Gingrich, Santorum spar in N.H. over congressional records

With GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney feeling comfortable enough to campaign in South Carolina, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum on Thursday scoured New Hampshire for votes and hammered away at each other's congressional record.

Gingrich, who got a boost from the state's top newspaper, knocked Santorum's role in Congress, suggesting the former Pennsylvania senator was a "junior partner" in the 1990s Republican revolution in Washington.

"He clearly in historical experience would have been the junior partner," Gingrich said, reminding voters which Republican was really behind the Contract With America.

Santorum noted his role in the "Gang of Seven," a group of freshman Republican lawmakers who exposed a scandal at the House bank in the early 1990s, before Gingrich rose to power as speaker.

"I was no junior partner in that. Newt was not involved in that revolution when it came to the corruption and the scandals. He sat on the sidelines," Santorum said.

Romney faced a fresh round of conservative criticism when a newspaper resurrected claims that the former Massachusetts governor helped pave the way for President Barack Obama's health-care reforms.

"Gingrich's record of conservative accomplishment is unparalleled and his beliefs and vision are passionate and clear," wrote Joe McQuaid, publisher of the New Hampshire Union Leader. Romney, in contrast, was "governor of the most liberal state in the country and managed to beat Obama at delivering Obamacare."

Conservatives must rally around the former House speaker "or face the very real prospect of having Barack Obama walk all over" Romney, McQuaid argued.

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, meanwhile, won the endorsement of the Boston Globe, which said only he and Romney were "truly presidential."

"While Romney proceeds cautiously, strategically, trying to appease enough constituencies to get himself the nomination, Huntsman has been bold," the Globe's editorial said. "Rather than merely sketch out policies, he articulates goals and ideals. The priorities he would set for the country, from leading the world in renewable energy to retooling education and immigration policies to help American high-tech industries, are farsighted."

Gingrich, stumping for votes in Plymouth, tried to distinguish himself from Romney by telling supporters that "there is a very big difference in our two sets of values. I don't believe a Massachusetts moderate is in a very good position to debate Barack Obama, and I think it would be very hard to win the general election because I think it just blurs everything."

Romney, campaigning in nearby Salem, continued his strategy of looking ahead to the general election, blasting Obama for appointing "labor stooges" to the National Labor Relations Board -- a frequent target of Republicans who accuse it of a pro-union bias.

Obama recently placed three new members on the panel while circumventing the Senate confirmation process, citing a right to do so through recess appointments while the Senate is not in session.

"This president has engaged and is engaging in crony capitalism," Romney asserted during a New Hampshire town hall meeting with Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona. "It is happening with the National Labor Relations Board, where he is paying back big unions that helped his campaign."

McCain endorsed Romney on Wednesday, one day after the latter's razor-thin victory in the Iowa caucuses. Romney waged a tough primary campaign in 2008 against McCain, the party's eventual presidential nominee that year.

McCain traveled Thursday with Romney to Charleston, South Carolina. The senator attacked Santorum's record of securing earmarks.

"Earmark spending is the gateway to corruption, and that was practiced when Republicans were in the majority," McCain said, flanked by Romney and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Romney's leading backer in the Palmetto State.

Santorum has come under fire from his GOP foes for his unapologetic defense of the earmarking process, which he says is simply a power granted to Congress under the Constitution.

Santorum will officially purchase a major ad buy in South Carolina on Friday, CNN has learned.

The former senator tangled with proponents of same-sex marriage at a convention of college Republicans in Concord, New Hampshire.