McCain turns up the heat in Florida

John McCain ramped up his criticism of rival Mitt Romney Saturday, charging him with favoring a withdrawal from Iraq last spring and asking him to apologize to U.S. troops for those comments.

For his part, Romney accused McCain of being dishonest in representing Romney’s position; he also asked for an apology.

McCain’s new offensive came on a day when he landed a coup his advisors hope will tip Florida into his column in Tuesday’s primary -- the influential endorsement of Florida’s popular Gov. Charlie Crist.

“He is a true American hero; he’s the kind of man who will lead this country in an exemplary fashion,” Crist told reporters at the Pinnelas County Lincoln Day Dinner at a hotel in St. Petersburg on Saturday night.

Alluding to the endorsement, McCain said: “It means a lot in this race -- let’s be very candid -- it will mean a great deal on Tuesday.”

McCain’s attack on Romney’s Iraq record earlier Saturday set off a furious exchange between the campaigns that underscored the stakes for both candidates in Tuesday’s primary. Both campaigns believe a win here could create momentum to power one of the candidates through the 21 Republican state primaries and caucuses on Feb. 5 and on to the nomination.

The Arizona senator opened the skirmish by reviving remarks Romney made last April on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” When asked whether he favored a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq, Romney said, “There’s no question that [President Bush] and Prime Minister al-Maliki have to have a series of timetables and milestones that they speak about,” but added those benchmarks should not be a “public pronouncement.”

McCain seized on the comment Saturday morning while visiting the Shell Factory and Nature Park in Fort Myers. Speaking to reporters after a crowded town hall meeting, he charged that Romney “wanted to set a date for withdrawal similar to what the Democrats have [been] seeking, which would have led to a victory by Al Qaeda in my view.”

“If we surrender and wave the white flag, like Sen. [Hillary Rodham] Clinton wants to do, and withdraw as Gov. Romney wanted to do,” McCain said, “then there will be chaos, genocide, and the cost in American blood and treasure will be dramatically higher.”

Outside a home in Land O’Lakes, Romney told reporters that McCain was misrepresenting Romney’s position on the Iraq war -- and asked for an apology of his own.

“I don’t know why he’s being dishonest,” said Romney, who does not favor a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. “. . . He’s trying desperately to change the topic from the economy and trying to get back to Iraq.”

McCain sharpened his attack several hours later when he raised the issue and singled out Romney by name before hundreds of retirees at a town hall in Sun City Center. Noting Romney’s request for an apology, the Arizona senator said, “I think the apology is owed to the young men and women who are serving this nation in uniform that we will not let them down in hard times or good.”

Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney’s traveling press secretary, accused McCain of “peddling falsehoods” as the race heads into the final stretch.

“Gov. Romney has talked about having benchmarks and timetables against which we can measure the progress we’re making in Iraq,” Fehrnstrom said, speaking after a rally in Lakeland. “He has never advocated for the withdrawal of our troops, nor has he ever failed to support our mission in Iraq. To suggest otherwise is an outrageous distortion.”

McCain has long argued that he showed more judgment than his Republican rivals by pressing for the now-successful troop buildup in Iraq last spring when it was politically unpopular. McCain bluntly said he believed Romney’s comments from April would irk members of Florida’s enormous military community.

“I’m trying to convince them that I am most qualified to be commander in chief,” he told reporters Saturday afternoon.

--

maeve.reston@latimes.com

seema.mehta@latimes.com