Guiliani: I'd appoint 'strict constructionist' judges

M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News

Published July 18, 2007 at midnight

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COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani promised today to appoint "strict constructionist" judges to the federal bench, but he made it clear he wouldn’t use abortion or any other issues as a "litmus test" when making nominations.

Giuliani, starting two days of rare barnstorming across the first caucus state of Iowa, chose a school gym in Council Bluffs to make his first expanded speech on his approach to judicial appointments.

In the speech, he went out of his way to praise the four most conservative members of the current U.S. Supreme Court — Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, and two nominees of of President Bush, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito.

"These are the kinds of judges I would appoint," he said, calling them "strict constructionists" who interpret, rather than re-write, the U.S. Constitution.

The term "strict constructionists" is one often used by religious conservatives who say they want judges who will overturn, among other past decisions, the landmark abortion rights ruling Roe v. Wade.

But Giuliani, who faces skepticism among some conservatives over his support for abortion rights, also praised judges appointed during his time serving in the Justice Department of former President Ronald Reagan.

That includes former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who, until her retirement, was seen as a pivotal swing vote whose presence on the court helped keep abortion rights in place.

Talking to reporters after the speech, Giuliani said he admires O’Connor "very, very much," but that he would pick Supreme Court justices in the mold of Roberts, Alito, Scalia and Thomas.

"The abortion question is not a litmus test," Giuliani said. "Roe against Wade is not a litmus test. No particular case is a litmus test ... This is my humble opinion, as somebody who has practiced in federal courts, even argued before the Supreme Court, that’s not the way to appoint a Supreme Court Justice or any judge. Any really good candidate for judge, when you ask them the question, will tell you I don’t know the answer to that question and I do not know that question until I hear the arguments in the case. Otherwise, why do we have legal arguments, if not to give judges a chance to change their minds."

Although he leads in the national polls, Giuliani has been a rare sight this year in Iowa, the state where the first votes will be cast at caucuses in January 2008.

For the moment, the Republican polls in Iowa are led by former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, who was scheduled to appear at a GOP event in Colorado Springs tonight.

Giuliani recently announced he plans to skip the non-binding but closely-watched Ames Straw Poll, and he has had to fight a perception that he is conceding Iowa while focusing on a national campaign.

His two-day campaign swing, starting in Republican-leaning communities not far from the Nebraska border, is his attempt to change that perception while also reaching out to the more conservative parts of the GOP base that make up a disproportionate proportion of Iowa caucus participants.

In the small, farming town of Sloan, he shook hands, signed autographs and posed for pictures inside a jam-packed diner.

"This is the first time I saw a candidate, ever," said 86-year-old Frieda Craig of Sloan. "He shook my hand. To me, that’s the highlight of my 86 years."

Up to this point, Giuliani has been mostly invisible to would-be Iowa supporters, scheduling only a handful of pop-in visits, mostly to Iowa’s larger cities. But David Yepsen, the Des Moines Register’s veteran political columnist, wrote this week that Giuliani and his team now appear to "get it."

"They get they can win Iowa. And they get they’ve got to spend time in the state to do it," Yepsen wrote in his blog. "Until now, there (has) been doubt the former New York mayor understood those things."

On the stump, Giuliani has been touting his 12 "commitments" to voters, like a pledge to stay "on the offense" against terrorism and hold down the size of government. He touts his experience as mayor of New York City, both before and after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

But he also talks tough on Iraq and, as much as anyone else in the Republican field, he frequently takes aim at Democrats who have called the Iraq war "lost" or are pushing for an immediate U.S. troop withdrawal. Whether that close affiliation with the unpopular war hurts him in a general election is a question for later. For now, he wins loud applause from staunch Republicans who come to these events — even some who are skeptical of Giuliani’s positions on abortion, immigration or other issues.

"I was impressed with him," said retired businessman Mel Torneten, 74, of Council Buffs, who liked what Giuliani said in response to a question comparing the end of the Vietnam War to a potential withdrawal from Iraq. "We’re wanting to turn tail again and run. The Vietnam War was like that."

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