For a while, it looked like [tag]Rudy Giuliani[\/tag] had a clear-but-dubious strategy in talking to GOP primary voters about his pro-choice views: insist it wouldn’t matter. Sure, he<\/i> supports abortion rights, Giuliani would say, but his judicial nominees<\/i> would be Scalia-like conservatives who would ultimately reject everything Giuliani believes in. Problem solved!<\/p>\n
Except, at some point over the last few weeks, Giuliani realized this a) doesn’t make any sense; and b) isn’t going to work. The former NYC mayor has decided to peek behind Door #2 — insist his pro-choice positions don’t matter because abortion doesn’t matter.<\/p>\n
Two weeks ago, this led [tag]Giuliani[\/tag] to admit that he supports<\/a> public funding of abortion. Over the weekend, it led Giuliani to tell Republicans<\/a> to change their priorities.<\/p>\n Giuliani made his sharpest case for moving beyond social issues this weekend in Iowa, telling The Des Moines Register, “Our party is going to grow, and we are going to win in 2008 if we are a party characterized by what we’re for, not if we’re a party that’s known for what we’re against.” <\/p>\n Asked about abortion, he said, “Our party has to get beyond issues like that.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Thanks for stopping by the booth, Rudy, we have some lovely parting gifts for you (none of which include a Republican Party presidential nomination).<\/p>\n Rich Lowry was clearly unhappy<\/a> with the remarks, while Hot Air, suggesting that Giuliani may have been taken a little out of context, nevertheless said<\/a>, “Giuliani may have just cost himself the nomination…. I was giving Giuliani a close look in spite of quite a few things, because he projects strength on the war. But telling social conservatives to ‘get over it’ is arrogant. It also betrays what he really thinks about the pro-life movement.”<\/p>\n Giuliani has to know these questions are coming, which suggests his “get over it” message is his idea of an effective campaign pitch. Good luck with that, Mr. Mayor. “I’m in the private sector and for the first time in my life I’m earning money,” Thompson told the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. “You know that’s sort of part of the Jewish tradition, and I do not find anything wrong with that.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n After he left the stage, someone apparently told Thompson, who is Roman Catholic, that this was an incredibly dumb thing to say, so he went back to the podium to “clarify.”<\/p>\n “I just want to clarify something because I didn’t [by] any means want to infer or imply anything about Jews and finances and things. What I was referring to, ladies and gentlemen, is the accomplishments of the Jewish religion. You’ve been outstanding businesspeople and I compliment you for that.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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\nAnd then, of course, there’s former Wisconsin governor and former HHS Secretary [tag]Tommy Thompson[\/tag], who told a Jewish group yesterday that earning money is “part of the Jewish tradition<\/a>.” It was his idea of a complement.<\/p>\n