Posted on 06/11/2007 2:37:07 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Conservatives would bolt GOP over Rudy By: David Paul Kuhn June 11, 2007 04:57 PM EST
A growing number of influential social conservatives are speaking out against Rudy Giuliani, with some threatening that they will take flight from the Republican Party in 2008 if the former New York mayor is the GOP nominee.
Giuliani's support for abortion rights and gay rights has not to date prevented him from winning the support of a sizable number of socially conservative voters, according to polls. But the continued strength of his candidacy is causing alarm among leaders of conservative advocacy groups, many of which have been major players in Republican politics.
"Speaking as a private citizen, no, no, I could not support (Giuliani)," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, which has about a half-million members. "The 20 years I've been involved in politics, the life issue has been at the very top. How could I turn my back on that?"
Perkins said that should Giuliani win the nomination, he would vote for a third-party candidate who reflected his values. "It wouldn't be the first time," Perkins added in an interview last week.
Other prominent cultural conservatives to signal public opposition to Giuliani in recent weeks included James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Louis Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition, veteran activist and former presidential candidate Gary Bauer, and Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Like Perkins, Land has warned that he would not vote for a Republican ticket in 2008 if it were led by Giuliani. Others did not go that far, even as they made plain their wish that Giuliani be weeded out in the primaries.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
He’s a New Yawk socialist. LOL
“Conservatives are bolting the GOP right now because of Bush.”
What evidence do you have to support that ridiculous position?
Some conservatives are unhappy about immigration, Iraq, and deficit spending. However, I don’t see them bolting.
As long as there are no perfect candidates out there, I will go for the best. Right now, I gladly support GWB, even though we do not always agree. In the same vein, I will support Rudy if the Reps nominate him, even thought I prefer Fred.
I guess people either reach a point of emotional maturity (or they don’t) when they decide to make compromises to maintain relationships, and try to do what’s best. The enemy of “the good” is not “the bad”. It is “the perfect”.
If more of the so-called conservatives on this site were emotionally mature, we would not have to worry about Hillary in 2008.
Lecture over.
You bolt the GOP and you hand the election over to Hillary. Is that what you really want to do?
The answer is that conservatives need to make sure that Rudy isn't the candidate next November, and that a viable conservative IS - because otherwise there will be a disaster. Too many conservatives don't understand that sometimes you have to hold your nose and vote for the lesser of two evils. Enough will stay home or waste their vote on 3rd party candidates (y'all remember George H. W. Bush's 2nd term, don't you?) to throw the election to Hillary.
Until now, there's not been an interesting candidate with a chance to win (either the nomination or the General Election, or both). This will change very shortly when Fred Thompson announces officially. I think that all true conservatives should, at that point, unite behind him - since there's no one else with even a decent shot at winning next year who's conservative.
FWIW, I like Duncan Hunter a bit better for some things on the level of pure policy and pure voting record. However, like most other theoretical exercises, it is nearly useless in the real world. Real world says vote Fred if you are conservative and want 90% or more of your agenda to become policy (or at least be put up for a vote), and for legislation that you'd really, really hate to be stuck in committee or vetoed. Fred has charisma, name (or at least face) recognition, he has a long record of unquestioned integrity and he's a very, very smart candidate who doesn't pull punches (just ask Michael Moron). For me, Fred's The Man.
I'm counting the days until we all start getting used to hearing the whiney media whores repeat "In other news, President Thompson once again infuriated Congressional Democrats by...."
Yes, because I'll get universal healthcare then. Yippee!
My wallet is closed to them right now, as well, but the RNC has doesn't vote in GOP primaries. You get Rudy as the standard-bearer you can thank voters. You want to deny them bucks, tell them to get a little legislative integrity.
So in the mean time we pull out of Iraq, embolden Iran, send troops to Darfur, get our taxes raised, have nationalized healthcare thrust upon us, still have no border enforcement, stricter environmental laws, the Fairness Doctrine enacted, and very liberal judges at all levels of the judicial system.
every one of them?
Believe it or not, most of the votes wouldn't be any different. You'd just get less nauseated on a weekly basis due to not having to see either of their ugly mugs or listen to their patronizing, nanny-state BS.
I think that Rudy would make a decent head of Homeland Security - I don't think he likes the terrorists very much. He also has a good stage presence and the quick tongue of a prosecutor, so he'd be a good public point man for telling the media, the ACLU and the ultra-PC morons in Congress to stuff it when we actually turn the screws on the terrorists and their sympathizers/financiers...under President Thompson.
Conservatives will come out of the woodwork, to vote for Hunter -- or most, likely, for F. Thompson in the south and Romney in the northeast/north-midwest. Huckabee may survive, for awhile too, but there will be alternatives not unknown nor misunderstood by conservatives and they will get massive support.
I think that one solid conservative at the top, combined with one fat-calved, power-hungry, evil socialist nanny-stater on the top of the other ticket will do the trick.
Your statement is so correct....the primary is the only real power we have to determine the future path of the party...after that we just get “rolled along”.
If that is what it takes to wake up the GOP, I'll take it
I remember saying the same thing in 1992 - that unknown jerk Clinton would only last one term, or so my thinking went...teach those country-club faux conservatives not to fool us again with an anti-gun, tax-happy one-worlder.
Gee, that worked out SOOOO well, didn't it?
I've learned my lesson: fight like Hell for your true preference in the primaries, then suck it up, hold your nose and vote for the lesser of 2 evils in the General. At least if a guy from a party that is mostly in your corner wins, you and people like you get heard. With the avowed enemy in control, you don't get spit.
Just think, if Billy Jeff the cigar boy had lost in '92, you'd need to be a political junkie to identify Hillary now. Instead, she's a sinator and the likely nominee of her party. Yup, voting 3rd Party or staying home works wonders, doesn't it?
I have very low standards of acceptability, and it is pathetic that they can't meet those minimums.
Sure. Then maybe a civil war would result enabling us to fix the real problems.
Versus a good, ol’ fashioned Republican socialist, eh?
“You bolt the GOP and you hand the election over to Hillary. Is that what you really want to do?”
At least Hillary will stab conservatives in the front.
This is the most profound post I have seen in a long time!
“Dobson and Gary Bauer? hahahahahahahahahahaha....neither speak for the party. Neither speak for me certainly....Gary Bauer?? Hahahahahahaha.”
No, they don’t speak for the party. They advocate for the traditional family and defend the rights of the unborn. They are valuable assets to our country and they have my respect. I would be disappointed in them if they were to support Giulliani, but if they did, I still would never vote for him. Not now, not ever. I do not hold my nose and vote for someone who supports abortion.
Hunter, Huckabee & Brownback will be out of the race by Labor Day, and Gingrich will never get in. They are good men, by and large, and all are more conservative than Bush has proven to be. They'd all do either a decent or a very good job.
BUT.
They are all too local (and Gingrich is too vilified by the media) to win the nomination. Their support will go to Fred. By Labor Day, the only ones left standing will be Fred and Rudy McRomney - and the Mc part of that will be fading fast, with most of his supporters going to Fred and most of the remainder to Romney. Rudy has, IMHO, peaked. Romney is near his peak. Fred's got the momentum, and the other candidates would be about as successful in trying to face down a freight train.
Just my $0.02.
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