Romney Stresses Differences With Two GOP Rivals

Former Mass. Governor Cites Strong Differences With McCain on Immigration and Campaign Finance

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney advocated a policy of attrition to deal with the more than 12 million immigrants who are in the United States illegally, insisting that they can be slowly repatriated simply by enforcing current law or changing provisions of a controversial bipartisan plan pending in the Senate.

Romney said he had no desire to "round them up as one big group" and send illegal immigrants back to their native countries. Instead, he said the idea is "to take people who are here today and working here and replace them gradually and humanely with our own citizens as well as with legal immigrants who come in to take their place."

The former governor offered his views on immigration, health care and his leading opponents for the Republican presidential nomination during an interview for the washingtonpost.com's video interview program, "PostTalk."

Romney dismissed claims by proponents of the Senate's compromise bill that solving the immigration crisis is a difficult challenge requiring a delicately balanced coalition. "This is not rocket science," he said. "Getting the Iranians to not build a nuclear bomb? That's hard. Stopping the jihad? That's hard. But enforcing our border is relatively easy, relative to those things."

Romney said there is plenty of blame to go around for the failure to solve the problem of illegal immigration, saying the Bush administration, prior administrations and Congress had all failed to step up to the challenge. "They just have not been willing to do what's necessary to end illegal immigration," he said.

Romney's remarks on immigration came less than 24 hours after Republicans' third presidential debate, in which he passed on an opportunity to directly criticize Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) -- a leading advocate of a comprehensive reform bill and one of the governor's main rivals for the GOP nomination.

But in today's interview, Romney was more vocal about his differences with McCain, particularly on campaign finance reform.

"Senator McCain promoted the McCain-Feingold bill, which I'm afraid has made things worse, not better," he said.

The law, Romney said, has not stopped the flow of money but has shifted power from candidates and political parties to more shadowy organizations called 527s, which are exempt from the fundraising limits in the bill.

McCain also opposes these groups, known for the section of the tax code that governs their activities. When Romney was asked about McCain's shared opposition to 527s, he replied, "The law that he passed that is in place now in our country has created a circumstance where those 527s rule the day. That's what he put in place."

McCain's campaign quickly struck back, seeking to paint Romney as a flip-flopper on the issue.

"It comes as no surprise that Governor Romney fails to mention his past support for campaign finance reform when he attacks John McCain," said McCain spokesman Matt David. "Whether it's campaign finance reform, immigration or abortion, Romney's shifting positions and intellectually dishonest attacks illustrate his willingness to say and do anything in an effort to win the nomination."