Romney and Giuliani Turn Negative in N.H.

Throughout the campaign, Giuliani's advisers have outlined a strategy that they said could overcome early losses to Romney in Iowa and New Hampshire with victories in subsequent contests in Florida, New York, New Jersey and Illinois. But Giuliani expressed little interest in putting that theory to the test unless absolutely necessary.

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"It is not inconceivable that you could, if you won Florida [after losing in the early states], turn the whole thing around," Giuliani said. "I'd rather not do it that way. That would create ulcers for my entire staff and for me. . . . We want to win as many of the early ones as possible. That's why we're here and not in Florida right now."

Giuliani was dismissive of the other leading Republican candidates, particularly Thompson. Asked about Thompson's criticism that he spends too much time talking about his record in New York, Giuliani laughed.

"I will not really respond to Fred, because it might discourage him from campaigning, and he's doing so little of it I don't want to discourage him," he said, taking a shot at Thompson's reputation as a less-than-frenetic campaigner. "It's okay. Fred can say what he wants."

But his toughest comments were reserved for Romney. "Nobody thought of him as a fiscal conservative," Giuliani said. "People did think of me as a fiscal conservative. Romney says he tried to lower taxes. I give him credit for that. But he never accomplished it. I did accomplish it. . . . He wasn't particularly good at reducing crime. I was the most effective in the country at reducing crime. Murder went up when he was governor. Robbery went up. Violent crimes went up."

Romney accused Giuliani of mangling his facts. "He's got a real problem checking facts," Romney said during a Sunday afternoon interview, arguing that violent crime in Massachusetts declined 7 percent while he was governor. Giuliani aides immediately challenged that assertion.

On health care, Giuliani challenged Romney to stand behind the plan enacted while he was governor, which mandates health care for all individuals in Massachusetts. "The oddest thing is he doesn't want to do for America what he did for Massachusetts," he said, laughing. "He did mandate health care for Massachusetts, which is Hillary Care, and he doesn't want to do that for America."

"I was just across the country this week talking about my plan," Romney said in response. "I'm very proud of my health-care plan and think it should be a model for other states to adopt." Giuliani, he noted, has not yet laid out details of how he would address concerns about the health-care system.

Romney insisted that his decision to talk about family values on Sunday had nothing to do with the personal life of a rival who has been married three times. He said he was angry that Giuliani had used the judicial controversy to attack him after he had refrained from personally criticizing Giuliani over Kerik's indictment. "I must admit that of all the people who might attack someone on the basis of an appointment, I thought he would be the last to do so," Romney said.