Mitt Romney aggressively challenged John McCain’s conservative credentials Wednesday in an effort to counter departing GOP rival Rudy Giuliani’s endorsement of McCain.
“His views are out of the mainstream, at least in my view, of conservative Republican thought,” Romney said during a Republican presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. “If you get endorsed by The New York Times, you’re probably not a conservative.”
Romney then accused McCain of voting against conservatives on immigration, taxes, trade, campaign finance and oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He also accused McCain of “dirty tricks” for falsely claiming that Romney advocated a specific timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq.
McCain returned fire by noting he had also been endorsed by Boston’s newspapers, “including the very conservative Boston Herald,” which know Romney “better than anybody.”
“I’m proud of my conservative record,” McCain saida day after beating Romney in the Florida Republican primary. “I am proud of reaching across the aisle and getting things done. That’s what the American people want us to do.”
He then accused Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, of embracing the big-government policies of liberal Democrats.
“He raised taxes by $730 million,” McCain said. “He called them fees. I’m sure the people that had to pay it, whether they called them bananas, they still had to pay $730 million extra.”
Debate moderator Anderson Cooper of CNN noted that influential conservative Rush Limbaugh recently warned his large radio audience that the nomination of McCain or Mike Huckabee would “destroy the Republican Party.”
“I wish Rush loved me as much as I love Rush,” Huckabee lamented. “On this he’s very wrong.”
Shortly before the debate began here, Giuliani endorsed McCain and promised to campaign vigorously for him. Giuliani dropped out earlier Wednesday after placing a distant third in Florida’s Republican primary Tuesday after staking his candidacy on winning the state.
