[Spiff]

Here's the full letter:

Prominent evangelical Mark DeMoss recently circulated a letter to leaders of evangelical organizations urging support for Governor Mitt Romney. His point: the Republican Party will likely pick a Presidential nominee in the next 100 days (by February 5th) and, unless social conservatives rally behind Mitt Romney, the nominee will be Rudy Giuliani.

I share Mark's choice of Mitt Romney and the urgency of Mark's call. While several of the other candidates are certainly fine social conservatives, none has established his viability as a serious presidential contender. Only Mitt Romney has the resources to compete with Rudy Giuliani for the nomination.

In January, I argued that Mitt Romney was an acceptable choice for social conservatives. Since then, Massachusetts Citizens for Life has given Mitt Romney an award for his consistent and courageous defense of life as Governor, and prominent Massachusetts pro-life activist and philanthropist, Ray Ruddy, has endorsed him.

Other evangelical leaders have weighed in on the acceptability of the leading Republican candidates. Dr. James Dobson, America's most influential evangelical leader, has expressed his opinion that Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Fred Thompson are not acceptable, based on their positions on various important conservative issues. I have explained Fred Thompson's adamant support of McCain-Feingold, while in the Senate and when it was before the U.S. Supreme Court in the McConnell case.

Two other prominent evangelical leaders, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, have recently expressed their view that Mitt Romney is an acceptable choice for social conservatives.

So it does come down to two things: (1) the viability of the candidate, which only Mitt Romney has demonstrated among the socially conservative candidates, and (2) whether social conservatives will have the courage to rally around the only viable social conservative alternative to Rudy Giuliani. A divided field means that Giuliani is likely to win the nomination. This is our choice to make, and we don't have long to make it.

James Bopp, Jr.

P.S. One final point, while much attention has been focused on Mitt Romney's conversion to the pro-life cause while Governor, resulting in his vetoes of pro-abortion bills and earning him an award from the Massachusetts Citizens for Life, on other issues he has been a remarkably consistent conservative. Read for yourself this 1994 candidate comparison piece:

[Spiff]

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[zerosix]

I just love getting “warned”.

[trisham]

I’m Catholic, and I’m voting for Fred Thompson.

[org.whodat]

You mittwitt bots out early today. I will put it in plan language, I’ll vote for mitt the day hell freezes over, never going to vote for a liberal.

[Dante3]

What nonsense to declare that Rudy is a conservative.

I cannot understand how Rudy can possibly lead among the GOP candidates with his pro abortion, pro amnesty, pro gun control, anti marriage agenda. The judges he appointed speaks for itself. Then are the several scandals. Rudy sounds like Hillary. Could Democrats be pretending to be Republicans in the polls?

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Why did this thread end up in bloggers and personal?

[Grunthor]

Yeah, lets just ignore that in most polls there is ANOTHER MORE CONSISTENT conservative with as good OR BETTER nymbers than Mitt.

[iowamark]

whether social conservatives will have the courage to rally around the only viable social conservative alternative to Rudy Giuliani.

Leaving aside the question of whether Romney can plausibly be called a social conservative, how can he be possibly be called the only viable one when Fred Thompson polls far better than he in almost every state; and polls much stronger among conservatives.

This is our choice to make, and we don't have long to make it.

Why the tone of desperation?

[TheLion]

Bttt!

[lesser_satan]

Ping!

[ken21]

i’m for fred.

so crawl back into your hole.

[Theresawithanh]

Mr. Bopp wouldn’t be related to a comet, now would he? I’ve never heard of the guy, despite his prominence.

Despite all the chicken littles prevalent in this election cycle, we still have time to decide upon our nominee. I’d like it to be Fred, despite the “urgent” warnings to the contrary.

[EternalVigilance]

"Mitt Romney is Giuliani. He's just lying about it." - Alan Keyes