As discussed here and here, the Republican Party consists of three wings.

First, there’s the Money! wing, whose guiding principal is: “Money. More.” Then the Bombs! wing, whose guiding principal is, “Grrrr! Rrrowf! Rrrowf!.” And finally the Jesus! wing which believes God made gays on the seventh day at a wild post-creation party. (During which God did several things even He can’t remember. And woe unto he who remindeth Him.)

We are down to three Republican candidates, and each is not only a representative of one wing of the party, but the mathematically precise representative of that wing. Each of the three is the perfect embodiment, the distilled essence, of his wing of the GOP. Quite frankly, it’s eerie.
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The axiomatic first rule when you are in a hole is to stop digging. Well, in the aftermath of the 2006 elections, the Republican party remains in a hole. And one of its front-runners just won’t stop digging. (more…)

Bad news for Rudy Giuliani: his presidential bid “has provoked a groundswell of opposition from disparate forces including conservative Catholics, remnants of Pat Buchanan’s presidential campaigns and regional political operatives seeking to break into the Republican firmament.”

The opposition is united in its determination to block Giuliani, a supporter of abortion rights and gay rights, from becoming the GOP’s standard bearer. But lurking just beneath the surface is another motive for these anti-Giuliani conservatives: cash. The groups hope to benefit from a large constituency of donors willing to write big checks to bring down the former New York City mayor. The donors include backers of Giuliani’s competitors as well as ideologues of the right.

The new organizations are relying on two fundraising models, both of which were highly successful in previous attacks. One is the drive in 2005 to force White House counsel Harriet Miers to withdraw her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. That campaign, spearheaded by conservatives opposed to Miers, raised an estimated $2 million. The other is the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign in 2004, which began with a modest budget but ended up raising millions in an effort to destroy John Kerry’s reputation as a war hero.

One of the organizations involved is The Conservative Declaration, based in Michigan, but has supporters in over 30 states.

Paul Nagy, the group’s top-gun in New Hampshire, believes nominating Giuliani would be disastrous for the American conservative movement. Along with other activists, Nagy signed a letter seeking additional signatories to the anti-Rudy declaration. The letter states: “Rudy Giuliani is an unacceptable Republican nominee for President of the United States. He is pro-abortion, pro-partial birth abortion, pro-registration of handguns, and pro-homosexual rights. He is the most liberal Republican candidate for President in our nation’s history.”

The Republican Party really stands for a choice here. Will the Religious Right continue to set the agenda, or will traditional conservatives, libertarian conservatives and moderate Republicans take their party back?

I have expressed my belief that, if the GOP wants to be able to compete in the long run, it has to break with the so-called Religious Right. The reason for this is that I believe that the policies favored by the RR, divide America. They divide America into ‘good people’ and ‘ bad people’, into ’saints’ and ’sinners’.

Conservatism has the potential to appeal to a lot of people: conservatism stands for freedom, personal responsibility and limited government. I’d say focus on that and break with the conquer and divide crowd.

Jerry Falwell, the controversial leader of the so-called moral majority and founder of Liberty University, has died. He was found unconscious in his office around 10.45 AM “and was taken to Lynchburg General Hospital.”

Ron Godwin, Liberty’s executive vice president, said that ‘he was not sure what caused the collapse, but noted that Falwell had “a history of heart challenges”.’

The two had breakfast together this morning, Falwell went to his office, Godwin to his, a couple of hours later Falwell was found unconscious.

Falwell’s story is remarkable: he “was not particularly religious until his sophomore year of college in 1952, when Falwell said he underwent a religious conversion. Instead of accepting an offer to play professional baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals, he transferred to the Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Mo.”

After he graduated, he went back to “Lynchburg, where he founded Thomas Road Baptist Church, which started with 35 members. Today, the church has 24,000 members and the annual revenues of all of his ministries total more than $200 million, according to his biography on Liberty Univeristy’s Web site.”

As the article at MSNBC notes, Falwell became a political force to be reckoned with: in the 1980s, “Falwell saw his political lobbying organization grow to 6.5 million members, raising millions of dollars for conservative politicians and helping to elect Ronald Reagan president.”

In 1989 the Moral Majority was dissolved by Falwell because the aims of the MM had, according Falwell, been achieved. The end of the Moral Majority, however, did not signal the end of Falwell’s political influence: when Clinton was president, Falwell ‘re-entered the political arena […] elling a video that accused then President Clinton of crimes and calling him an “ungodly liar”.’

A loss to many: may God bless his soul. I am a Christian myself and can honestly say that I did not agree with much Falwell said. He was, firstly, too right-wing for me and, secondly, he used God a bit too much; and I’m not talking about in Church. Thirdly, he was a bit too anti-everything for me.

H/t Holly

The Washington Times reports that Christian conservative leaders have indicated that, if Fred Thompson decides to run, he can count on their support.

Thompson will be able to appeal to a significant part of the conservative / Republican base, that much is clear. Will it be enough for him? We will see, first he has to announce his candidacy. What is clear beforehand, is that a Thompson run will hurt… Giuliani quite significantly. For now, many Christian conservatives seem to settle for Giuliani: they refuse to vote for Romney because he’s a Mormon, they refuse to vote for McCain because they don’t trust him and because he made a job out of pissing Christian conservatives off back in ‘00.

If Thompson announced that he’ll run, and he will, everything changes.

“Bart Pals, a county chairman for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, had been given talking points to use when he introduced the former Massachusetts governor at an event in northern Iowa on Wednesday.”

But Mr. Pals chose to depart from the script to assert that Mr. Romney’s shift in recent years against abortion was not a “flip-flop” but the result of a “thoughtful moral process.” He also told the crowd in Clear Lake that he was not turned off by Mr. Romney’s Mormonism.

“My concern is that he has a moral compass,” said Mr. Pals, 48, “and his moral compass is pointing in the same direction as mine.”

Mr. Pals’s conclusion may have been encouraging to Mr. Romney. But the fact that he felt compelled to defend Mr. Romney when it comes to abortion and religion only underscored the challenge Mr. Romney faces as he courts conservative voters in politically significant states like Iowa.

The major obstacles he has to overcome:
- Many conservative Christians believe that Mormonism is a cult, or not much better.
- Many conservative Christians think that the flip-flopped on the issue of abortion for political reasons, not because his views truly ‘evolved.’
- People wonder whether he “as a governor with little foreign policy experience, he has sufficient national security credentials to reassure voters of his ability to be commander in chief at a time when the war in Iraq and the threat of terrorism are overriding issues.”
- Romney’s “signature achievement as governor, the creation of a health care program intended to cover nearly every resident in Massachusetts, has left some conservatives wondering about Mr. Romney’s commitment to small government.”

The NYT’s Michael Luo, however, comments:

Still, the increasingly unsettled state of the Republican field has given him his best chance yet to make progress. He received generally positive reviews in the first Republican debate last week. He has shown he can raise substantial sums of money to finance his bid. He has put together an experienced staff and has begun an effort to reach out to evangelicals in Iowa, South Carolina and other states where social conservatives are an influential voting bloc. And he has an opportunity to capitalize on the problems afflicting his main competitors, former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York and Senator John McCain of Arizona.

I have said for a long while already, that I expect(ed) Romney to rise significantly in the polls. He is, I am afraid to admit, thusfar not living up to my expectations. He is still lagging behind; in the polls, he has not reached the double digits yet for instance.

That being said, I still think that he will rise in the polls and I also believe that Romney is one of the best candidates out there, be they either Republican or Democratic. Romney’s resumée is impressive, to say the least; he is a smooth, inspiring talker; he has shown that he is able to work with Democrats, he was a Republican governor of one of America’s blueest state; his views on matters like abortion ‘evolved’ which should make social conservatives happy; he is a tremendous fundraiser; he was born and bred in politics (his father); he is a successful entrepreneur; he is well educated; he always questions his own beliefs, no positive affirmation with Romney; the list goes on and on.

Key for Romney is to win over a bigger part of the social conservative base. He does not need all of them to rally up behind him (for that will never happen since he is a Mormon), all he needs is the support of a sizeable part of the social conservative base. That is all he needs and he knows it. Once he rises in the polls to, say, 15%, more people will start paying attention to him and he will rise even more.