McCain-Romney love (slug)-fest: Round Two

by Jill Zuckman

The Republican spat continues.

What began with Mitt Romney jumping on Rudy Giuliani at the Republican debate in Detroit last week quickly expanded this weekend to John McCain taking aim at Mitt Romney for claiming to represent the "Republican wing of the Republican Party" a la Howard Dean and the Democratic Party.

Today, the love-fest showed no signs of abating.

Chuck Douglas, the former New Hampshire Republican congressman serving as McCain's vice chair, derided Romney's claim over the weekend that he made a political contribution 15 years ago to N.H. Democrat Dick Swett out of a personal friendship.

"As a Republican who ran against liberal Democrat Dick Swett, I can assure you that in 1992 Republicans wrote checks to defeat him; and those Republicans weren't voting for Paul Tsongas that year either,'' said Douglas, who lost his seat to Swett in a surprise upset in 1990.