WASHINGTON — A major divide has emerged among the leading Republican candidates for president over a central question of the 2008 campaign: Whether to follow the Bush administration's lead in pushing for aggressive treatment of detainees in fighting terrorism.
Tuesday's GOP debate in South Carolina showcased those differences. Sen. John McCain of Arizona called for limits on interrogation techniques, whereas former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and onetime Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney aligned themselves more closely with President Bush's approach.
Giuliani said interrogators should use "any method they can think of" and did not reject a moderator's suggestion that his answer encompassed the controversial practice of "water-boarding," which experts say simulates drowning. Romney proposed doubling the size of the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where terrorism suspects are held.
The issues arose in response to a hypothetical question about how each candidate would respond to the capture of suspects who may have knowledge of a coming attack on U.S. soil. But the exchange took place against a real-life backdrop, with Al Qaeda suspected of holding three U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
The fissures introduced a new twist to a GOP contest that has focused largely on minor differences over waging the war in Iraq and questions about whether an abortion rights supporter such as Giuliani could win the party's nomination.
"It's tough for these candidates, because you don't want to be rhetorically in favor of torture, which will turn a lot of people away in this country, Democrats and Republicans," said Robert Ellsworth, a deputy Defense secretary under President Ford and a foreign policy advisor to 1996 GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole. "But you've got to be rhetorically in favor of wanting to do everything possible to thwart the coming disaster."
The stakes seemed to be highest for McCain, who was once the clear front-runner but has struggled since he positioned himself as a staunch defender of Bush's unpopular decision to ramp up troop levels in Iraq.
Tuesday's comments by McCain, a former Navy pilot who was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for 5 1/2 years, underscored long-running differences between him and Bush on tactics for interrogating terrorism suspects.
