Barbed words as candidates sharpen attack in Iowa
Among Republicans, Huckabee responds to recent Romney ads and accuses his rival of dishonesty.
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."
