Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Fox News:

WASHINGTON — The claws were out Sunday night as the GOP presidential candidates went for each other’s jugulars trying to prove to Republican base voters that each is the most conservative candidate in the race for the White House.

Saying he was “conservative as soon as I could put down ‘Conscience of a Conservative’ while in college,” Fred Thompson added that he supported conservative judges and earned “a 100 percent pro-life record” while in the U.S. Senate.

But Rudy Giuliani supported abortion and sanctuary cities, Thompson argued during the Republican primary debate held in Orlando, Fla., and aired by FOX News.

“Mayor Giuliani believes in federal funding for abortion. He believes in sanctuary cities. He’s for gun control. He supported Mario Cuomo, a liberal Democrat, against a Republican who was running for governor; then opposed the governor’s tax cuts when he was there,” Thompson said.

Giuliani fought back that he “outperformed any expectations” in dealing with high rates of crime within a large immigrant community. In the meantime, he got a “heck of a lot of conservative results” while mayor of New York City.

“I had the most legal city in the country. And I took the crime capital of America and I turned it into the safest large city in the country. The senator has never had executive responsibility. He’s never had the weight of people’s safety and security on his shoulders,” he said.

Giuliani also returned the barb, saying Thompson was the “single biggest obstacle to tort reform in the United States Senate.”

“He voted against $250,000 caps on damages, which they have in Texas. He voted against almost anything that would make our legal system fairer: ‘loser pays’ rules, things that would prevent lawsuits like that $54 million lawsuit by that guy who lost his pants — you know?” Giuliani said.

Thompson then responded that he supported tort reform when it came to interstate commerce issues, and not local matters.

“Local issues belong at the state level. Most states have passed tort reform,” he said.

Thompson also took a shot at Mitt Romney, saying he didn’t think anyone could be more to the left of Sen. Ted Kennedy. The former Tennessee senator also took the time to poke at the Massachusetts Democrat, saying he didn’t think anyone could squeeze in to the right of him either.

Not to be outdone, Romney said that his conservative record as governor of Massachusetts demonstrates “my approach is best for our nation.” He said that he fought against sanctuary cities, for welfare reform and tax cuts.

Romney said he was “fighting against the liberal lion in perhaps the toughest state in America.” He added that the plan he offered for mandatory health care for Massachusetts did not rely on government to provide care, the way it would under a plan proposed by Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

“All of us on the stage are Republican. But the question is, who will be able to build the house that Ronald Reagan built — who will be able to strengthen that house, because that’s the house that’s going to build the house that Clinton, Hillary, wants to build,” Romney said.

Romney also praised John McCain for his service to the nation, but said the Arizona senator had been wrong to characterize him as a johnny-come-lately to conservatism.

“You’ve been spending the last year trying to fool people about your record. I don’t want you to start fooling them about mine,” McCain said in response.

Mike Huckabee stepped out of the catfight with his first response to a question, noting that he’s “content to let you let them fight all they want tonight, shed each other’s blood and then I’ll be ready to run for president because I’m not interested in fighting these guys. What I’m interested in is fighting for the American people, and I think they’re looking for a presidential candidate who’s not so interested in a demolition derby against the other people in his own party.”

The former Arkansas governor then said that the “sanctity of human life” would be one of the top priorities he would fight for on behalf of the American people.

“When our founding fathers put their signatures on the Declaration of Independence, those 56 brave people, most of whom, by the way, were clergymen, they said that we have certain inalienable rights given to us by our creator, and among these life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, life being one of them. I still believe that,” he said.

Rep. Duncan Hunter also took issue with questions by the panelists that were “dividing the party.” He said the infighting doesn’t demonstrate what the party really stands for. The GOP is “the party of freedom,” he said.

Addressing another issue of concern to conservative voters, Rep. Ron Paul said he opposed a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage because he didn’t believe it was a federal issue.

“This should be a religious matter. All voluntary associations, whether they’re economic or social, should be protected by the law. But to amend the Constitution is totally unnecessary to define something that’s already in the dictionary. We do know what marriage is about,” Paul said.

But Romney said that he supports a federal ban because he comes from a state that has gay marriage and knows “the consequences of gay marriage fall far beyond just the relationship between a man and a woman. They also relate to our kids and the right of religion to be practiced freely in a society.”

“The status of marriage, if it’s allowed among the same sex individuals in one state is going to spread to the entire nation. And that’s why it’s important to have a national standard for marriage,” he said. “My state’s constitution was written by John Adams. It isn’t there.”

Giuliani said he too supports a constitutional amendment.

“If a lot of states start to do that, three, four, five, six states, where we have that kind of judicial activism, and the kind of situation the governor is talking about actually occurs, if we’re dealing with a real problem, then we should have a constitutional amendment. I did 210 weddings when I was mayor of New York City. So I have experience doing this. They were all men and women. I hope,” he said, joking that he couldn’t be certain in New York City.

During the debate, the candidates took several opportunities to accost Sen. Hillary Clinton, either on her plan for health care, her late support for the Yankees baseball team and her proposed spending on a variety of issues, including last week’s budget amendment to earmark $1 million for a Woodstock music museum to commemorate the 1969 festival.

“I wasn’t there. I’m sure it was a cultural and pharmaceutical event. I was tied up at the time,” McCain said earning a standing ovation for the double entendre that referred to his imprisonment in a Vietnam prisoner of war camp.

“I’ve been very critical of her, but I want to tell her I agree with this one. Quote, Hillary Clinton, ‘I have a million ideas; America cannot afford them all.’ I’m not making it up. I am not making it up,” Giuliani said to laughter. “No kidding Hillary — American can’t afford you.”

Giuliani also said he doesn’t subscribe to the polls that show Clinton beating all the Republican candidates in hypothetical match-ups.

“If those polls are correct, then the president of the United States right now is John Kerry, last time I checked,” he said. “If those polls are correct, we’d have Al Gore here and, I don’t know, it might be a little colder — I’m not sure. But I’m not sure we’d be any better off, right? We’d be in a lot worse shape, I think, with Al Gore.”

But Huckabee didn’t take the challenge from Clinton so lightly.

“You know, it’s interesting, the most, I guess, wonderful reaction we’ve had in this entire room is when Hillary’s name is mentioned. It gets louder than an Aerosmith concert. But I want to say this — you’ve asked: What’s the difference? No matter which one of us is on this stage — and, look, I like to be funny, let me be real honest with you. There’s nothing funny about Hillary being president,” he said.

Still comparing the Republicans to Clinton, Romney said that health care “isn’t a Democrat issue. It’s a Republican issue.” He said his plan was different than Clinton’s “in a lot of important ways.”

But Hunter said Romney’s health care proposals have too many mandates that drive up the costs of health care.

“It’s got to have, for example, fertility coverage. Well, what if you’re 90 years old? We may appreciate Governor Romney’s optimism but you may not need fertility coverage,” The California congressman said.

Romney then countered that the only mandates that remained in Massachusetts’ bill were ones passed by the Democratic legislature.

“The price of the premium for an individual, 42 years old, in Boston, used to $350 a month. Now, it’s $180. We basically cut it in half by deregulating,” Romney said.

Rep. Tom Tancredo said that no discussion of health care reform should be focused on government regulation or programming.

“You know, (filmmaker) Michael Moore went to Cuba not too long ago, and wrote this documentary about the greatness of the system, how wonderful it was to be in Cuba and have a socialized medical system. You notice, however, that Michael Moore came back to the United States,” Tancredo said. “Now, there’s a reason that he did that, of course. It’s because we have the best system in the world. And why? It’s because we do rely more on individuals than not.”

Tancredo also said structural changes are needed to reform the Social Security system. The Colorado congressman, who has made illegal immigration his key issue, said both health care and Social Security are badly affected by the onslaught of illegals living inside the U.S.

“Let me tell you what health care means to illegal immigrants — a billion dollars a year in California. Eighty-six or more hospitals closed, maybe up to hundreds of hospitals closed throughout this country because they’ve had to provide care for illegal immigrants and can not be reimbursed. So there’s a health care problem and a Social Security problem that also deals with illegal immigration,” Tancredo said.

On international issues, McCain said he was concerned about Russia’s recent moves. He said when he looked into Vladimir Putin’s eyes, he didn’t see his soul, he only saw three letters: K-G-B.

As for the threatened Turkish incursion into northern Iraq to ward off Kurdish terrorists threatening its borders, Thompson said he hoped diplomacy could work because the U.S. has friends on both sides of the issue. He also criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for offering an Armenian ‘genocide’ resolution critical of the Ottoman Turks a century ago, knowing that it would agitate the situation in the region.

“Nancy Pelosi is not a very good speaker of the House and she is an even lousier secretary of state,” Tancredo added.

Paul earned boos for saying that U.S. interventionism aggravated the situation with the Turkish-Iraqi border, saying if the United States hadn’t tried to sort out other nation’s problems, the threats would be much less.

Romney, however, said that the U.N. has failed in its mission as an international body for communication and compromise, adding that it’s important for the U.S. to have a strong military and strong economy to be a guiding force that can prevent these disputes from flaring.

Giuliani said a nuclear-armed Iran should also be prevented. He said if the international community knew that the U.S. was very serious about it, then other countries would take it more seriously.

“In foreign affairs … self-interest is enormously important. You have to figure out the other person’s self-interest and you have to deal with that,” he said, noting that Ronald Reagan demonstrated his seriousness and that led to the hostages in Iran being released.