Saturday, May 12, 2007

Six of one, half a dozen of the other

The New York Times reports on Rudy Giuliani's bold speech to Texas Kool-Aid drinkers conservatives, during which he told a Houston Baptist College audience Republicans must be tolerant of "views that are different" on abortion, gay marriage, yada yada yada so that The Party of Greed might remain in power and save us all from terrorism, amen.

Here's the scoop from the Nuremberg rally Houston speech:
But Mr. Giuliani argued that there were even greater matters at stake in the election, starting with which party would better protect the nation from terrorism. Mr. Giuliani suggested that his record in New York -- leading the city after the attacks of Sept. 11 and overseeing a decline in violent crime during his eight years in office – made him the most electable of the Republican candidates, no matter his stand on social issues like abortion.

“If we don’t find a way of uniting around broad principles that will appeal to a large segment of this country, if we can’t figure that out, we are going to lose this election,” he said. The speech by Mr. Giuliani reflected a decision – other campaigns suggested gamble might be a better word -- to address head on a fundamental obstacle to his winning the nomination: his long history as a moderate Northeast Republican in a party increasingly dominated by Southern and Midwestern conservatives. As such, it loomed as a potentially important moment in the party’s efforts to decide how to compete against the Democrats in 2008 and what it should stand for in a post-Bush era.

“The mere fact that I am standing here running for president of the United States with the views that I have, that are different in some respects on some of these issues, shows that we much more adequately represent the length and breadth and the opinions of America than the other party does,” Mr. Giuliani said.

Since the late 1970’s, national Republican candidates have increasingly taken conservative positions on social issues. In that sense, Mr. Giuliani is bucking what many members of his party consider to be a powerful trend and confronting what is often assumed to be a wall of opposition among Christian conservatives, among other constituencies that play influential roles in the nominating process.

Both his leading opponents – Senator John McCain of Arizona and Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts – oppose abortion rights. Mr. McCain regularly referrers to his life-time opposition to abortion rights. Mr. Romney also regularly talks about his opposition to abortion rights, though he is more perhaps politically constrained because he supported abortion right through much of his political career in Massachusetts.


(snip)


Mr. Giuliani’s speech came a week after he gave a convoluted answer to questions at a debate about his view on abortion rights, setting off a storm of criticism by conservative groups and raising questions. On Friday, he offered a lengthy explanation of his view on abortions, saying he personally opposed it but that government should not prohibit it, while acknowledging that views differed from many of those in the audience.

“Where people of good faith, people who are equally decent, equally moral and equally religious, when they come to different conclusions about this, about something so very very personal, I believe you have to respect their viewpoint,” he said. “You give them a level of choice here.” Mr. Giuliani asserted that his differences with his audience on gun control and gay rights were probably less sharp. He defended his advocacy for tough gun control measures while he was mayor of New York, but said that was central to his strategy to reduce crime in the city. He described himself as an advocate of a view of the 2nd Amendment which holds that it permits citizens to bear arms. Mr. Giuliani said that he supported allowing gay and lesbians to enter into domestic partnerships, but opposed allowing them to marry.

Mr. Giuliani’s speech appeared to reflect two calculations by his campaign. The first was that Republicans were so alarmed at the prospect of losing the White House, particularly after Democrats took over Congress last year, that they would be willing to overlook differences on issues like abortion. The second is that voters often reward politicians who disagree with them on issues for candor and independence.

He drew a standing ovation from his audience, many of whom, in interviews after the remarks, praised Mr. Giuliani for what they described as his candor in presenting his position on difficult issues. But leaders of some evangelical and conservative groups quickly denounced Mr. Giuliani and predicted that it would lead to his downfall.
WHAT GIULIANI is really saying to pro-life voters is pretty straightforward: Sacrifice your babies, your weak, your deformed to the Great God Choice (a.k.a. Baal) so that the born, the fit and the well-off might be spared from the Terrorist Menace (TM).

But if you ask me, to the unborn, the weak and the deformed -- and to anyone else at risk of falling afoul of the doctrine of Life Unworthy of Life -- the Giuliani-sanctioned Clean-Cut Respectable American Terrorists look pretty much the same as the Wild-Eyed Turban-Wearing Allahu Akbar-Chanting Islamofascists.

DEATH IS CALLING on America, and we're OK with that. The only thing we're really worried about is whose ox is getting -- or will get -- gored.

No comments: