I am on the record as stating that Giuliani’s views on social issues and his personal life will eventually catch up with him in his pursuit of the GOP nomination. He continues to maintain his front-runner status running on his 9/11 image and the fact that a lot of voters aren’t paying attention yet (the fact that the field is mediocre helps as well).
Now the Politico has additional evidence that my position will likely play out as predicted: Giuliani gave to Planned Parenthood
records show that in the ’90s he contributed money at least six times to Planned Parenthood, one of the country’s leading abortion rights groups and its top provider of abortions.Federal tax returns made public by the former New York mayor show that he and his then-wife, Donna Hanover, made personal donations to national, state and city chapters of Planned Parenthood totaling $900 in 1993, 1994, 1998 and 1999.
The returns have been on the public record fo
Such revelations make it harder and harder for Giuliani to straddle the fence on this topic. There are a lot of hardcore anti-abortion voters who will simply refuse to vote for Giuliani because of these types of actions.
Perhaps the early primaries in places like California will allow Rudy to weather these kinds of issues, but I have a hard time seeing it work out that way.
At a minimum the contributions would seem to make statements such as the following sound hollow (or, at least, opportunistic and cynical):
On the campaign trail, Giuliani has a consistent mantra when the abortion issue comes up. “I’m against abortion. I hate it. I wish there never was an abortion, and I would counsel a woman to have an adoption instead of an abortion,” Giuliani said last month in Columbia, S.C., in a typical comment.
I wonder if he will try and finesse the contribution by hanging the blame on his wife for giving the money?
Sphere: Related Content
May 9th, 2007 at 8:34 am
Blaming the ex-wife was my first thought.
May 9th, 2007 at 11:57 am
Steve, Giuliani’s iffiness on the abortion issue has bothered me for some time– I’m one of those “hard-core anti-abortion issue voters”– but at the same time, it’s not something that’s going to make me vote against him (or avoid voting in 2008). Candidates like Rudy for national office always have to straddle a difficult line, and the entire reason that Rudy is our strongest horse for 2008– the one with the best shot at beating the Democrats, despite the frustration with Bush– is that he seems to strike a decent balance with Americans in general.
I’ll hear him out on the abortion issue since #1, he seems capable of listening to the base and adjusting his stands, and #2, he’ll clearly appoint much better, more anti-abortion Supreme Court justices than the Democrats would. Also, since I live in a Swing State (Pennsylvania), my decision is important and I won’t squander it by being overly stubborn or blind to political exigencies here.
It sort of depends on who the Democratic candidate is. If it’s someone like Edwards or even Obama– who I could tolerate, someone who’d at least hear me out– then I might stay home.
OTOH, if the Democrats are dumb enough to nominate that North American Socialist Hillary Clinton– and there’s every indication that the Democrats are stupid enough to do just that– then I’ll not only vote for Giuliani, I’ll personally contribute $5,000 to his campaign to make sure he wins. The United States cannot afford another Clinton in the Oval Office, and if you have doubts about Giuliani on the abortion issue (or others critical to the USA), then it’s obvious that Hillary would be much, much, much worse than Rudy on just about everything in this regard.
May 9th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
Leszek,
I suspect you are correct about how a lot of hardcore anti-abortion voters would behave in the general election, especially if Hillary was the Democratic nominee.
However, the issue is how will voters like you behave during the primary?
I am arguing that these issues may well preclude him from being nominated.
May 9th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
“early primaries in places like California…”
How odd that sounds, after decades of our irrelevance!
I don’t actually see how Calif. helps Giuliani as an alleged “moderate.” The Calif GOP is pretty conservative socially, which is precisely why it hardly ever nominates a candidate for statewide office who can win a general election. (Of course, the Governator is the exception that proves the rule; he originally won without having to go through the party primary and was opposed by a right-wing Republican who got about 12% of the vote, whereas Arnold appealed to the center of the state’s electorate).
On the substance of the story, at last, something Giuliani and I have in common.
May 9th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
See also:
The Yankees’ Clean-Up Man - Rudy went to bat for the Yanks, and look what he scored. - The Village Voice
http://hammer2006.blogspot.com/2007/05/yankees-clean-up-man-rudy-went-to-bat.html
May 10th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
[...] We’ve had adultery, weird family issues, Kerik, Hugo Chavez, Planned Parenthood and now via the Blotter: OxyContin: The Giuliani Connection Rudolph Giuliani and his consulting company, Giuliani Partners, have served as key advisors for the last five years to the pharmaceutical company that pled guilty today to charges it misled doctors and patients about the addiction risks of the powerful narcotic painkiller OxyContin. [...]