Posted on 04/16/2007 7:03:05 AM PDT by pissant
WASHINGTON | Rudolph Giuliani will court religious conservatives for his presidential campaign when he speaks Tuesday at a Christian university founded by televangelist Pat Robertson.
But Giuliani's talk at Robertson's Regent University comes as several evangelical leaders work feverishly to find an alternative to the front-running former New York mayor, as well as to Sen. John McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who together lead the field seeking the 2008 Republican nomination.
"We're actively shopping," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. "We've got our spec list, and we're seeing who fits. ... There's still a lot of time before the election."
If they can agree on a consensus candidate, these leaders are hoping to influence a major Republican voting bloc. White evangelicals account for 35 percent to 40 percent of the Republican electorate, according to John C. Green, a senior fellow on religion and politics at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. In South Carolina, that number is 39 percent.
The Council for National Policy, a secretive group of some of the nation's most powerful conservative leaders, tried and failed to reach consensus in February on a GOP candidate to support. Now, leaders such as Paul Weyrich, chairman of the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation and a founding father of the Christian right movement, are weighing anew whether to endorse some second-tier GOP candidate.
Giuliani leads the crowded Republican field in most national polls, thanks largely to the way he led New York City after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Polls show Giuliani has strong crossover support from independents, Democrats and white evangelical Protestants.
Tickets for Giuliani's luncheon speech at Regent University in Virginia Beach sold out almost instantly when it was announced in February. More than 600 people will pack a hotel ballroom, while a few hundred more will sit in an overflow room and watch on television monitors.
"For Giuliani, this is a golden bridge-building opportunity," said Charles Dunn, dean of the university's Robertson School of Government. "He needs the South, he needs evangelicals, and he needs social conservatives. A lot of people are coming because he's a national hero because of Sept. 11. But a lot are coming to size him up on social-moral issues."
Weyrich, Perkins and other conservatives say they've measured Giuliani and don't like what they see. They're uneasy with his politics because he supports abortion rights, gun control and civil unions between same-sex couples.
They also question his personal morality because he's been married three times and divorced twice. His divorce from his second wife, Donna Hanover, was particularly messy.
"On the character issue, I can't vote for Giuliani or Newt Gingrich, who's also been married three times," said Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. "Three spouses is one too many for most evangelicals "
Who cares? Rudy, and only Rudy, can win! The ‘Pubbies don’t need evangelicals, or even conservatives.
/sarcasm
Not only that, they don’t want them. Ruining the party with talk of God, guns, and family, etc.
That’s right - the new RINO master plan is to alienate Evangelicals and conservative Catholics, gun owners, pro-lifers of all stripes, property rights supports, people who are against illegal immigration, and Southerners in general. In place of that unneeded coalition, they plan to build on their massive core of liberal Republicans, and woo over disaffected Democrats and liberal independents by presenting a platform that isn’t much different from that of the Dems.
Great plan!
/sarc
MSM! Hello!?!
Wake up, smell coffee.
Republicans, otherwise known as those folks who actually make it into voting booths, want to vote for a Republican and hopefully a Conservative one.
Rudy is not a Republican.
He doesn’t even “play one on TV”.
He’s a muddied Metrosexual who’s ONE IDEA (let’s actually enforce laws for a change) got him some noteriety in his Big City.
Should he actually GET the nomination, he would be like NY’s Gov. Pataki. He would totally destroy his party leaving nothing but a lifeless husk behind.
Now is the time to hunt RINOS like Rudy, and get rid of them.
Rotfl! Sorry...this just cracks me up. You can cast one spouse aside but doooooon't toss two.
Where can I get me one of those Rhino Cars? That thing could seriously come in handy in a hoard of indecisive drivers.
Support abortion, support illegals, support taking away my guns and you don’t get my vote.
Actually they want a new majority party, (Insert new name here) made up of RINO's and dissatisfied Dems.
Rudy's gonna have a hard time bridging the chasm he has deepened over the last few weeks, which just added to his lifetime support of abortion "rights."
I agree that Rudy is too liberal. He agrees with Democrats as often as he agrees with Republicans.
The thought occurred to me long ago that if Conservatives don’t form their own party, we will end up with a one party system in this country. That seems to have already evolved to a reality. Even on Free Republic we are so divided on so many issues, on so many candidates. If true Conservatives do not bond together behind a tested and true Conservative, (be it Hunter or Thompson), we can say goodbye to the Grand Ole Party, as it spins down the drain to disappear altogether.
DRAINO
dems/repubs/americans in name only
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