JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Mitt Romney took on Newt Gingrich in a fierce war of words Thursday, striving to capitalize on a turn in the polls in the final debate before Florida's presidential primary on Tuesday.

Romney slammed a Gingrich ad on immigration as "repulsive," called him a hired cheerleader for troubled housing agency Freddie Mac and ridiculed his proposal to colonize the moon.

Gingrich shot back, at one point noting acidly that Romney profited from companies foreclosing on Florida homeowners.

They clashed as the latest polls signal a volatile race. The Rasmussen Poll reported Thursday that Romney is surging in Florida, much as Gingrich surged a week ago in South Carolina.

While the attacks and counterattacks continue to move Republican votes, one rival chided them Thursday for the personal nature of their sniping.

"These two gentlemen … have been playing petty personal politics," said former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania.

"Can we set aside that Newt was a member of Congress and used the skills that he developed as a member of Congress to go out and advise companies, and that's not the worst thing in the world, and that Mitt Romney is a wealthy guy because he worked hard?" Santorum asked. "Focus on the issues."

The candidates largely ignored his plea.

In an opening salvo, Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, jumped on Gingrich for airing an ad accusing Romney of being anti-immigrant.

"That's simply inexcusable," Romney, clearly angry, protested. "I'm not anti-immigrant. My father was born in Mexico. My wife's father was born in Wales. They came to this country. The idea that I'm anti-immigrant is repulsive. Don't use a term like that."

He scolded Gingrich, calling his comments "simply the kind of over-the-top rhetoric that has characterized American politics too long."

Asked about the housing crisis, which hit Florida worse than most states, Romney criticized Gingrich for working for Freddie Mac as a consultant instead of warning the country of its problems and potential contribution to the coming housing crisis.

"Speaker Gingrich was hired by Freddie Mac to promote them. We should have had a whistle-blower and not a horn-tooter," Romney said.

Gingrich shot back that Romney owned shares in and profited from Fannie Mae and Goldman Sachs, which he said continues to play a role in foreclosing on homeowners in Florida and across the country. "So maybe Gov. Romney … should tell us how much money he's made off of how many households that have been foreclosed by his investments?" Gingrich said.

Romney responded that his investments are made by a trustee without his knowledge to avoid conflicts of interest and those investments are in mutual funds that held shares of Freddie Mac.

"Have you checked your own investments?" he asked Gingrich. "You also have investments through mutual funds that also invest in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac."

The two clashed as well over space exploration, a top issue on Florida's "space coast," where cutbacks have hit Cape Canaveral.

Gingrich defended his proposal to colonize the moon.

"I do not want to be the country that, having gotten to the moon first, turned around and said, it doesn't really matter, let the Chinese dominate space, what do we care?" Gingrich said. "I am for America being a great country, not a country in decline."

Romney said the moon-colony proposal would never pass muster in the private sector. Worse, he said, the promise symbolizes an approach the country cannot afford.

"This idea of going state to state and promising what people want to hear, promising billions, hundreds of billions of dollars to make people happy, that's what got us into the trouble we're in now," Romney said.

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