Lieberman decides to endorse McCain

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Sen. John McCain, trying to build momentum toward a reprise of his 2000 New Hampshire primary victory, is piling up high-profile endorsements, including one from Sen. Joseph Lieberman.

The Connecticut senator, an independent who was the Democrats' 2000 vice presidential nominee, was scheduled to announce his support for McCain this morning in Hillsborough.

A Lieberman adviser said the senator decided to back McCain, a Republican, because he believes his colleague from Arizona "has the best chance of uniting the country in its fight against Islamic terrorism."

The adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in advance of the formal announcement, said Lieberman would continue to caucus with Senate Democrats.

- Associated Press

Sensing an opening in his desperate effort to retake the lead in Iowa, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney this weekend pounced on comments by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in which he characterized President Bush's foreign policy as "arrogant bunker mentality."

"It sounds like something Barack Obama or John Edwards would say - not what you hear from someone running for president as a Republican," Romney told reporters while campaigning in Iowa. Huckabee made the comment in the latest issue of the journal Foreign Affairs.

Romney has begun heaping criticism on Huckabee as the former Baptist minister has climbed into a comfortable lead in the Iowa caucuses.

- Washington Post

RALEIGH, N.C. - John Edwards said yesterday that he was the Democrat with the best chance of recapturing the White House, while playing down the loss of a coveted Iowa newspaper endorsement.

Taking a break from an eight-day Iowa bus trip, Edwards appeared on national talk shows on CBS, ABC and CNN on which he touted recent national polls showing that he was the only Democrat who would defeat all the potential Republican rivals in the fall.

"The empirical data points out, I'm the Democrat who beats every single Republican in national testing," he said on ABC News'

This Week with George Stephanopoulos

.

But Edwards failed to win the endorsement of the Des Moines Register, the leading newspaper in Iowa, where the Jan. 3 caucuses will be held to start the presidential voting. The paper endorsed New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

- McClatchy Newspapers