Posted on 12/01/2006 12:05:51 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
With the recent defeat of Sen. George Allen (R-VA) and the surprising withdrawal of Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) from the presidential race, the right wing of the Republican Party is running out of candidates for president in 2008.
For the centrists within the party, the likely candidacy of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and the possible option of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani offer attractive possibilities, but whom do the conservatives have to put up against them? Surely the GOP is not about to embrace the pro-choice, pro-gay rights, pro-gun control, pro-affirmative action, pro-immigration Giuliani. (He's fine with us, but not with the party base.) Nor are they likely to find favor with John McCain, co-sponsor -- with Ted Kennedy -- of the immigration amnesty bill, supporter of the rights of detainees to avoid "torture," sponsor -- with Joe Lieberman -- of the anti-global warming initiative, and the original framer of campaign finance reform. Conservatives are also likely to hold his membership in the so-called "gang of fourteen" against him. Back in 2005, he joined six other Republicans and seven Democrats in backing confirmation of moderate judges without a filibuster. Trusting such a person with control over judicial appointments may be a nonstarter on the right. (Again, we're OK with all this, but you don't win in South Carolina with these positions.)
So whom does the right have to put up?
(Excerpt) Read more at vote.com ...
Barbour's too chubby for tv. Tancredo and Hunter are House members. Last House member to jump directly to the White House was James Garfield. Allen was a possibility until the media ran Macaccagate 24/7 for a month. Frist is out. That leaves...McLame, Rudy G., and Romney (a Mormon, the MSM would destroy him).
Folks, it's beginning to look a lot like Hillary/Obama.
Me? I'm headed to Bolivia, I'm gonna join Butch and Sundance and stickup banks.
I'm still holding out for Cheney...
OK, let's take up a collection and send Dick Morris on a trip somewhere. Anywhere. Do people actually publish his stuff? I know he appears on O'Reilly and Hannity sometimes. Why, I don't know. He is a smirky creep with all the wrong opinions. There! I said it.
Governors win. Barbour in '08.
I nominate Fred Thompson:
Some info on Fred Thompson:
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=T000457
http://www.savethegop.com/archives/2005/07/25/fred-thompson-for-president/
http://www.ontheissues.org/Senate/Fred_Thompson.htm
I would vote for him for President in a second. I think he could run the table during the primaries, and wipe the floor with whatever lame Dumbocrat runs against him.
He has lots of pluses, and no negatives that I can think of. And, he has the most important asset--he is very likable.
If you want one that's close and would scare the hell out of the lib's. Draft "TOM SELLECK", LoL
Rice? Have you looked at the state of the world with Rice as Secretary of State? Talk about sitting out an election.
Sen. Allen is still considering running for President, and he's conservative. He would probably have a better chance of winning as an ex-senator. Five former senators were elected President, and only two senators were elected President while they were in the Senate.
Sen. McCain is conservative. Here are a few of his 2005 ratings from interest groups: American Conservative Union, 83%; National Right to Life Committee, 82%; and ACLU, 20%. I am very conservative, and I disagree with him about illegal aliens and campaign finance reform. The above ratings prove that he usually votes conservatively.
I don't like it. But Dick Morris is right. Conservatives do not have a deep bench. There are several reasons for this.
The #1 reason IMO is the internecine fights at the state and local level between single issue factions who don't think a multi-issue conservative is "conservative enough" because he doesn't emphasize their issue above the other conservative issues.
#2 might be the ego trips. Some conservative "leader" in a think tank or issue faction feels personally "snubbed" by some other conservative leader and then retaliates by "snubbing" him.
#3 behind it all are we in the base who are dishonest about what wins and what does not win. The simple fact is that anti-immigration is a loser. That has been proven over and over again. It has nothing to do with whether the anti-immigrants are right or wrong on the issue. It has solely to do with the fact that the anti-immigrants invariably appear mean-spirited, unfriendly, racist, etc. (including some freepers).
Some of you will object to my not including the word "illegal" and that is precisely my point. The TV ads and literature from the NRCC used the word "immigration" without using the word "illegal".
In short, we need to learn how to put our message in an attractive package in order to sell it. An ugly package will not sell, no matter how great the contents of the package are.
I dislike the idea, but that ticket would eviscerate Cankles/Anyone.
"Like it or not, it's wise up and be a little compromising"
Looks to me like your idea of a compromise is for the 'base' to give up on everything important to them. In order for this to be a compromise, there should be some giving on both sides of the deal. Exactly what does the 'base' get out of this compromise? Exactly what distinguishes Hillary from Rudi or McCain?
It will be Giuliani/Jeb or Giuliani/Condi. Book it, now.
Romney is going to run out of steam with his gay marriage thing.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
On President Bill Clinton: Shortly before his last-minute endorsement of Bob Dole in the 1996 presidential election, Giuliani told the Post's Jack Newfield that "most of Clinton's policies are very similar to most of mine." -Rudy! An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani, Wayne Barrett.
The Real Rudy Giuliani:
From Human Events:
Rudy's Strong Pro-Abortion Stance
As these comments from a 1989 conversation with Phil Donahue show, Rudy Giuliani is staunchly in favor of abortion:
"I've said that I'll uphold a woman's right of choice, that I will fund abortion so that a poor woman is not deprived of a right that others can exercise, and that I would oppose going back to a day in which abortions were illegal.
I do that in spite of my own personal reservations. I have a daughter now; if a close relative or a daughter were pregnant, I would give my personal advice, my religious and moral views ...
Donahue: Which would be to continue the pregnancy.
Giuliani: Which would be that I would help her with taking care of the baby. But if the ultimate choice of the woman - my daughter or any other woman - would be that in this particular circumstance [if she had] to have an abortion, I'd support that. I'd give my daughter the money for it."
Worse yet, Giuliani even supports partial birth abortion:
"I'm pro-choice. I'm pro-gay rights,Giuliani said. He was then asked whether he supports a ban on what critics call partial-birth abortions. "No, I have not supported that, and I don't see my position on that changing," he responded." -- CNN.com, "Inside Politics" Dec 2, 1999
It's bad enough that Rudy is so adamantly pro-abortion, but consider what that could mean when it comes time to select Supreme Court Justices. Does the description of Giuliani that you've just read make you think he's going to select an originalist like Clarence Thomas, who would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade -- or does it make you think he would prefer justices like Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy who'd leave Roe v. Wade in place?
Rudy's abortion stance is bad news for conservatives who are pro-life or who are concerned about getting originalist judges on the Supreme Court.
An Anti-Second Amendment Candidate
In the last couple of election cycles, 2nd Amendment issues have moved to the back burner mainly because even Democratic candidates have learned that being tagged with the "gun grabber" label is political poison.
Unfortunately, Rudy Giuliani is a proponent of gun control who supported the Brady Bill and the Assault Weapon Ban.
Do Republicans really want to abandon their strong 2nd Amendment stance by selecting a pro-gun control nominee?
Soft on Gay Marriage
Other than tax cuts, the biggest domestic issue of the 2004 election was President Bush's support of a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as being between a man and a woman. Unfortunately, Rudy Giuliani has taken a "Kerryesque" position on gay marriage.
Although Rudy, like John Kerry, has said that marriage should remain between a man and a woman, he also supports civil unions, "marched in gay-pride parades" ...dressed up in drag on national television for a skit on Saturday Night Live (and moved in with a) wealthy gay couple" after his divorce. He also very vocally opposed running on a gay marriage amendment:
His thoughts on the gay-marriage amendment? "I don't think you should run a campaign on this issue," he told the Daily News earlier this month. "I think it would be a mistake for anybody to run a campaign on it -- the Democrats, the president, or anybody else."
Here's more from the New York Daily News:
"Rudy Giuliani came out yesterday against President Bush's call for a ban on gay marriage.
The former mayor, who Vice President Cheney joked the other night is after his job, vigorously defended the President on his post-9/11 leadership but made clear he disagrees with Bush's proposal to rewrite the Constitution to outlaw gays and lesbians from tying the knot.
"I don't think it's ripe for decision at this point," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
"I certainly wouldn't support [a ban] at this time," added Giuliani..."
Although Rudy may grudgingly say he doesn't support gay marriage (and it would be political suicide for him to do otherwise), where he really stands on the issue is an open question.
Pro-Illegal Immigration
As Tom Bevan of RealClearPolitics has pointed out, Rudy is an adherent of the same approach to illegal immigration that John McCain, Ted Kennedy, George Bush, and Harry Reid have championed:
"While McCain has taken heat for his support of comprehensive immigration reform, Rudy is every bit as pro-immigration as McCain - if not more so. On the O'Reilly Factor last week Giuliani argued for a "practical approach" to immigration and cited his efforts as Mayor of New York City to "regularize" illegal immigrants by providing them with access to city services like public education to "make their lives reasonable." Giuliani did say that "a tremendous amount of money should be put into the physical security" needed to stop the flow of illegal immigrants coming across the border, but his overall position on immigration is essentially indistinguishable from McCain's."
That's bad enough. But, as Michelle Malkin has revealed, under Giuliani, New York was an illegal alien sanctuary and "America's Mayor" actually sued the federal government in an effort to keep New York City employees from having to cooperate with the INS:
"When Congress enacted immigration reform laws that forbade local governments from barring employees from cooperating with the INS, Mayor Rudy Giuliani filed suit against the feds in 1997. He was rebuffed by two lower courts, which ruled that the sanctuary order amounted to special treatment for illegal aliens and were nothing more than an unlawful effort to flaunt federal enforcement efforts against illegal aliens. In January 2000, the Supreme Court rejected his appeal, but Giuliani vowed to ignore the law."
If you agree with the way that Nancy Pelosi and Company deal with illegal immigration, then you'll find the way that Rudy Giuliani tackles the issue to be right down your alley.
READ MORE HERE
Hey, Morris is a bit of a wind sock, but he does tell us what a scumbag the Clintons were/are.
But do we have to hear about his silly toe? It's getting a little old. Don't you think.
CR is not ready for prime time.
AND, he's a great actor! Shades of Ronald Reagan.
If Tancredo runs, he'll have a hard time capturing Kansas.
Tancredo = Dukakis in reverse.
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