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COULD RUDY FORCE G.O.P. CRACK-UP? If Religious Right founder and direct-mail kingpin Richard Viguerie has anything to say about it, a Giuliani nomination might do just that. Yesterday, I received a press release from Mr. Viguerie, who threatens, "It's Rudy or the G.O.P. We're in a political version of 'The Survivor,' and both cannot survive politically":
"If the Republican Party nominates Rudy Giuliani as its candidate for either president or vice president, I will personally work to defeat the GOP ticket in 2008," says Richard A. Viguerie, author of Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause."Rudy Giuliani is wrong on all of the social issues, is wrong on the Second Amendment, and is pretty much a blank slate on all other issues of importance to conservatives," Viguerie adds. "If the Republican Party nominates him, it is saying to the American people that it has lost all purpose except the raw political desire to hold power. It will be time to put the GOP out of its misery."
There are some other juicy bits as well, like where RV advises "conservatives" (read: wingers) to withhold support from any of the current batch of G.O.P. presidential candidates. The frontrunners are "unworthy of conservative support," Viguerie says, and the "truly conservative" contenders don't stand a chance of getting nominated.
Of course, Viguerie does have a book to sell, so he's been issuing statements rather freely these days. But in throwing down this gauntlet, Viguerie could find himself in the position of having called a referendum on the state of the religious right. If the G.O.P. nominates Giuliani, will they throw Viguerie a bone to keep him in the fold, as they did with Buchanan in 1996? (That bone: Buchanan campaign honcho Phyllis Schlafly got to write the Republican platform. Didn't really get Dole very far.)
--Adele M. Stan
COMMENTS (9)
Since I am convinced that Giuliani will not get the nomination, I do not think that he will be the cause of a GOP crack-up.
However, the more interesting question to me is why is Ruby a Republican in the first place. Given his express policy preferences, why did he not run as a Dem? Would he not be unstoppable against Hillary Obama and the others?
Posted by: Chicounsel | May 17, 2007 11:25 AM
In another Giuliani inspired crack in the GOP coalition, I was reading through the comments at the Reason blog and the Libertarians are not happy with this trashing of Ron Paul after the debate. I’ve never fully understood the alliance between Libertarians and Republicans, I guess they believed the smaller government rhetoric despite the obvious authoritarian tendencies. Well, the last 6 years have proved that was all a lie, so the split with the Conservatives was already underway. Now the gleeful humiliation of their only elected hero?
There may be something to Kos’s thesis that Libertarians natural home is with civil liberties loving Democrats but even if they do not come over, I think they are definitely no longer active members of the GOP base. Their numbers may not be huge, maybe 3-5% but that would have been enough to swing either 2000 or 2004.
The death spiral of the Right continues.
Posted by: not the senator | May 17, 2007 11:26 AM
Are you kidding, chicounsel? A man with Giuliani's liabilities running as a Democrat? He'd be absolutely murdered on personal issues.
Posted by: Ben Rosengart | May 17, 2007 11:55 AM
There are enough capital-L Libertarians to matter, even within the rarified sub-population of the primary campaign.
Also, Giuliani running as a Dem would never work, if for no other reason than it makes the charge of political opportunism self-evident. He could've run as an independent, though. Would've made raising money a bit harder, but he wouldn't have to worry about dancing around the social issue minefield at all.
Posted by: Aaron S. Veenstra | May 17, 2007 2:03 PM
Whoops, should be "...aren't enough...."
Posted by: Aaron S. Veenstra | May 17, 2007 2:05 PM
If Giuliani wins the Republican nomination, Viguerie will support him in the general with rhetoric at least as violent, and tactics at least as despicable, as he has ever used in the past. Everyone knows this: why pretend otherwise?
Posted by: Frank Wilhoit | May 17, 2007 10:14 PM
My preferred outcome is to have Not-Giuliani win the GOP primary, have a period of Democratic dominance, then have the GOP crack-up over a moderate nominee without authoritarian tendencies. As much fun as a GOP crack-up NOW would be, I'm worried about the consequences for our democracy if Giuliani were to win. I'm assuming, BTW, that Giuliani would be the most formidable Gooper in the general election.
Posted by: American Citizen | May 18, 2007 8:55 AM
Uh...everyone, you should check your history: Rudy used to be a Democrat (a long time ago). He switched back then for political opoortunities.
I live in NYC and while he is decent on some social issues, he's not the man he's being played up to be: the Hero of 9/11. I'm waiting for someone (ANYONE) to ask him this question: "Do you believe that you did anything differently than any decent human being would have done under the same circumstances?" I mean, he went and stood on the rubble and said some nice things, but Bloomberg was Mayor three months later and actually had twice the amount of time during the clean up as Rudy. And check out Rudy's record on the safety of the Ground Zero workers. Shameful.
Posted by: bricof | May 18, 2007 2:12 PM
The more interesting question to me is why is Ruby a Republican in the first place. Given his express policy preferences, why did he not run as a Dem? Would he not be unstoppable against Hillary Obama and the others?
Posted by: tower defense | April 25, 2009 3:13 AM