Giuliani, Romney Battle as Caucus Date Nears

Nov. 26, 2007 — -- Feuding presidential campaigns escalated their engagement over the weekend in a fresh reminder that with the Iowa caucuses a little more than a month away, campaigns are ready to go to the mats.

Whether the GOP candidates themselves threw the punches or if they came via campaign press release, the exchanges between the campaigns were rapid and fierce. The sharp words between former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney focused on several issues, including each other's records on spending, reducing crime and health care.

Romney warned Giuliani would be "the wrong course" for the Republican Party because he holds liberal views similar to Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., on abortion and immigration. The Giuliani campaign countered that Romney is in attack mode because he accomplished little during his one term as governor of Massachusetts. Giuliani gladly gave Romney credit, however, for passing a universal health care bill in the state since conservatives who dominate the Republican nominating contest would prefer a free-market approach to health care. The Giuliani campaign also points out that Romney's stepped up aggressiveness comes at time when the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll shows former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee closing in on Romney's lead in Iowa.

In one of the sharpest assaults of the GOP contest so far, Romney's campaign manager Matt Rhoades said "the nasty side" of Giuliani has gotten the better of him, a hint at Giuliani's famous temper.

The sharps words began Saturday when Romney lumped Giuliani into a critique of the leading Democratic presidential candidates on spending and taxes. Stumping in New Hampshire, Romney referred to Giuliani as a friend and "a good man," before saying the former mayor has "a bit of a problem" on spending.

He charged that Giuliani left a budget deficit twice as big as the one he had inherited and that his successor Mike Bloomberg had vowed not to leave that gap to the next New York mayor. It was a sticky charge coming from Romney, who upon leaving office earlier this year left his successor in Massachusetts with a projected budget deficit for fiscal year 2008.