayman Island bank accounts.’ I didn’t say that. You did,” Blitzer said.

As he has throughout the primary race, Romney had to defend the health care reform program he backed in Massachusetts, a plan similar to President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

Santorum suggested that having enacted a plan nearly identical, Romney won’t be capable of using the issue in a general election campaign.

“We can’t give this issue away in this election,” he said. “Those are not the clear contrasts we need if we’re going to defeat Barack Obama.”

Romney somewhat awkwardly responded, “First of all, it’s not worth getting angry about,” but said that when he debates Obama, “I will be able to show that I have passionate concern about people that don’t have health care.”

The Gingrich-Romney battle was already nasty, but as the race has narrowed, it has become even nastier.

At a rally in Mt. Dora Thursday before the debate, Gingrich attacked Romney with harsh, anti-Wall Street and anti-corporate rhetoric that already has drawn fire from conservatives who say he’s echoing Democratic criticisms.

He called Romney “grotesquely hypocritical” for criticizing Gingrich’s work for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, when Romney had investments in the housing agencies and some Romney advisers worked for them.

Romney responded with a news release that verged on suggesting Gingrich is mentally unstable.

“Unhinged: Dr. Newt and Mr. Hyde,” was the headline.

The exchange drew a rebuke Thursday night from former Gov. Jeb Bush, the dominant elder statesman of the Florida Republicans.

Bush is neutral in the race but aimed his rebuke mainly at Gingrich, saying in a television interview he should “not go over the top in his attacks.”

“I think there’s a point past which Republicans and independent voters get turned off by this fierce primary spilling over into personal attacks,” he said. “I would hope that both Gov. Romney and Speaker Gingrich would stay away from that.”

wmarch@tampatrib.com

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