Littwin: Giuliani soft-pedals own positions

By Mike Littwin, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published April 24, 2007 at midnight

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SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Conventional wisdom can't always be wrong. Therefore, even before I got to South Carolina, I didn't see how basically pro-choice, pro-gun-control, pro-gay rights, pro-illegal immigrant Rudy Giuliani could win the Republican primary here.

Now that I'm here, I still don't see how.

Because, if I didn't mention this before, Giuliani is basically pro-choice, pro-gun control, pro-gay rights and pro-illegal immigration, and this is South Carolina.

But what really convinced me was a conversation with Christina Jeffrey, who's pro-none of the above, but who's also a big Giuliani supporter.

I met her at the Spartanburg County Republican convention Saturday - one stop on a South Carolina presidential candidate mini-tour. There were four conventions that day, and as many as six candidates showed up, including Giuliani and Mitt Romney - but not John McCain, which is another story.

And it all matters. The South Carolina primary is situated between New Hampshire and the new Super-Sized Tuesday. And since 1980, no one has won the Republican nomination without winning here.

Giuliani was well-received. He even signed Rudy T-shirts with live bodies inside them. But it was Mike Huckabee who got the highest rating from conventioneers. (There was an actual rating. Conventioneers filled out forms. They're serious here.) Huckabee, by the way, is the other governor from Hope, Ark., the one who jokes about Hope, "Give us another chance." He's trying to be the conservative hope for those unhappy with what some are calling Rudy McRomney - the best line in the campaign so far.

Arguing for Giuliani

But Christina Jeffrey has found her candidate. She's serious enough about Giuliani that she's standing in the Dorman High School gym, pulling the tape from the back of "Rudy" posters and stacking them for the next event.

I'm trying to understand her devotion, other than the fact that she does freelance work for a public relations company employed by Giuliani.

She's a South Carolina conservative who can trace her roots here to the 1600s. "We're inbred like all South Carolinians," she said, pulling away another piece of tape. "I did my duty by marrying an Iowan to improve the gene pool."

She has five children. And her most important issue, she says, is abortion. And Giuliani's stance is: He says he personally hates abortion, which is the default position for most pro-choice candidates.

"I want the United States of America to win the war against the terrorists," Jeffrey said, explaining her support of Giuliani. "I think abortion is the No. 1 issue facing the people of America, but it's not the No. 1 issue that a president can influence."

Of course, Giuliani has problems other than abortion for social conservatives, and I'm not including the multi-marriage issue. When I point this out to Jeffrey, she points to a white-haired man in a suit. She says he's a "famous" social conservative in the state who used to work on Wall Street when Giuliani was mayor.

"He tells me you have to march in the Gay Pride parade if you want to be elected in New York," she said. "And it's hard to get elected there if you're pro-life.

"He says that Giuliani is not really pro-choice. He insists he's not. I know Giuliani is a Catholic who was raised Catholic. Even if he is pro-choice, if he's really pro-choice, at least he understands the argument."

I tell her it's all on the record. I can show her Giuliani saying government should pay for abortions for poor women. It's as easy to find as YouTube. Isn't she guilty, I ask, of wishful thinking?

"We want to win here in South Carolina," she said. "We know math. We know how to add."

She stops and laughs.

"I'm as capable of wishful thinking as anybody."

Problems that don't pass

Now I begin to understand. Obviously, many people now drawn to Giuliani - people like Jeffrey - don't agree with him on basic issues. But it isn't that they don't know what he believes. It's that they don't want to know what he believes.

I don't see how that lasts for an entire campaign. There's wishful thinking, and there's also the force of history.

We're eight months from the Iowa caucuses, and history will inevitably intrude. Every campaign has problems. Some will pass - say, John Edwards and his $400 haircuts or McCain and his Bomb Bomb Iran, Beach Boys imitation.

But for Giuliani, history can be a real problem on any date that is not on or around 9/1 1/2001. Immediately after the Virginia Tech killings, McCain offered up his fealty to the Second Amendment, saying he believed in "no gun control."

This was a pre-emptive strike for McCain, who has his own bad memories of South Carolina. It was a strike both against the Democrats, who really don't want to talk about gun control, and Giuliani, who really, really doesn't want to talk about gun control.

Giuliani tries to finesse the issue. When I asked him about it, he talked about his respect for the Second Amendment and for "reasonable" restrictions on guns. And then he says about Virginia Tech that laws may not have been followed and that "there were other laws that made it a gun-free zone, even for adults. All of that has to be looked at."

This is the same Giuliani who has said that getting rid of guns in New York is what helped cut the crime rate, whose administration sued gun companies for negligence, who has blasted states (like Virginia) for lax gun laws, who has said "anyone wanting to own a gun should have to pass a written exam that shows that they know how to use a gun, that they're intelligent enough and responsible enough to handle a gun." He's the man who stood with Bill Clinton when he signed the Brady Bill.

Room for disagreement

Giuliani knows the score. He gives a good speech. He's made millions giving speeches. He tells the crowd that if he can tame New York that Washington would be a "breeze." He reminds everyone that he's the person with the most experience dealing with terrorism. He's electable. But can he be nominated?

His biggest applause line Saturday came when discussing immigration and how anyone who becomes a citizen needs to read and write and speak English. On the same day, there's a story in The New York Times about Giuliani's long support for immigration rights, including those of illegal immigrants. You can see a trend here. And a problem.

So can Giuliani. On this stop, as on most, Giuliani assures the crowd not to worry if they don't always agree: "I don't always even agree with myself."

To which I say: Exactly.

littwinm@rockymountainnews.com.

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