"Hedging Their Bets?"

Concord, NH
ON THE EVE OF what John McCain called "the most important debate" of the intensifying battle for the Republican presidential nomination, the Arizona Senator took a polite but unmistakable shot at his two chief rivals, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney. McCain suggested that Giuliani and Romney were "hedging their bets" on the troop surge in Iraq- and suggested that the best explanation for their lack of enthusiasm is politics.

McCain has been campaigning for the last two days in New Hampshire before participating in the Republican presidential debate tonight at the University of New Hampshire at Durham, broadcast on the Fox News Channel.

In his public appearances yesterday, McCain noted that his Republican opponents had said little while he fought almost alone for over three years against the "failed Rumsfeld strategy" in Iraq.

In an interview at the Siam Orchid restaurant in Concord last night, McCain sharpened that critique. "Some of these guys are sort of hedging their bets," he said. "Their advisers are telling them: 'Look, don't get too closely tied to it because they may be pulling out in April.' I don't know that for a fact. This is just what we surmise, so I can't attribute it. But I think it's fair to say that the Romney and Giuliani campaigns have tried to distance themselves from this issue. I think it's pretty obvious."

The Romney campaign fired back quickly. Spokesman Kevin Madden called the comments 'uninformed.'

"Governor Romney has supported the troop surge from the beginning," says Madden. "He has expressed support for both President Bush and the surge repeatedly."

McCain's comments come just days before the much-anticipated debate in Congress over the direction of U.S. policy in Iraq, and a week before his campaign launches a "No Surrender" tour to promote the surge. He says he intends to remind viewers tonight that he has been calling for more troops in Iraq since the summer of 2003.

In a speech he gave upon returning from Iraq in November 2003, McCain said:

"To win in Iraq, we should increase the number of forces in-country, including Marines and Special Forces, to conduct offensive operations. I believe we must deploy at least another full division, giving us the necessary manpower to conduct a focused counterinsurgency campaign across the Sunni Triangle that seals off enemy operating areas, conducts search and destroy missions, and holds territory....There can be little political or economic progress in Iraq until the United States creates a stable and secure environment there. Prematurely placing the burden of security on Iraqis is not the answer. Hastily trained Iraqi security forces cannot be expected to accomplish what U.S. forces have not yet succeeded in doing: defeating the Baathist and international terrorists inside Iraq. It is irresponsible to suggest that it is up to Iraqis to win this war.....Security is the precondition for everything else we want to accomplish in Iraq."

Discussion of the way forward in Iraq will almost certainly be an important part of the GOP debate tonight, as the fall campaign starts in earnest.

Update: Maria Comella, a spokesman for the Giuliani campaign, sent this statement in response to our request for comment: "Mayor Giuliani considers John McCain a friend and continues to have great respect for him."

Stephen F. Hayes is a senior writer at THE WEEKLY STANDARD and author of Cheney: The Untold Story of America's Most Powerful and Controversial Vice-President (HarperCollins).