GOP presidential candidates go on attack with charges related to contraception, health reforms and the individual mandate

Republican presidential hopefuls Rick Santorum and Ron Paul launch new criticisms of Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich - not to mention of each other.

The Washington Post: Rick Santorum Stumps In Newt Gingrich's Territory: Georgia
After promising on Wednesday to talk more about the economy, Santorum criticized Romney on Thursday as insufficiently conservative, contrasting his own record as a foot soldier in the culture wars with the former Massachusetts governor's recent statements about the Blunt amendment. ... Romney has since said that he supported the Blunt amendment, which was defeated in the Senate. His campaign hit Santorum back, saying that the former senator's "gut reaction" is to "take one for the team," a reference to Santorum's vote on the No Child Left Behind education legislation (Henderson and Rucker, 3/1).

The Associated Press: Santorum Attacks Romney As Contraception Roils GOP
Seizing an opportunity to instill doubts about Mitt Romney's conservative credentials, Rick Santorum on Thursday said his presidential rival's gut reaction to a Senate measure that would have repealed mandatory health coverage for contraceptives shows the former Massachusetts governor is not conservative "at the core." Romney opened himself to criticism the day before by telling a reporter that he opposed a Republican bill to block President Barack Obama's policy on contraceptive insurance coverage. Hours later, Romney reversed himself and said he had misunderstood the question (Peoples, 3/1).

The Associated Press: Paul Targets Romney, GOP Candidates With Ad
The ad is a scattershot that seeks to hit the remaining Republican candidates with charges that are largely accurate. As Paul says, Gingrich did back a mandate that individuals have health insurance and advocated it as recently as in his 2008 book. Santorum has acknowledged voting for congressional spending. But he now casts himself as a deficit hawk and notes that his vote for Planned Parenthood funding was a tiny part of a much larger spending bill. Romney has battled the perception that he is a flip-flopper, arguing that he doesn't advocate expanding the Massachusetts healthcare plan he supported as governor to a national scale (Jackson, 3/1).

Boston Globe: Ron Paul Launches Ad Critical Of Mitt Romney In Washington State
Texas Representative Ron Paul is going after former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney – finally... Paul's negative ad, "Three of a Kind," portrays former House Speaker Newt Gingrich as a "serial hypocrite" who lobbied for the federal mortgage company Freddie Mac; former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum as a "counterfeit conservative" who voted to increase government spending; and Romney as a "flip-flopper" whose Massachusetts health care overhaul provided the blueprint for Obama's national overhaul (Schoenberg, 3/1).