GOP presidential contenders spar, take aim at front-runner Romney

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CONCORD, N.H. — Picking up where they finished hours
before, the Republican presidential hopefuls sparred across two states
Sunday as they vied to slow front-runner Mitt Romney ahead of New
Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary.

At a pugnacious morning debate, Newt Gingrich and
Rick Santorum both took shots at Romney’s performance as Massachusetts
governor and Romney’s depiction of himself as a businessman first and
politician second.

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., smarting from a
Saturday night exchange over his service as President Barack Obama’s
ambassador to China, chided Romney for failing to appreciate Huntsman’s
sense of duty.

Likening his service to that of his two sons in the
U.S. Navy, Huntsman said, “They are not asking what the affiliation of
the president is. I want to be clear: I will always put my country
first.”

Romney was unyielding. “I just think most likely that
the person who should represent our party running against President
Obama is not someone who called him a ‘remarkable leader’ and went to be
his ambassador in China,” Romney said.

“This country is divided because of attitudes like
that,” Huntsman shot back, drawing applause from the audience inside the
Capitol Center for the Arts.

Romney faced other uncomfortable moments. Andy
Hiller, a veteran Boston TV reporter and debate co-moderator,
resurrected a quote from Romney’s failed 1994 U.S. Senate run against
incumbent Democrat Edward M. Kennedy: How, Hiller asked, had Romney
fulfilled his pledge to make the Republican Party more gay-friendly?

Romney said he had a gay Cabinet member and appointed people to the bench “regardless of their sexual orientation.”

“If people are looking for someone … who will
discriminate against gays or will in any way try and suggest that people
that have different sexual orientation don’t have full rights in this
country, they won’t find that in me.”

Turning to Santorum, a former senator from
Pennsylvania who has made controversial remarks about gays and same-sex
marriage, Hiller asked what he would do if one of his sons told him he
was gay. “I would love him as much as I did the second before he said
it,” Santorum replied.

Romney still appears to hold a solid lead in
Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, making the fight for second place — and
continued viability in the GOP race — crucial for others in the field,
as they head next to South Carolina. The state votes Jan. 21.

Santorum, who trails Ron Paul in New Hampshire,
renewed his jousting with the Texas congressman. Referring to Paul’s
fiscal tightfistedness and isolationist foreign policy, Santorum said,
“All the things that Republicans like about him he can’t accomplish, and
all the things they’re worried about he’ll do Day One.”

Paul said failure to pass his bills shows Congress is
out of touch. As for foreign policy, he reiterated his assertion that
the U.S. is overstretched. “We cannot have 900 bases overseas,” Paul
said. “We have to change policy.”

The debate also was notable for something unusual in
this highly charged political season: a rare discussion of
bipartisanship. Asked what they would do to move the country past its
deep partisan breach, several of the candidates cited their prior work
across party lines.

Romney touted the relationships he forged in the
overwhelmingly Democratic Massachusetts Legislature (though he made no
mention of the health care plan passed as one of the fruits of that
relationship). Santorum touted welfare reform passed in concert with the
Clinton administration, as did Gingrich.

“You have to at some point say, ‘The country comes
first. How are we going to get things done?’ ” said Gingrich, the former
House speaker. “It can be done with real leadership.”

Texas Gov. Rick Perry made glancing reference to one
of the greatest embarrassments of his stumbling campaign, the failure in
a prior debate to remember all three federal agencies he would
eliminate.

Perry said he would target “those bureaucrats at the
Department of Commerce and Energy and Education,” flashing three fingers
to his rivals down the line of lecterns. Santorum grinned and flashed
back three fingers.

After the debate, candidates began the headlong rush
to Tuesday’s vote. Romney used an appearance in Rochester to suggest
that — despite his great personal wealth — he was no stranger to the
economic anxiety many Americans feel.

“I’ve learned what it is to sign the front of a
paycheck, not just the back of a paycheck, and to know how frightening
it is to see whether you can make payroll at the end of the week,” said
Romney, who made millions helping run companies. “I know what it’s like
to worry whether you’re going to get fired.”

Later, Romney appeared in Exeter alongside New Jersey
Gov. Chris Christie, drawing one of the largest crowds he has seen in
the state.

In South Carolina, Perry delivered a
fire-and-brimstone appeal to evangelical voters, who will be a pivotal
force in the Republican race. Opening a two-week tour across the state
where he launched his campaign in August and now hopes to revive it,
Perry repeatedly invoked his Christian faith in remarks at a Spartanburg
diner.

Faith in Christ, Perry said, was part of what led him
to resume his campaign after a brief reassessment prompted by his
drubbing in Iowa. “When you find that peace from God, you stop worrying
about what the critics say,” Perry said.

Campaigning in Greenville, S.C., at a crowded
Republican fundraiser, Santorum picked up the endorsement of Gary Bauer,
a conservative activist and president of the group American Values.

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