DeteNews.com, MI
10-11-07
Giuliani, Romney continue debating
The two snarl over use of military force on Iran; the former governor campaigns
Wednesday in Royal Oak.
Gordon Trowbridge, Detroit News Washington Bureau
ROYAL OAK -- The jousting between Republican presidential candidates Mitt
Romney and Rudy Giuliani continued Wednesday, as each bashed the other
over comments made during Tuesday's debate in Dearborn.
The pair -- who sit atop polls in Michigan and other early-voting states -- sparred
during the debate over taxes and spending, an issue of increasing contention
between them leading up to Tuesday's event. On Wednesday, the topic was
military force, with Giuliani's campaign attacking Romney for suggesting he
would consult lawyers before launching an attack on Iranian nuclear sites.
The Giuliani-Romney scramble took some of the spotlight from the story on the
Democratic side, where four top Democrats removed their name from Michigan's
ballot on Tuesday.
Those decisions seemed to have pushed Gov. Jennifer Granholm toward
endorsing Hillary Clinton, the only top contender still on the ballot here.
Granholm has widely been seen as likely to endorse Clinton, but she came close
to doing so Wednesday.
"I'll be announcing on an endorsement next week," Granholm told reporters.
Asked if she would endorse Clinton, the governor said: "Suffice it to say I'm very
disappointed in the candidates who have chosen to back out."
John Edwards, Barack Obama, Bill Richardson and Joe Biden all have removed
their name from the ballot. Dennis Kucinich announced Tuesday he had done the
same, but the Secretary of State in Lansing said the campaign had filed incorrect
paperwork and missed the 4 p.m. Tuesday deadline to withdraw.
The Giuliani campaign jumped on Romney's answer during Tuesday's debate to
a question on attacking Iran.
"You sit down with your attorneys, and they tell you what you have to do, but
obviously the president of the United States has to do what's in the best interest
of the United States to protect us against a potential threat," said the former
Massachusetts governor and Michigan native.
Giuliani's campaign sought to compare the answer to John Kerry's comment
during the 2004 race that U.S. military action should pass a "global test" -- which
Republicans portrayed as giving other countries veto power over U.S. action.
Speaking to reporters outside a Royal Oak diner, where he campaigned
Wednesday, Romney fired back, calling the issue "phony" and rapping Giuliani
for his own reliance on lawyers.
"He gets first place when it comes to suing and lawyering," Romney said,
criticizing the former New York mayor for suing the federal government to
overturn a line-item veto law, taxing commuters and filing other lawsuits during
his time as governor.
Giuliani argued Tuesday night that the line-item veto over which New York sued
the Clinton administration was, in fact, unconstitutional.
"Hopefully, Mitt Romney isn't going to check with the same group of lawyers who
told him the Bill Clinton line-item veto was constitutional," Giuliani
communications director Katie Levinson said Wednesday.
The nomination fight increasingly has centered on the sparring between Romney
and Giuliani, and Romney showed no sign of slowing his criticisms.
"The contrast between my position and Mayor Giuliani is so stark that the
opportunities for discussing those differences is something the campaign is going
to see more and more of," Romney said.
For both candidates, there is a tactical advantage in the exchange, said Steffen
Schmidt, a political scientist at Iowa State University. "It's a declaration of
victory," Schmidt said. "It says, 'We are the top two.' And it works."
Staff writer Mark Hornbeck contributed to this report. You can reach Gordon
Trowbridge at (202) 662-8738 or gtrowbridge@detnews.com.