Religious Right keeps up pressure on Rudy

All those who think James Dobson is not serious when he talks of a third-party challenge if Rudy Giuliani becomes the GOP candidate, think again. Many speculate that the Religious Right is just trying to influence the primary process by undermining Giuliani's electability argument, and that conservative leaders would not take the risk of throwing the election to Hillary Clinton when the time comes. But it also appeared that these leaders were concerned that a Giuliani nomination would permanently kill off their influence on the GOP by showing other Republicans that they can win Republican primaries without being social conservatives. This makes Clinton, not Giuliani, the lesser of two evils.

And this is exactly what Dobson told Sean Hannity last night on Fox News. Asked whether Clinton is not the lesser of two evils, Dobson answered:

If Rudy Giuliani wins, I’m telling you, the pro-life and pro-family movement is over. It is gone. If it’s Hillary, as bad as she is, there will be a mobilization to fight what she’s trying to do. If he is put in office by conservatives, and those who are pro-life and pro-marriage and pro-family, I’m afraid we will not recover from it.

Not the words of someone who is preparing to come back in the Republican tent that easily.

Also today, the Iowa Christian Alliance sent out an e-mail newsletter blasting Giuliani for skipping events with social conservatives and failing to answer religious voters' concern.

Rudy Giuliani, the Republican front-runner in national polls, has avoided meeting with the nation's most powerful social conservative leaders, and instead is taking his appeal directly to conservative activists at the local level... Rudy is offending the Christian voters across the nation by doing this "end run" around the right's leaders. How can he do this and still win in the general election if he were the Republican nominee for president? ... How can Rudy expect to accomplish this fete when he has gone out of his way to be contrary to so many issues important to the "base" of the Republican Party, after they have been "snubbed" -- our issues and events evaded? If Rudy is defeated in a general election (and he might be defeated by a landslide), many other good pro-family candidates will be dragged down to defeat as well because the base might decide to "sit this one out.

Giuliani decided yesterday to attend the conference of the very powerful Family Research Counil, led by anti-Giuliani Tony Perkins, on October 20. He was the last of the Republican candidates to RSVP, which might indicate he is starting to feel the heat. He knows he does not need the Religious Right's support, but can he afford their hostility? Rudy went to the NRA's meeting to diffuse the group's anger and get them to not openly oppose his bid. He appears to have parly succeeded there -- will he attempt and manage the same thing at the FRC?

And most importantly, will he field a phone call from his wife in the middle of his FRC speech, making sure to proclaim his familial love to the world in the process?