Campaigning today in South Carolina, John McCain attacked his fellow Republican candidates by name for their refusal to condemn waterboarding as torture, and challenged their qualifications to say otherwise.

"There's a clear division between those who have a military background and experience in these issues and people like Giuliani, Romney and Thompson who don't — who chose to do other things when this nation was fighting its wars," McCain told reporters.

And as for Rudy's claim that his own superior experience over the other candidates in handling a crisis — namely 9/11 — gives him some perspective on the importance of interrogation, McCain didn't give an inch.

"Mayor Giuliani just contradicted himself because anybody who has experience in warfare knows that waterboarding is by any definition torture and cannot be condoned," he said. "I do not know which crisis the mayor may have been talking about. My experience goes back to the Cuban missile crisis and every conflict we've been in since."