Posted on 04/13/2007 6:40:54 AM PDT by Spiff
Rudy's Abortion Deal-Breaker
By Doug Bandow
Perhaps it is inevitable that a man who became a national icon also ended up politically tone deaf. He began to believe his press clipplings, sycophants surrounded him, drowning out any criticism, and the rush of White House staff wannabees left him convinced that the bandwagon could not run off-course. Rudy Giuliani obviously doesn't get it, but his support for taxpayer-paid abortions could --and certainly should--prove to be the deal- breaker for pro-life conservatives.
Until now, at least, Giuliani had posed the most serious political challenge yet for social conservatives. He possessed the aura of competence and seemed to say the "right" things when it came to most economic, regulatory, and foreign policy issues. Which meant that many on the right felt he could be trusted, at least as far as any politician could be trusted, to deliver on the most important issues. (I'm less sanguine, but that's another matter.)
Of course, the unsavory private life -- the tacky public announcement of his planned divorce, unseemly court fight over bringing his mistress into the city-provided mayoral residence, and estrangement from his kids -- left a nasty taste. Good policy should still be trump, but then there was Giuliani's support for abortion. It's a difficult and complex issue, but supporting abortion is different from, say, backing higher dairy subsidies.
[...SNIP...]
Public funding for abortion creates an official imprimatur of respectability and makes us all complicit in a great moral wrong. If Mayor Giuliani can't understand such a fundamental issue, or worse, understands it but doesn't care, he's likely to disappoint conservative voters in other important areas as well.
There are some deal-breakers in politics. Public financing of abortion should be one for social conservatives.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
Mrs. Clinton will be grateful that the candidate running is in many ways similar to her. He even has the personal dirt. Anyone who is a solid conservative will not be voting for a liberal regardless. It will only strive to kill swing the Republican Party far to the left. I’ll vote third party if Rudy gets the nod. I will because I’m not going to compromise everything I stand for to win. Then I haven’t really won. At least if Hildabeast wins, the Republicans can stay and become more conservative. If Rudy wins, we will have two liberal parties, one with stubborn Rudy dishing out taxpayer dough to fund the killing of children.
I believe you are right. And I would go further. I believe there is hypocrisy in the other positions also.
Think those same movers and shakers want the “mob” to have uninfringed gun rights?
Or that they hold the same contempt for gays?
It used to be that all candidates ran with some rote slogans thrown to Jews about supporting Israel. Last example was Bush’s promise to move the American Embassy to Jerusalem. Did he believe it when he got the Jewish cheers? I imagine just as much as he believed that there would be the enactment of a marriage Amendment because he “supports” one- with a wink to Mary Cheney’s dad.
It used to be that they threw true believers to the lions. Now they throw tainted meat to the true believers. And the believers are just as hungry as were those lions.
It’s all pathetic pandering to those who want to believe.
Sometimes a true believer is a candidate. On the Left a Kucinich, on the Right a Hunter. The have the identical chance of being elected. And if by some miracle, everyone else- candidates and voters alike after a meteor hits Earth- dying maybe, they get elected, they too will “moderate” to the norm.
But when an accomplished successful honest man, or as honest as a politician can be, comes along and tells you what is without treating the electorate like children to be told fairy tales, some are vitriolic that he burst their fantasy.
And who can blame them. Fantasy beats reality every time.
“Ironically, he doesn’t seem to be paying much of a political price, as he continues to be the hands-down frontrunner.”
Only in your fantasy world. Giuliani early worthless poll numbers have been dropping. It must suck to peak a year out from the first primary, and to be losing support based on just the thought (not the actual running) of Fred Thompson.
Very perceptive post.
As many times as the religious right has been snookered by phony proclamations by some politician claiming to have been born again, you'd think they would learn. Maybe they have, given Romney's troubles.
Unfortunately for them, politics without compromise is not possible in a representative republic. And let's face it, they throw their own overboard too readily, which causes many professional politicians to question whether they want to get in bed with them.
I keep reading from religious right posters claims to the effect that the reason we lost in 2006 was that our politicians sold out. Rick Santorum? Jim Talent? George Allen? Sellouts? Could you imagine any constituency having better friends in the senate than the religious right had with these three? And now they are sell-outs.
If I were running and needed their help, I'd tread very cautiously, which is one reason Fred Thompson is still on the fence.
So that makes you a single issue voter.
Yeah, I want a MAYOR whose crowning foreign policy experience, besides coddling illegal aliens, is kicking yassar arafat ouf a new york philharmonic concert.
Terrorists will learn to fear the man in the pink dress!
There is a good political reason that the democrats have never dared to go as far as Rudy has with his radical pro-abortion position.
“And fro the record that tired old scare tactic of vote rino or a rat wins is not working on many of us anymore.”
It is not a scare tactic. It is reality. I have no problem with you striving to see that Rudy does not get the nomination. I do have a problem if you sabotage him after (if) he gets it. Hillary as POTUS is a nightmare scenario.
I'll bet you really enjoyed Psyc 101. Too bad all the ickiness of it rubbed off on you.
Put aside abortion for a minute.
***Reminds me of this quote in an earlier article.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1815366/posts
Rudy to pro-lifer: drop dead
Put the abortion issue aside for a moment, and think about what Giuliani has just revealed about how he thinks of the Constitution: If you believe in the First Amendment, does the government have to buy poor people printing presses? If you believe in the Second Amendment, must the taxpayers buy guns for poor folks? What kind of “strict constructionist” would say the government must pay for something if it is a constitutional right? For that matter, what kind of fiscal conservative would ever make such a claim?
Name the problem, Rudy has a Federal Taxpayer financed solution.
Hillary as POTUS is a nightmare scenario.
That's why I don't support Rudy.
The reality is that many of us do not see much of a real difference between Rino Rudy and Hiltary. It is time to dump the liberal and fines someone who can unite the party.
Some of us appreciate a candidate who is honest enough not to lie or flip flop on issues. And we are not dumb enough to believe a politician who will say anything to get elected. Many of our candidates have had the same social positions Rudy has, but they have “HAD AN IPIFANY” and have changed their life long views. No thanks! I’d rather have a President I can trust not to lie to me, even if I don’t buy into all his beliefs.
Oh, a third party sounds like a winner! Wonder who's heading up the Libertarian Party since Lyndon LaRouche was sent to prison. /sar.
Beats voting for a liberal like Rino Rudy.
I agree. That's why it would be a grave miscalculation to nominate a candidate that significant numbers of GOP voters can't support. Whatever you think of the folks who won't support Giuliani in the general, it's still a fact that he's probably unelectable because he can't turn out all segments of the GOP.
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