Posted on 05/16/2007 6:11:22 AM PDT by GMMAC
Giuliani's words have hollow ring
Presidential hopeful keeps flip-flopping
Steven Edwards, National Post
Published: Wednesday, May 16, 2007
With flip-flopping a sure way to ensure rejection at the polls, what's a presidential candidate to do when his political record clashes with the bedrock beliefs of the party he seeks to represent?
Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor, is taking on the Republican rank-and-file when he asks them to nominate him despite his refusal to renounce his support for abortion.
He claims this shows he has the courage to state his views frankly, regardless of their popularity.
It's a strategy rooted in the premise that people are tired of nuanced answers from politicians and prefer a straight shooter -- even if they don't entirely agree with him.
In fact, Giuliani is showing less steel than if he had simply declared himself against abortion in line with essential Republican party thinking.
Like many abortion supporters, he reconciles the fact that it involves eliminating a life by saying that while he is opposed to abortion personally, he believes in a woman's right to it as a family planning option.
Of course, it all comes down to weighing the right to life of an unborn child against the right of a woman to make choices about her body.
For abortion supporters, the less developed the life in the womb, the easier it is to deny it rights that override the mother's.
Until ultrasound imaging shows a clear human form, it's easy to forget that something more than cellular fusion has taken place.
By saying he is "personally" against abortion, Giuliani clearly accepts the argument that life begins at conception. He must also believe the extension of that argument -- that the fetus at this stage has the same right to life as any human.
Giuliani is therefore being disingenuous when he recently asked Republicans to "respect" him for "telling? the truth."
If he were truly honest about where he stands, he would admit he seeks a free pass on the abortion issue so that he can pander to abortion supporters.
His message not only falls short of the truth-- which would reflect his convictions -- it contradicts the line promoted by both him and his supporters that his position on abortion is clear and free of variation.
He's on record as saying abortion is an "issue of conscience" and a decision to have one is a matter of "personal choice."
But he has also shown he's indifferent to the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion in the United States.
"It would be OK to repeal," he said during the first debate between Republican hopefuls.
"It would be OK if a strict constructionist judge viewed it as precedent," he added, using a conservative-friendly adjective that describes judges who feel obliged to uphold only the specified rights in the U.S. Constitution.
Such wavering is inconsistent with the principles Giuliani champions in his book Leadership, a central one being strong self-definition.
And how can he claim to be adhering to the truth when, in his mind, there are several versions of it on this issue?
Giuliani's brand of Republicanism -- conservative on fiscal and security matters but socially liberal -- was always going to be problematic nationally, though it earned him the maximum two terms as mayor in Democraticleaning New York.
As campaigning continues, he will face increasing questions from the Republican right over his liberal stances on several other issues, such as gay rights and gun control.
There's also his tumultuous domestic life.
He's married to his third wife, and has a difficult relationship with his two children, reportedly because of their dislike for their current stepmother, also in her third marriage.
Opponents of all political stripes will attack him over his former close association with his last police commissioner, Bernard Kerik, who last year pleaded guilty to misdemeanour ethics violations.
Giuliani's bid to take on the Republican party over abortion rights contrasts with the approach of fellow presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, a Mormon.
While Romney declared himself pro-abortion when running for state senator and later governor in heavily Democratic Massachusetts, he has now flipped back to his earlier antiabortion position.
While Giuliani's wavering is far from Romney's credibilitydeficient about-turns, his claim that his determination to stick to his convictions makes him a strong leader rings hollow.
© National Post 2007
Many thanks for the pings———appreciate it.
Too bad some posters still haven’t figured out FR protocol.
Why dont’t they go play with DU airheads who don’t know protocol from peanut butter?
I don't have any idea where AmishDude is now, but if he whips up the horses in front of his buggy, he might make it back to Iowa to vote for the Liberal Rooty in the primaries! LOL
Logic like that is a good argument for giving people IQ tests before allowing them to register to vote.
Of course not. As the future Supreme Emperor of the NAU and chief mugwump of the secret GOP Committee of Using the Power of Mental Thinking to Make People Vote Against Their Will for Rudy (GOPCUPMTMPVATWR), I am the one who causes paranoia.
"Moronic." Check.
But I'm getting far too much juvenile, I really want to complete my list.
Ahh...You have just proven my suggestion in post #43 to be a good one.
Ah. (a) Do you recall the ignoble history of poll tests? (b) You do know that I am a professional mathematician, right.
"Ignorant." Check.
Sorry to disappoint but FReepers won't be voting for Hillary. However by all the polls it appears everyone in New York State will.
Rooty is such a Mutt, he can't even beat a carpetbagger in HIS home state. Heck New Yorkers even prefer Nurse BLOOMIE over Rooty. The guy is a one note LOSER.
Again. More juvenile. I'm getting the Pee Wee Herman vibe here.
You will excuse me if I step back a few paces, won't you?
Oh puh-leese!. Did you say "mugschlump"?
Again, you prove my point. Not everyone is qualified to cast a ballot.
Still. That's much more juvenile than shallow. You keep mining the juvenile pile.
Your average Rooty voter.
Again, you repeat yourself. But who am I to challenge such successful debating tactics?
As a staunch anti-abortionists I do have other litmus tests for my candidates.
Personally, I would like to be alive to appose abortion rather than being dead and rotting as the real jihadists from Mecca take over and impose Sharia law that allows infidels to abort on a whim.
"Shallow." Check and check!
We have 'em all. Congratulations to everyone!
So once again, if someone is a single-issue pro-life voter, you have the gall to compare them to Islamic terrorists?
Rooty rooters got their eye on you.....o-o-o-o they're so fierce.
It was a direct response to that blather you posted earlier.
I will be less juvenile, although I am flattered you would say that, and change the word to a more mature word. "mugchump."
I will say my juvenile pile is reserved for those with over inflated egos mouthing BS.
It was easy for the Guiliani, the bully that he is, to attack the far less popular Ron Paul. Big whoop.
If Guiliani wins the R nomination, we will have been hurt by 9/11 in far worse devastating ways than we imagined. The terroists will also have horribly damaged, the right's war against the counterculture. We cannot allow that to happen.
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