There's always Hillary!
There's always Obama!
Posted on 04/05/2007 11:53:02 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani on Thursday defended his record favoring the use of public money for abortions, saying he wouldn't try to undo a Supreme Court ruling allowing the procedures.
"Ultimately I believe it's an individual right and a woman should make that choice," the former New York mayor said during a Statehouse news conference where he picked up three endorsements.
Support for abortion rights is unpopular with conservatives who dominate the GOP in South Carolina, an early voting state.
"I tell people what I think. I tell them (to) evaluate me as I am and do not expect them to agree with me on everything. I don't agree with me on everything," Giuliani said. "If that's the most important thing, then I'm comfortable with the fact you won't vote for me."
The comments came as South Carolina lawmakers push a measure that would require women seeking abortions to first view ultrasound images of their fetus. If the South Carolina measure is approved, the state would be the first to make such a requirement. Other states require the images be made available to women.
Giuliani said states should make the call on such issues. "The Legislature of South Carolina should make its decision about that," he said. He also said states should make the decision whether to use public money for abortions.
Conservatives and political experts in South Carolina said Giuliani's moderate stance abortion will hamper his ability to win votes here.
"He's toast," said Clemson University political scientist Dave Woodard. "I think it's going to be really hard for him to overcome this in South Carolina."
While Republicans in South Carolina oppose abortion by degrees -- allowing abortions in certain circumstances, such as a mother's health, rape or incest -- there's little room on public financing, said Oran Smith, executive director of the Palmetto Family Council, an anti-abortion group.
"That's usually one of the first things off the list when you talk about things related to abortion," Smith said.
Some Giuliani supporters said the abortion issue doesn't bother them. "I'm really for the whole package. I feel like I'm comfortable being for him," said Rosemary Byerly, a staunch abortion opponent from Inman.
But Alexia Newman, a state Republican Party first vice chairwoman who runs Spartanburg's Carolina Pregnancy Center, said she felt duped by Giuliani's recent comments to the state Republican executive committee that if elected he would appoint judges who favor a strict interpretation of the Constitution to the Supreme Court.
However, Giuliani said those comments weren't a nod in the direction of undoing Roe v. Wade.
"If I'm going to appoint strict constructionist judges, which I'm going to do, for the reason that they are going to strictly interpret the Constitution, then, as president, I have to be a strict constructionist," Giuliani said. "The present state of the law on these issues is not something that I would seek to change."
Giuliani also said the state should be left to make its own decision about the Confederate flag, which flies outside the Statehouse.
You can’t respect someone you disagree with?
Wow - you must hold yourself in very high regard indeed.
Sorry, I don't respect a guy who tried to con social conservatives that he would appoint strict constructionists that would overturn Roe v. Wade, but then more recently so loosely defined strict constructionism as to have no real meaning and no impact towards Roe v. Wade.
He tried a rightward movement and apparently found conservativsm to his disliking. So now he apparently thinks he can win without the pro-life and pro-gun wings of the party.
He might just win the nomination. But he won't win the general. He cannot run leftward very far as a pro-war pubbie.
You mean he broke a percent? It's a Hunter juggernaut!
actually the opposite is true.
???????????????????????
Duncan is a good man - I won’t slam him.
Just having a little fun with his “freight train” poll numbers.
ok - enjoy lunch on the mount....
Well...I'm sure Rudy respects himself, even if he doesn't always agree with himself...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/04/04/giuliani.interview/
Giuliani told Bash that "a strict constructionist judge can come to either conclusion about Roe against Wade. They can look at it and say, 'Wrongly decided. ... We will overturn it.' They can look at it and say, 'It has been the law for this period of time, therefore we are going to respect the precedent.'
"I would leave it up to them. I would not have a litmus test on that."
----------------
So according to Rudy, his strict constructionist judges could look at an activist ruling like Roe and allow it to stand because it is precedent.
That is not strict constructionism. The activist liberal judiciary is predicated on building precedents one rung at a time to liberal objectives - with Kelo being the prime example.
Look, the only way Rudy can "try to undo a Supreme Court decision (Roe v Wade) on abortion" would be in choosing SCOTUS justices, unless Rudy is running for SCOTUS instead of POTUS. That would have to mean he will not appoint the sort of conservative, "strict constructionist" judges he's been claiming he would. If he does, then his statement above is a lie.
Dogged pro lifers see this as a do or die scenario. If the GOP nominee can be pro-choice on the abortion issue, that means their fetish issue has been marginalized even within their own ranks.
If he wins, then it’s clearly the dominant national position, and they are further marginalized.
A Rudy victory pretty much would cement the idea that this is a pro-choice, pro-abortion nation. A bitter pill to swallow if you’ve spent the last three decades insisting that it isn’t.
I’m pro life, but I have said for a while on FR that the tide has clearly turned against many pro life values nationally. A good sized minority is against it, but I think a majority of that group nationally not passionately so.
Thee decades and 40+ million abortions probably means that all sorts of women have had abortions - churchgoing, atheist, republican, democrat, conservative, liberal, etc.
Sad to say, I think enough men and enough women are in the electorate that will keep first trimester abortion legal even in a post Roe landscape.
If all my eggs were in the pro life basket, I would be worried too.
Yeh - that was a funny line.
I’m not sure I understand it - but I laughed at it.
There's always Hillary!
There's always Obama!
I agree, but he is so irrelevant at this stage he is little more than a fantasy candidate, IMO.
HMMMM! Seems like these conservative judges that we have are doing it right now and have been. The only thing that will change and I hope it does, is they are going to leave it up to the states. It will be easier and simpler for them.
I see the Leftist media got to you. They are asking Rudy “Gotcha” questions to dissuade R’s from considering voting for him.
They want Clinton/Obama Osama Hussein for President.
The Leftist media’s gotcha questions will serve it’s purpose = and if we don’t wake up, the Clintonistas will be running the country again. That will be wonders for abortion issues, etc.
If you don’t mind me saying.
Magnificent looking dog you have.
That’s too bad Rudy. You’re not fit to be President.
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