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Santorum, Romney square off in debate

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February 23, 2012|By Michael Levenson and Matt Viser

Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney were sitting next to each other as they squared… (Justin Sullivan/Getty…)

MESA, Ariz. — Mitt Romney, fighting to reclaim his frontrunner status before pivotal primaries in Michigan and Arizona on Tuesday, last night accused challenger Rick Santorum of supporting wasteful spending, in a fast-moving debate that also featured tense confrontations over contraception and the federal auto bailout.

“While I was fighting to save the Olympics, you were fighting to save the bridge to nowhere,” Romney told Santorum, who was seated next to him on stage.

Santorum criticized Romney for relying on his own spending authorization — called an earmark — to help finance the 2002 Winter Olympics.

“Governor Romney asked for that earmark,” he said. “That’s really the point here. He’s out there on television ads right now, unfortunately, attacking me for saying that I’m this great earmarker, when he not only asked for earmarks for the Salt Lake Olympics in the order of tens of millions of dollars, sought those earmarks and used them.”

Santorum came under withering attack from Romney throughout the night, as the former Massachusetts seized the offensive in the first debate since Santorum took the lead in national polls and moved into a close battle with Romney for the lead in Michigan and Arizona.

Santorum sought to challenge Romney, as well. But in perhaps his biggest moment in the race, he was often pushed into lengthy explanations of years-old votes he said he now regrets. The audience, as in past debates, was lively, and vocal, and often interrupted Santorum with boos when he waded into arcane legislative language to explain his deviations from conservative orthodoxy.

Sponsored by CNN, it was the 20th debate of primary season but the last before the Michigan and Arizona primaries and before 10 states vote on Super Tuesday on March 6.

Showcasing his preparation for the fight, Romney put Santorum on the defensive by ticking off item after item in his rival’s long record in Congress that he said were inconsistent with conservative principles. Romney pointed, for example, to spending bills that Santorum supported that included financing for Planned Parenthood, and Santorum’s support for Arlen Specter, a Republican-turned-Democrat, over a conservative Republican in the 2004 Pennsylvania Senate race.

Santorum accused Romney of raising taxes and fees as governor of Massachusetts and using federal money to prop up the state’s universal health care law. He also pointed out that the Massachusetts Constitution required Romney to balance the budget.

“Don’t go around bragging about something you have to do,” Santorum said. “Michael Dukakis balanced the budget for 10 years, does that make him qualified to be president of the United States? I don’t think so.”