McCain, Romney acrimony dates back to Olympics

"The American taxpayer is being shaken down to the tune of nearly a billion and a half dollars," McCain said.

The Arizona Republican vowed to "do everything in my power" to delay or kill "this pork-barrel spending" and to end the "fiscal abuse" related to the Olympics. "This is preposterous and it must stop," he said.

Mitt Romney, who headed the Olympics, counseled calm when reporters from Utah's Deseret Morning News reached him in Sydney, Australia. Romney challenged McCain's arithmetic, arguing that taxpayers would provide only $250 million. In any case, he asserted that he already had obtained backing in Congress.

"I'm expecting the funding we need to host the Games," he said. "I'm quite confident."

The clash over Olympics spending, which dragged on for two years, helps explain some of the acrimony that now characterizes the race between the two front-runners for the Republican presidential nomination. The dispute provided an early preview of the fissures that still divide McCain and Romney as they face what may be decisive contests Tuesday.

"It may be a source of the sniping between the two," said Quin Monson, assistant director of the Center for Elections and Democracy at Romney's alma mater, Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Kelly Patterson, the center's director, agreed: "People have long memories in politics."

In the background of the dispute lies a long-simmering argument in Utah over whether Romney has overstated his role in saving the Olympics.

In debates and on the campaign trail, McCain highlights his history as a watchdog of "wasteful" government spending. Over the years, he has challenged Senate colleagues who inserted so-called earmarks in legislation to fund "pet projects," from new courthouses to catfish farms, and to bypass normal budget scrutiny.

Cutting federal aid for the Olympics and other sports events became one of McCain's goals. He repeatedly denounced "pork-barrel subsidies" for the 2002 Games, identifying earmarks for construction projects, road improvements, new post offices and other infrastructure in and around Salt Lake City.