Will Conservatives Take Off the Giuliani Beer Goggles?

It's an inevitable feature of presidential politics: the initial blemish-obscuring swoon over an incipient front-runner who promises to deliver victory, followed by the second thoughts about whether this is Mr. Right.

It's happened to Mitt Romney, and now it looks like its Rudy Giuliani's turn. There's a lot I like about Rudy, but I think a lot of conservatives are looking at him through the political equivalent of beer-goggles and sites like this one will probably induce morning-after remorse in some conservatives currently in the throes of the Rudy seduction.

I spotted RudysReallyLiberal.com today on the WSJ's Political Diary newsletter (a great deal at just $3.95  a month). It's the creation of George Marlin, who ran against Rudy for mayor in 1993 as the Conservative Party nominee.

The Giuliani campaign has been making a real effort to convince social conservatives that Rudy isn't that bad on their issues.  But to choose abortion as the obvious example, the current Giuliani line of "I hate abortion" becomes a less convincing sell after reading past Rudy quotes like these from RudysReallyLiberal.com:

“I’d give my daughter the money for it [an abortion].”

“I never called for the overturning of Roe vs. Wade.”

“See, I don’t equate abortion with murdering a child, which I guess puts me in conflict with the teaching of the Catholic church.  Catholics in public office often make the mistake, a subtle but important one, of saying they agree with the teaching of the church, but because I’m in public office, I have to put conscience aside and enforce the law.  They haven’t thought out the implication of what they’re saying.  If you agree with the church, there’s no difference between murdering a one-year-old and eliminating a fetus – it’s the same act.  There is a moral consequence to the elimination of a fetus, but it’s not the same thing as murder.”

Like I said, there's no way Giuliani can avoid this level of scrutiny. He has a record and he'll have to run on it, good, bad or indifferent.

As John Fund put it on Political Diary:

The Giuliani campaign has declined to address each individual quote, making do with a statement saying: "People are entitled to their own opinions, not their own facts. The facts are these: Rudy Giuliani is a proved fiscal conservative with a long record of fighting crime, reducing welfare and lowering taxes, leading George Will to call his time as mayor the most successful example of conservative governance in 50 years."

Somehow I think Mr. Giuliani is not going to get away with that deflection for very long. At some point, he is going to have to address the lingering -- and in some cases growing -- concerns that his past statements and actions are creating among conservatives.

GOP conservatives embracing Rudy need to do so with both eyes wide open and make a deep, sincere decision about how willing they are to overlook some pretty deep philosophical disagreements in order to side with someone primarily because he seems like winner. I seem to remember a number of conservatives (me included) backing this Austrian guy with a supposed devotion to Milton Friedman for governor for the same reasons -- and that didn't quite turn out as planned.

Comments

[Critic]

Gee, you might as well ask when conservatives will take off the Republican goggles.

The party of Tom Delay, George Bush and the K Street project, with tremendous support from 18 families trying to avoid billions of dollars in estate taxes, on many days appears little more than a corrupt criminal enterprise, with contempt for our liberties, our Constitution, and most of the Commandments, especially the one about bearing false witness.

[Rifleshot]

Hey, Critic. Maybe you can start a new post, discussing the outstanding ethics of folks like Sandy (how-did-those-documents-get-down-my-pants) Berger and Congressman William (cold cash) Jefferson.

[Critic]

Snappy comeback there, Rifleshot.Unfortunately, corrupt Democrats don't exonerate corrupt Republicans, except in the penultimate House Ethics committee.

Indict them all and let juries of their peers sort them out, regardless of party.

Unfortunately, when the Republican party is reduced to hatred of liberalism, while abandoning balanced budgets, personal freedom, and the separation of powers, it's pretty much bankrupt.

[Jubal]

Wow, Critic. That's a pretty sweeping generalization without much in the way of back-up information -- besides possessing zero relevance to the subject of the post.

[Andy Favor]

In my humble opinion Republicans should be embracing Ron Paul. As far as I can tell he is the only candidate worthy of calling himself a Republican.

[Andy's right]

I concur with Andy Favor. What happened to principles over politics in the GOP?

[flowerszzz]

I am keeping my "beer goggles" on then! I think he of all the candidates stands the best chance to win. I think he can get votes on both sides, not only for his moderate position, but because he is well liked by the general public, those that do not follow politics like us geeks do, know his name and associate good feelings with him.

[Silence Dogood]

flowerszzz -

Being led by the animal laboreans. Wonderful. Whatever happened to political leadership?

[Bladerunner]

Interesting post Jubal. Having lost the House and Senate its interesting to watch many Republicans, panicked at the prospect of losing their last grip on the Beltway, throw their platform and basic party beliefs overboard in the name of victory by supporting Rudolph Giuliani. It makes the presidential election a no-lose situation for secular-pro-choice-gay rights-gun control Democrats. Whatever happened to the conservatives motto of " a choice, not an echo?"

Fred Thompson has got to be looking better every day .

[flowerszzz]

Silence - My support is not without thought my dear - it may have sounded so, but I was making light of the joke about beer goggles, as I have not heard that term since - well it's been a long time.

I am conservative on some issues and not so much on others. None of the other candidates even spark my interest. Truly conservative republicans need someone to run that is more charismatic. And realistically, IMHO Guliani would be better then Hilary or Obama any day of the week, and he will draw votes from either one of those candidates in the general election. The others running most likely will not.