With only one week to go before the primaries of Iowa and New Hampshire, former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney has stepped up his attacks against his main rivals in both states: Mike Huckabee and John McCain.

The campaign has made and aired two ads that compare Romney to Huckabee and in the other one to McCain, both indicating that his two main competitors aren’t the best for conservative voters.

The Washington Post explains:

Romney’s new Iowa ad accuses Huckabee of being at the helm of a big-spending government in Arkansas, providing college benefits to the children of illegal immigrants and issuing more than 1,000 pardons and commutations as governor. The ad also quotes Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saying Huckabee’s criticisms of President Bush’s foreign policy were “ludicrous.” It follows previous Romney assaults on crime and immigration, and dovetails with ads from the conservative Club for Growth accusing Huckabee of raising taxes as governor.

Huckabee responded to the attacks in yesterday’s conference calls, again as summarized by the WaPo (a conference call I also intended, you can read my two posts on yesterday’s two conference calls by Huckabee by scrolling down):

Huckabee, during a conference call with reporters Friday, called Romney “desperate and dishonest” in his attacks. In a pointed rebuttal, he argued that, under his leadership, Arkansas’ penalties for possession of methamphetamine were four times as severe as those in Massachusetts, and he said his pardon policy was based on common sense and compassion that Romney never demonstrated as governor.

Yeah. The question is, of course, whether Romney’s lying in his ad or not. As Romney put it when confronted with Huckabee’s counterattack: “If there’s anything in the [new] ad that’s not accurate, I’d like to know what it is.”

Huckabee’s problem is, of course, that ad is accurate, which is probably why he seems to be a little concerned and stressed. A top Huckabee adviser explained that the campaign is, indeed, worried: “We don’t see an erosion yet. But you hope over the course of the next few days they don’t start eroding our base.” He said that they worry about this because Romney continues to attack Huckabee and because of Huckabee’s gaffe with regards to Benazir Bhutto’s death.

Meanwhile, John McCain reacted to Romney’s ad criticizing his record as well: instead of just talking about Romney’s record, the Senator from Arizona decided to personally attack him, quoting a newspaper editorial calling Romney a “phony” (among other things). As Romney points out, McCain seems to be perfectly willing to personally attack his opponents – something Romney himself is not doing (there’s a difference between saying “this is his record, this is my record, I’m the best choice” and “he’s a phony!”).

“It’s nasty. It’s mean-spirited,” he told reporters on his campaign bus. “Frankly, it tells you more about Senator McCain than it does about me, that he’d run an ad like that.”

He’s right about that, and I have to say that although I realize that these attacks are part of the political game I dislike them tremendously and, as a result, McCain has lost some of my respect. Argue the points, argue the policies, don’t personally attack your rivals (especially not when your rival is from the same party).

Finally, Ed Morrissey has a great post up in which he wonders: “If these three candidates stay on the Dark Side of the (political) Force, could it give an opening to Rudy Giuliani and even Fred Thompson, who have kept their messages positive and self-focused?”

Quite possibly so, although it has to be said that Romney’s negative ads are of an entirely different nature than the McCain ad, so it would be undeserved.

What we may see right now is that the top three candidates will beat each other up in the early states, weaken each other severely, etc. which causes Giuliani, especially, to make a comeback. This could, indeed, happen and it’s one of the reasons that Romney, Huckabee and McCain shouldn’t go after each other too aggressively. On the other hand, if Romney didn’t put out these ads, he probably would’ve lost in Iowa and perhaps even New Hampshire which is something he can’t afford. He has to fight back, and he knows it. The same goes for Huckabee and for McCain: if they don’t do well early on, they’re done.

Watch the video of Romney talking to reporters about McCain’s ad:

UPDATE: here’s Romney’s immigration ad, comparing himself to McCain

It’s powerful, yet, indeed, not a personal attack. Good ad.