Republican presidential candidates hold 2nd debate

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Republican presidential contenders agreed on the need for lower taxes and vowed to crack down on federal spending Tuesday night in a campaign debate. They pledged to reduce the massive federal bureaucracy.\n“We’ve had a Congress that’s spent money like John Edwards at a beauty shop,” said former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a jab at the Democratic presidential hopeful’s penchant for $400 haircuts.\nHuckabee said he wanted to hang an “Out of Business” sign on the Internal Revenue Service, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said flatly, “I am not going to raise taxes.”\nSen. John McCain of Arizona said he would make sure President Bush’s tax cuts were made permanent, even though he opposed them in 2001.\n“I cut taxes when I was governor,” said Jim Gilmore, former governor of Virginia.\nFormer New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani called for “Reagan-like budget cuts across the board” of 5 percent to 20 percent, and Tommy Thompson said he had cast many vetoes as governor of Wisconsin to hold down spending.\nThe 10 White House hopefuls differed only by degree in pledging fealty to Republican economic orthodoxy, although McCain and Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo both said the GOP had recently abandoned its longtime tradition of controlling spending.\nLess than two weeks ago, the candidates shared a stage in Simi Valley, Calif., in the first Republican debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.\nIraq and social issues dominated the discourse that night, a preview of Tuesday night’s event in South Carolina, where conservative Christians make up a large chunk of the state’s GOP primary voters.\nSince the California event, Giuliani has reaffirmed his support for abortion rights after his convoluted debate answer on whether he would welcome the Supreme Courtoverturning its landmark decision legalizing abortion. He personally opposes the procedure.\nAlso taking part in the debate were Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, and Reps. Ron Paul of Texas and Duncan Hunter of California.\nPaul, the Libertarian presidential nominee in 1988, voted against giving Bush the authority to wage war in Iraq in 2002. \nHours before the debate, candidates responded to the death of the Rev. Jerry Falwell, the television evangelist and Moral Majority founder who was a force in conservative politics.\nMcCain, who once called Falwell and people like him “agents of intolerance,” praised him in a statement as “a man of distinguished accomplishment who devoted his life to serving his faith and country.” Romney described Falwell as “an American who built and led a movement based on strong principles and strong faith.”\nGiuliani told reporters after a tour of the debate site: “He was a man who set a direction. He is someone who is not afraid to speak his mind.”\nThe University of South Carolina’s Koger Center for the Arts was the setting for the debate, sponsored by the South Carolina Republican Partyand Fox News Channel. The channel’s Brit Hume was moderating.\nUnderscoring the dominant issues, Americans Against Escalation in Iraq and the South Carolina Young Democrats sponsored a 20-foot mobile billboard to circle the debate site, bearing the phrases: “Republicans, Mission Accomplished?” and “McCain, Mission Accomplished?” Activists affiliated with Planned Parenthood also were holding an abortion-rights rally outside the hall.