Speaking of the Republicans’ top-tier presidential candidates (see below), former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is — get this — pitching himself as “in sync” with the views of the GOP’s base.
In interviews, several of [Giuliani’s financial backers] said the former mayor had discussed his potential liabilities in a Republican primary — perhaps the greatest being his liberal views on social issues like abortion and gay rights.
“Certainly one of the first questions that was asked was how his views on things like gun control and pro-choice and gay marriage would affect the views of the party in terms of nominating him,” Mr. Immergut said.
“He talked specifically about what his views on those issues were, and he said that his own view was that when he was able to engage in conversations with party members who were more on the right, they could understand that his views were not as black and white as they had been painted.”
Mr. Immergut added, “He said that for many important issues, his views would be right in sync with the huge majority of Republicans.”
To be sure, this isn’t entirely new. [tag]Giuliani[/tag] campaigned a few months ago with Rick Santorum. Asked about the fact that Giuliani and [tag]Santorum[/tag] appear to disagree on practically every social issue in the senator’s book, Giuliani said Santorum had “taken many positions. Most of them I agree with.”
No one, not even the most sycophantic far-right GOP true believer, is gullible enough to believe any of this.
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Giuliani isn’t just burdened by a few isolated issues on which he’s strayed from the conservative line; he’s committed himself to liberal positions on nearly every issue conservative activists care about. He’s not only pro-choice, he’s come out against the ban on so-called “partial-birth” abortion. He’s not only pro-gay, he lived with a gay couple during his mayoral tenure. He’s not only “soft” on conservative’s notion of marriage, he marched in a parade with his mistress.
For that matter, Giuliani was a Democrat for most of his life and endorsed Mario Cuomo’s gubernatorial campaign in 1994 over Republican George Pataki.
In what universe is Giuliani “right in sync with the huge majority of Republicans”?
Greg Sargent noted:
…Rudy’s impending effort to pull off a convincing ideological self-transformation is going to form one of the more interesting storylines to watch as we move into the Presidential race.
I’m very much inclined to agree. If nothing else, Giuliani’s rhetorical acrobatics should be hilarious.
I’ve seen some interesting spin jobs over the years, but this one looks literally impossible. If anyone can explain to me how someone who once famously said, “I’m pro-choice. I’m pro-gay rights,” can now present himself as being on the same page as the GOP base, I’m all ears.