Barbed words as candidates sharpen attack in Iowa

DES MOINES – The tone of the already nasty Republican campaign for the presidential nomination took an even sharper edge this morning as former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee accused rival Mitt Romney of waging a “dishonest” campaign.

“Mitt Romney is running a very desperate and, frankly, a dishonest campaign,” Huckabee said on NBC’s morning “Meet the Press” program, four days ahead of Iowa balloting that will be the first of the 2008 presidential race. “He’s attacked me… . When Mitt Romney went after the integrity of John McCain, he stepped across a line.”

On the Democratic side, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton accused her two top rivals of accepting campaign contributions from people connected with lobbyists while claiming to eschew money from lobbyists and political action committees.

“They take money from people who employ lobbyists, who are married to lobbyists, who are the children of lobbyists,” Clinton said on “ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” hosted by the former Bill Clinton advisor. “It would be hard to find anybody who has incurred the wrath of the special interests more than I have… . I don’t think they waste their time or effort targeting someone that they think is already in agreement with them.”

The pointed attacks reflect the tightness of both campaigns as new polls suggest that support has strengthened for Democrat John Edwards in what is still a three-way Democratic race, and that Huckabee’s Iowa surge might be ebbing among Republicans.

A new Zogby poll conducted Dec. 26 to 29 showed Huckabee in a statistical tie here with Romney, the former Massachusetts governor.

Other recent polls have given Huckabee a significant edge. But surveys of Iowa voter preferences are notoriously unreliable because of the uncertain nature of turnout for the caucus night meetings.

Huckabee’s comments on television today referred to the three-way fight among Romney, McCain and himself that has taken place in large measure in advertisements aired in Iowa and New Hampshire.

In Iowa, where Romney has seen his lead evaporate amid Huckabee’s surge, Romney has run ads asserting that Huckabee raised taxes and reduced drug sentences while governor of Arkansas. In New Hampshire, where Romney faces a stiff challenge from McCain, Romney last week began running ads saying that McCain voted against Bush’s tax cuts and pushed to “let every illegal immigrant stay here permanently.”

McCain did oppose President Bush’s temporary tax cuts but now favors making them permanent. He has supported steps to legalize undocumented immigrants who learn English, pass a criminal check, and pay fines and back taxes. Responding to Romney’s ad last week, McCain aired his own rebuttal ad that highlighted two New Hampshire newspaper “anti-endorsements” of Romney, including one by the Concord Monitor that called Romney a “phony.” McCain’s advertisement also cited an editorial in the Union Leader of Manchester, which said that the state’s voters “want a candidate who will look them in the eye and tell them the truth. John McCain has done that. Mitt Romney has not.”

On “Meet the Press” today, Huckabee said Romney’s sharp-toned and “relentless” ads about his record “may have” hurt him. “People in Iowa have been bombarded,” he said. “I don’t know what kind of effect it has.”

Spokesman Kevin Madden defended Romney’s approach, arguing that the campaign is putting Huckabee’s record before voters. He accused Huckabee of “testiness and irritability.”

“Mike Huckabee’s lashing out with personal attacks against Gov. Romney that have no merit or substance is quite unfortunate,” he said. “Campaigns should be about the issues.”

McCain, appearing after Clinton on “This Week,” dismissed a Romney complaint over the McCain ads in New Hampshire and their quotation of the newspaper editorial that described Romney as “phony.”

“Welcome to the arena,” McCain said, adding: “I didn’t say those words. Those were the Concord Monitor… . I paid for the ad that put up the words of the respected newspapers here in the state of New Hampshire. And I think that’s perfectly appropriate.”

But McCain sidestepped a question about whether he personally thought Romney was phony, even though the New Hampshire ad carries the required personal “I approve this message” disclaimer.

“No,” McCain said, “I think he’s a person who’s changed his positions on many issues.”

Former Sen. Fred Thompson also piled on Huckabee, pointing out that his rival offered “apologies” when his campaign later said he meant “sympathies” in response to the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

“I was wondering what the rest of the world thought about one of our presidential candidates apologizing after a foreign leader was assassinated,” Thompson said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Those kinds of things are going to have to be weighed. And clearly, he doesn’t have a lot of experience in these areas.”

In the Democratic race, Clinton said her top rivals, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and Edwards, the former North Carolina senator, offer voters a “false choice” with their overlapping claims that change in Washington can only come from a president entering from outside the power structure.

“It’s not an either-or choice,” she said. “It takes experience to bring about change.”

Edwards, speaking on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” disagreed. “Sen. Clinton defends the system in Washington,” he said. “I don’t think you can take these people’s money – the lobbyists, the PACs etc. – and sit at a table and make a deal with them. I think if that worked, it would have worked a long time ago.”

Obama stayed above the fray in an appearance on “Meet the Press,” though he acknowledged some of the sharpness of independent ads leading up to Thursday’s caucuses have likely affected his support.

“I think there’s no doubt that in the closing days of the campaign … that may have some effect,” Obama said. “But ultimately, I’m putting my faith in the people of Iowa and the people of America that they want something better.”

Off the air, most of the candidates fanned out across Iowa once again, some by plane, some by bus. Thick morning fog delayed at least one Bill Clinton campaign event in Sergeant Bluff, Iowa, near Sioux City, on the Missouri River, which forms the state line with Nebraska.