« Bad News for the Bears - Favre Will Return in 2007 | Main | Giuliani Nears Candidacy, Discusses Abortion (video) »

Will Giuliani Pick a Ginsburg?

As a pro-abortion candidate for President, Rudy Giuliani's camp will look for a strategy to appease social conservatives within the Republican party. His supporters will suggest that he is the most viable candidate to face likely Democratic opponents in an effort to spur pro-life voters to take up the (nauseating) lesser of two evils debate. More significantly, as explained by Bill Kristol on FoxNews, Giuliani will likely market himself as a president who would nominate Supreme Court Judges favored by social conservatives:

I think if Giuliani is conservative on judges, if Giuliani says look, I served in the Reagan Justice Department with John Roberts and Samuel Alito, they're the kinds of judges I'll put on the court, I might vote differently as a legislator on abortion, but let's not have the federal courts resolve these issues, let's give them back to the democratic processes in the states -- if he makes that a very key part of his campaign -- his conservative view on judges -- I think he has a chance to overcome social conservative concerns.

The argument would be powerful had Giuliani not previously spoken in favor of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Hannity and Colmes):

COLMES: Now, Roe vs. Wade -- You are pro-choice. How important is it to you as a pro-choice Republican to have a pro-choice on the court as someone... GIULIANI: That is not the critical factor. And what's important to me is to have a very intelligent, very honest, very good lawyer on the court. And [Roberts] fits that category, in the same way Justice Ginsburg fit that category. I mean, she was -- she maybe came at it from a very different political background, very qualified lawyer, very smart person. Lots of Republicans supported her. I expect, and listening to Senator Nelson, I expect that John Roberts will get support from a lot of Democrats.

Prior to her nomination, Ginsburg, a former ACLU counsel, advocated federal funding for abortion and indicated that the so-called right to abortion could be derived from the equal protection clause of the Constitution. Giuliani may make the argument presented by Kristol. If he does, it will ring as hollow as his assertion that he is "personally opposed to abortion."

Posted by tim at February 5, 2007 6:56 PM

Articles Related to Politics: