GOP rivals rip into Perry at debate

TAMPA, Fla. – In backhanded recognition of his front-runner status, Texas Gov. Rick Perry came under sharp criticism from his Republican presidential rivals in a “tea party” debate Monday night for promoting tuition benefits for illegal immigrants and ordering young girls to be inoculated against a sexually transmitted disease.

The governor, who leads by double-digit margins in early polls, was on the defensive for much of the evening. But he shrugged off most of the attacks with folksy retorts and a bemused look on his face, and stuck to his guns as well on the issue that has trailed him since his first national debate appearance last week: Social Security.

Perry, who has described the federal retirement program as “a Ponzi scheme” and a “monstrous lie” to younger Americans, tried to move beyond that argument. He offered a “slam-dunk” guarantee to current beneficiaries and those “moving towards” retirement that he wouldn’t favor changing the program for them. But he also vowed to “transform” Social Security, possibly by returning portions of the program to the states.

That prompted a sharp exchange with Mitt Romney, the former front-runner, after Perry said he wanted to have “a conversation” with voters about the issue.

“We’re having that right now, governor. We’re running for president,” interjected Romney, who described Perry’s words as “frightful to many people.”

The two-hour forum – the most contentious thus far in the 2012 campaign – marked a revival of sorts for Michele Bachmann, whose candidacy has suffered as Perry’s took off over the past month. The two are competing for many of the same conservative votes, but Monday night the Minnesota congresswoman appeared to have won the hearts of many in the crowd of tea party activists.

She won cheers with a rally-style attack on “Obamacare” – the federal health care program pushed by the president – and for her attack on Perry’s controversial decision to order vaccinations in Texas against the HPV virus, which causes cervical cancer.

Perry said that his 2007 executive order had been a mistake. But he was unable to resist the urge to defend his decision.

Bachmann called Perry’s actions “flat-out wrong” and “a violation of a liberty interest,” and went on to link his executive order to “government dictates” like those in the Obama health care law.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul also took shots at his home-state governor. He said that taxes in the state have doubled since Perry took office 11 years ago and that 170,000 of the jobs Texas added were government jobs.

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman repeated his call for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, and Perry, an Air Force veteran who saluted the audience as he walked onstage, offered a partial endorsement. Former Sen. Rick Santorum criticized Perry on immigration and took an oblique shot at the Texan’s party switch in 1989 from Democrat to Republican. Newt Gingrich, one of the few candidates who didn’t criticize the front-runner, remarked that he was “not particularly worried about Governor Perry and Governor Romney frightening the American people” about Social Security “when President Obama scares them every single day.”

Businessman Herman Cain repeatedly touted his economic plan. And in response to a question about what he would bring to the White House if elected, he said “a sense of humor … because America’s too uptight.”