AP: Romney accuses McCain of Nixon-like tactics – News

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney accused his rival John McCain of adopting underhanded tactics from Richard Nixon, the GOP president who resigned in disgrace.

“I don’t think I want to see our party go back to that kind of campaigning,” Romney said in his most pointed rebuttal yet to front-runner McCain’s claim that the former Massachusetts governor favors a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq. Romney denies this charge, and most media analyses have concluded that Romney wasn’t using ‘timetable’ in the same way Democratic candidates have.

McCain’s decision to level the timetable charge this week without leaving Romney time to rebut it before Florida Republicans voted in their primary “was reminiscent of the Nixon era,” Romney said. McCain ended up winning the Florida contest Tuesday.