GREER, S.C. (AP) - An array of Republicans and conservatives - including some of Mitt Romney's sharpest critics - rushed to the GOP presidential front-runner's defense Thursday to counter efforts to paint the former venture capitalist as a job-killer. Under fire, Romney rivals Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry backed off from directly attacking Romney's tenure at the helm of Bain Capital.
"We're disappointed" with the line of criticism, said Thomas Donohue, the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The business group doesn't endorse in presidential campaigns, but Donohue said: "We think Romney has had a pretty good track record. Perfect? Hell no, but damn good."
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who ran against Romney four years ago, wrote in an online letter: "It's surprising to see so many Republicans embrace that left-wing argument against capitalism." And another 2008 foe, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, told Fox News Channel: "I'm shocked at what they are doing. I'm going to say it's ignorant. Dumb. It's building something we should be fighting - ignorance of the American economic system."
Romney's new defenders - many of whom have long histories of disagreeing with the former Massachusetts governor - argued tthe attacks on his business record undermined the GOP's identity and weakened the party's chief argument against Democratic President Barack Obama, that federal intrusion has stymied the economy's recovery.
And while the latest comments were more a rejection of attacks on Romney's record at Bain than an endorsement of Romney as a candidate, they signaled a warming toward Romney by a cross-section of the GOP as his party struggles to settle on a more conservative alternative. They also signaled that attempts by Gingrich, a former House speaker, and Perry, the Texas governor, to cast Romney as a cold-blooded predator in the business world appeared to be backfiring badly.
A prominent fundraiser in South Carolina - Barry Wynn - shifted his support from Perry to Romney in light of those attacks, which he said had crossed the line in a political party that values free-market capitalism.
"I've been fighting for this cause most of my life," Wynn said. "It's like fingernails on the chalkboard. It just kind of irritated you to hear those kind of attacks."
The controversy over Romney's Bain tenure began last weekend when Gingrich, seeking a rebound for his candidacy if not revenge for attack ads that crippled his campaign in Iowa, sought to undercut the central rationale of his chief rival's candidacy - that Romney's business background made him the strongest Republican to take on Obama.
Perry, whose campaign also is in trouble, joined in.
Both are accusing Romney of being a fat-cat venture capitalist during his days running Bain, laying off workers as he restructured companies and filled his own pockets.
But the criticism of both Gingrich and Perry has been swift, with opponents Rick Santorum and Ron Paul refusing to attack Romney's time at Bain, and others fearful about bloodying the Republican most likely to become the party's nominee.
The backlash against Gingrich and Perry snowballed Thursday when the U.S. Chamber, one of the nation's most prominent pro-business lobbying groups, weighed in.
Earlier in the week, conservative Rush Limbaugh, often a Romney critic, called Gingrich's comments "out of bounds for those who value the free market." Club for Growth President Chris Chocola labeled the attacks "disgusting."
And South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, who endorsed Romney in 2008 but is unaligned this year, suggested that Romney critics don't understand "the principles of our party."