Religious right may blackball Giuliani

Religious right may blackball Giuliani

Christian conservative leaders privately consider supporting a third-party, antiabortion candidate should Rudy Giuliani win the GOP nomination.

By Michael Scherer

Sept. 30, 2007 | WASHINGTON -- A powerful group of conservative Christian leaders decided Saturday at a private meeting in Salt Lake City to consider supporting a third-party candidate for president if a pro-choice nominee like Rudy Giuliani wins the Republican nomination.

The meeting of about 50 leaders, including Focus on the Family's James Dobson, the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins and former presidential candidate Gary Bauer, who called in by phone, took place at the Grand America Hotel during a gathering of the Council for National Policy, a powerful shadow group of mostly religious conservatives. James Clymer, the chairman of the U.S. Constitution Party, was also present at the meeting, according to a person familiar with the proceedings.

"The conclusion was that if there is a pro-abortion nominee they will consider working with a third party," said the person, who spoke to Salon on the condition of anonymity. The private meeting was not a part of the official CNP schedule, which is itself a closely held secret. "Dobson came in just for this meeting," the person said.

The decision confirms the fears of many Republican Party officials, who have worried that a Giuliani nomination would irrevocably split the GOP in advance of the 2008 general election, given Giuliani's relatively liberal stands on gay unions and abortion, as well as his rocky marital history. The private meeting was held Saturday afternoon, during a lull in the official CNP schedule. Earlier in the day, Vice President Dick Cheney had traveled to Utah to deliver a brief address to the larger CNP gathering. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney also addressed the larger group.

The decision has also been reported in an unsigned article by WorldNetDaily, a conservative online news service. "Not only was there a consensus among activists to withhold support for the Republican nominee, there was even discussion about supporting the entry of a new candidate to challenge the frontrunners," the article said. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, WorldNetDaily's editor, Joseph Farah, attended the larger CNP gathering.

According to a New York Times profile, the CNP was established in 1981, with the help of Paul Weyrich, chairman of the Free Congress Foundation, and the Rev. Tim LaHaye, the bestselling author of the "Left Behind" book series. In recent years, President Bush, former Undersecretary of State John Bolton and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have met with the group, the Times reported. CNP membership is a closely held secret, and its meetings are not publicly announced or open to the press.

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http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/09/30/giuliani/

I would just as soon the knuckle-dragger fundie contingent within the Repug Party (which IS the Party) holds their fire till he gets the nomination. Rootie-Patootie is trying to frame this as "the lesser of two evils" contest between him and Hillary but that shit won't work.

We've never really elected a Catholic to the presidency; Al Smith got clobbered and Jack Kennedy's old man stole it outright.

It's been an interesting alliance over the past few years between conservative Catholics and the fire-and-brimstone extremist Protestants, and they've basically united over the issue of Abortion. The old rifts live on, and as anyone who grew up in the South knows, Catholics have a hard row to hoe down there.

McCain is looked upon as a drooling sycophant who will do and say anything to get in cozy with the religious right in the hopes of becoming president. And Mitten's big problem is that he's a Mormon, and even if the religious right supported Mittens, that support would be tepid, and after years and years of religious right people - from Falwell and Robertson down to the preachers of small backwater Southern Baptist churches - calling Mormonism a cult, the RR's ground troops are not going to feel inspired to go and vote for Mittens. That leaves 1. Huckabee, who may have impressed some people at that straw poll a while back, is still being shut out by the mainstream media to focus on the unholy trio of McCain-Ghouliani-Mittens, and 2. Thompson, who has declared his religious leanings off limits and is too stupid and lazy to run a full blown campaign.

I don't understand why they didn't throw their weight behind Brownback. He's got a snowball's chance in hell right now, but if they had come out full force for him at the beginning, they would be in a better position than they are now.

TlalocW

I hope they blackball him.

Alarmed at the chance that the Republican party might pick Rudolph Giuliani as its presidential nominee despite his support for abortion rights, a coalition of influential Christian conservatives is threatening to back a third-party candidate in an attempt to stop him.

The group making the threat, which came together Saturday in Salt Lake City during a break-away gathering during a meeting of the secretive Council for National Policy, includes Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, who is perhaps the most influential of the group, as well as Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, the direct mail pioneer Richard Viguerie and dozens of other politically-oriented conservative Christians, participants said. Almost everyone present expressed support for a written resolution that “if the Republican Party nominates a pro-abortion candidate we will consider running a third party candidate.”

The participants spoke on condition of anonymity because the both the Council for National Policy and the smaller meeting were secret, but they said members of the intend to publicize its resolution. These participants said the group chose the qualified term “consider” because they have not yet identified an alternative third party candidate, but the group was largely united in its plans to bolt the party if Mr. Giuliani became the candidate.

A revolt of Christian conservative leaders could be a significant setback to the Giuliani campaign because white evangelical Protestants make up a major portion of Republican primary voters. But the threat is risky for the credibility of the Christian conservative movement as well. Some of its usual grass-roots supporters could still choose to support even a pro-choice Republican like Mr. Giuliani, either because they dislike the Democratic nominee even more or because they are worried about war, terrorism and other issues.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/christan-conservatives-consider-third-party-effort/index.html?hp