DURHAM, N.H. -- Major Republican presidential candidates rallied behind continuing President Bush's troop build-up in Iraq during a campaign debate Wednesday night that including new sparring over their records on controlling illegal immigration.
The newest entrant into the party's presidential contest, actor-politician Fred Thompson, a former senator from Tennessee, skipped the debate, avoiding a direct engagement with the other candidates but drawing ridicule from several of his rivals.
"Maybe we're up past his bedtime," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz..
"I think he's done a pretty good job of playing my part on `Law and Order.' I personally prefer the real thing," said former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a former U.S. attorney for the city, referring to Thompson's television role as a New York City district attorney.
While his rivals debated at the University of New Hampshire, Thompson was on the opposite coast, announcing his candidacy during a taping of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," which aired to a larger audience shortly after the debate ended.
Thompson also aired a 30-second campaign commercial on Fox News, which broadcast the debate, a few minutes before the event began.
The debate, the fifth for Republicans this campaign, featured several of the candidates competing to out-do each other with expressions of support for maintaining the troop build-up.
After former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney described Bush's Iraq strategy to as "apparently" succeeding, McCain pointedly chided him for insufficient certainty.
"Not `apparently,' it's working," McCain said.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee engaged in a heated exchange with Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, the lone Republican candidate calling for withdrawal from Iraq.
"What we did in Iraq, we essentially broke it," Huckabee said, later adding, "We bought it, because we broke it. We have a responsibility to the honor of this country."
Paul responded that in invading Iraq "we dug a hole for ourselves and we dug a hole for the Republican party."
"What do we have to pay to save face? It's time to come home." Paul added.
At one point, a voter asked Giuliani if he has the family values necessary to be the Republican nominee. Though it wasn't explicit, the question seemed to refer to Giuliani's divorces and discord with his children.
"I certainly haven't lived a perfect life. I am running as a human being," Giuliani said, ticking off the accomplishments of his tenure as New York mayor during difficult personal times. "Any issues in my private life did not affect my public performance."
Candidates engaged, sometimes passionately, on the question of the Iraq War and the country's fight against terrorism.
Romney was the target of several questions from panelists and opponents about his position on the war and on troop withdrawal, but the most pointed commentary came from the father of a U.S. serviceman.
Addressing the debate from a remote site, the man, appearing to choke back tears as he spoke, said he was offended recently when Romney said publicly that his sons were doing their duty to the country by working on his campaign.
"There is no comparison, of course," Romney answered. "People who are willing to put their lives on the line . . . are in a league of their own."
Romney repeatedly asserted that the troop surge "appears" to be working, while also emphasizing the value of a support role for U.S. troops in the region.
If the surge is working, Romney said, the country is "going to be able to bring back our troop levels and play more of a support role over time."
Romney said he thinks it's wise to wait for Gen. David Petraeus to bring his report to the Congress this fall, and to listen to what military leaders think about the ground strategy in Iraq.
But other candidates voiced their support for the success of military personnel in Iraq, especially since the surge began.
"The surge is working," McCain said. "Not apparently, it's working . . . I want our troops home with honor, otherwise we will face catastrophe and genocide in the region."
Giuliani also questioned the wisdom of talking openly about troop withdrawal while the country is at war.
"When has a nation ever won a war when the constant discussion was: What kind of timetable are we going to set for our retreat?" Giuliani said.
McCain, a former prisoner of war who endured torture in Vietnam, also offered a personal argument against the use of torture in the war on terror, arguing that any information gathered by using it is outweighed by the damage to the U.S. reputation.
Those who disagree with him on the point in a previous debate, he said, "had no military experience."
While Democrats are talking about change, the Republican candidates spent more time talking about experience as a qualification for office.
McCain said that Giuliani "did a great job as mayor of New York and le d the country and inspired us after the tragedy of 9/11," but he touted his own foreign policy credentials and suggested they are more relevant than the government management experience of his opponents.
As commander of the largest squadron in the Navy, McCain said, "I didn't manage it. I led it."
© 2007, Chicago Tribune. Reprinted Via NewsCom.
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