By Steve Holland and Claudia Parsons
50 minutes ago
 

SIMI VALLEY, California (Reuters) - Republican front-runner John McCain and rival Mitt Romney accused each other on Wednesday of pursuing liberal policies out of step with mainstream conservatives at a crucial debate in the U.S. presidential race.

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The two candidates sparred at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library less than a week before more than 20 states hold nominating contests on February 5.

Those "Super Tuesday" races could well determine the Republican Party's choice for the November 4 election against a Democratic candidate to succeed President George W. Bush.

Revisiting a fight from the campaign in Florida, a state McCain won on Tuesday, former Massachusetts Gov. Romney said McCain's record on illegal immigration, global warming and tax cuts put him "outside the mainstream of American conservative thought."

Romney also poked at McCain for his endorsement last week by The New York Times, a newspaper whose editorial pages are largely liberal.

"Let me note if you get endorsed by The New York Times you're probably not a conservative," Romney said.

Arizona Sen. McCain, riding a wave of momentum after winning Florida, South Carolina and New Hampshire, shot back that he had been endorsed by two of Romney's hometown newspapers in Boston and said Romney had his own liberal tendencies.

"I heard Gov. Romney describe his record, as I understand it his record was he raised taxes by $730 million -- he called them fees. I'm sure the people that had to pay it, whether they called them bananas, they still had to pay $730 million extra," McCain said.

"I'm proud of my conservative record. It's one of reaching across the aisle to get things done."

Gone from the debate rostrum was former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who bailed out of the race after a dismal finish in Florida and endorsed McCain at the Reagan library earlier in the day.

All the Republicans at the debate, including former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, said America's economy is hurting and they laid some of the blame at the feet of Bush, a fellow Republican.

"I'm not running on President Bush's record," said Romney. "President Bush can talk about his record. Washington is badly broken."

McCain said Americans overall are better off than they were eight years ago when Bush came to office but are clearly having problems. That is why, he said, Congress should approve a $150 billion stimulus plan and also cut spending.

"We've got to get our fiscal house in order," McCain said. "I think we went on a spending spree that quite frankly betrayed Ronald Reagan's principles on tax cuts."

(Editing by John O'Callaghan)

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