Rudy Brushes Off Talk Of Third-Party Challenge From Right
Rudy today responded to all the stories about how influential conservative leaders are meeting to discuss the possibility of backing a third-party challenge from the right should he win the nomination:
"I'm working on one party right now -- the Republican Party," Giuliani said. "I believe we are reaching out very, very well to Republicans. The emphasis is on fiscal conservatism, which brings Republicans together."
People who know Rudy well are telling each other today that they recognize a familiar Rudy response here: Ignoring the threat, and indeed, brushing it off. Indeed, there's a backstory here that people unfamiliar with Rudy might not know about: Specifically, Rudy has found himself in this very same place before.
Back when Rudy was running for Senate against Hillary in 2000, the leader of New York's conservative party, ex-Marine and liquor store owner Michael Long, was putting heavy pressure on Rudy, saying he wouldn't back the Mayor because of his views on abortion and gay rights. This was no idle threat: The backing of the Conservative Party, which at the time held over 300,000 members, is essential for Republicans looking to overcome their disadvantage in New York to win statewide office.
At the time, Rudy refused to make any conciliatory gestures at all in the Conservative chief's direction, and in fact lambasted him repeatedly in the press, ratcheting up their confrontation to fever pitch. Rudy, of course, dropped out of that race before the confrontation could be resolved one way or the other.
Seven years later, Rudy is again banking on the fact that these conservative leaders will have nowhere to go but to him, and will ultimately blink. He stuck with this last time, and Rudy watchers are whispering today that they expect him to stick with it again.
Comments (3)
Daniel wrote on October 1, 2007 7:51 PM:Unfortunately for Rudy, there are other factors also that indicate his moderate social positions and personal life might come back to haunt him. The cell phone incident at the NRA might have been the turning point of media coverage, as that keeps making news, with a very negative op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today about it. Giuliani made matters worse by justifing this by invoking... 9-11. He really has no way to hide from the perception this was a staged stunt meant to hide Giuliani's messy personal history.
gqmartinez wrote on October 1, 2007 8:44 PM:At the old TPM EC site I said I'd like Giuliani to be the nominee to force the so-called values voters to chose between the economic policies of the Republicans (the "you're on your own" YOYO society) or that of the Democrats (more "populist" and socially just). Giuliani offsets the "values" issues so the religious right would have to make a revealing choice.
Gopher Interloper wrote on October 1, 2007 10:38 PM:-- To use what might be a politically incorrect term, this situation (if true) is a "Mexican standoff". The religious right are saying "flip-flop, Rudy, or else we'll leave"; although, the stories make it sound like their real agenda is to push Romney into the lead. Rudy is saying "I'M in the lead and I'VE got the best chance to beat HillBillary; if you leave, conservatives will lose the White House". It is highly doubtful that Rudy will change his stance, so either the Theocrats will blink first, or someone -- most likely Huckabee -- will get new life as the spoiler who might guarantee a Democrat victory by taking votes away from Rudy.
Definition: "socially just". Just ask your paternalistic (or is it 'maternalistic'?) government for what you want and they'll play Robin Hood in order to get it for you.
