Barbs fly in GOP debate

BOULDER, Colo. - All eyes might have been on center stage to watch the performances of Donald Trump and Ben Carson, vying for the top spot in polls, but it was drama on stage right and stage left among candidates far behind in public opinion that captured the most attention in Wednesday night's Republican presidential debate.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida defended his record of missed votes in the Senate, saying he was rebelling against a GOP establishment that wanted to keep him out of the presidential race.

'That's exactly what the Republican establishment says, too, wait in line. Wait for what?” he said when asked by a moderator why he was in such a rush to leave his work in the Senate.

That brought an attack from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a onetime ally. Bush, a Florida resident, cast himself as a wronged constituent.

'I expected that he would do constituent service, which means he shows up to work,” Bush said. 'Marco, when you signed up for this, this is a six-year term, and you should be showing up to work. ... Or just resign and let somebody else take the job.”

Rubio, who clearly had been expecting the criticism, responded with a sharp attack on Bush followed by a pledge that he would not attack people as Bush just had.

'I'm not running against Gov. Bush.” Rubio said. 'I'm not running against anyone else on the stage. I'm running for president.”

Later, across the stage, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas tried one of the most reliable tactics in the debate playbook: He attacked the moderators, for asking too-hard questions of the other candidates.

'The men and women on this stage have more ideas, more experience, more common sense than any participant in the Democratic debate,” Cruz said.

In that attack, Cruz used up the time he'd been allotted to answer a question about the debt ceiling and why he opposed a bill to raise it. When that was pointed out, he offered to answer the question. But when moderators didn't let him, he seemed outraged.

With time running short until the first nominating contest in three months - Feb. 1 in Iowa - the 10 Republicans in the evening's main debate were anxious to stand out, and several were quick to leap to the attack.

The candidates frequently talked over each other and the moderators in their haste to make points. But even though the moderators at times appeared struggling to exert control over the debate, several hopefuls got more airtime than in the two previous GOP debates. The spotlight appeared as much on Rubio and Cruz as on Trump and Carson.

And - with some key exceptions - Trump tried to maintain the more humble approach he unveiled this week on the campaign trail.

The debate, televised on CNBC, was supposed to focus on the economy. And at times, the debate grew heated over tax policy.

Retired neurosurgeon Carson, as of this week the new front-runner in the race for the Republican nomination, faced strong criticism of his tithing-based tax plan, which Ohio Gov. John Kasich called a 'fantasy.”

'You can't do it with empty promises. You know, these plans would put us trillions of dollars in debt,” Kasich said. 'We cannot elect somebody that doesn't know how to do the job.”

For her part, former technology executive Carly Fiorina said she would greatly compress the nation's tax code.

'Three pages is about the maximum a single business owner, or a farmer, or just a couple can understand without hiring somebody,” she said.

The debate had begun like an awkward job interview, with a moderator asking candidates to name their biggest weakness. The result, as in most job interviews, was a group of people who didn't answer the question.

The closest thing to a weakness anyone admitted came from an unlikely source: Trump.

'I'm too trusting,” he said. 'And if they let me down, when they let me down, I never forgive.”

The Washington Post and Reuters contributed to this report.