The likelihood of Rudy Giuliani winning the Republican nomination has some Christian conservatives threatening to back a third party candidate.
Just as Ross Perot swooped in to open the doors of the White House to Bill Clinton in 1992, Hillary might get a similar gift from the disgruntled Christian Right.
WASHINGTON -- Barely three months before the voting for a new president begins, the religious right has yet to unite behind a Republican candidate, heightening concerns among evangelical leaders that social liberal Rudolph W. Giuliani will capture the party's nomination.
The splintering of religious conservatives, if it endures, could ease the way for New York's former mayor to emerge as the party's first nominee to explicitly support abortion rights since the Supreme Court legalized the procedure in 1973.
...In the presidential race, several of the lower-tier candidates have cast themselves as staunch supporters of the Christian right's priorities -- most obviously Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas. But few observers see those candidates' prospects as realistic. And many social conservatives have doubts about the higher-profile contenders vying with Giuliani.
"There's just no enthusiasm for this crop of first-tier candidates," said Richard Viguerie, a veteran conservative activist and author. "Not one of them is a principled conservative, so why support them?"
Leaders of Christian conservative groups are threatening to back a third-party candidate in an attempt to stop Giuliani from winning the nomination, the New York Times reported Sunday.
...James C. Dobson, one of the country's most influential evangelicals, told allies in a recent e-mail that [Fred] Thompson could not "speak his way out of a paper bag."
"He has no passion, no zeal, and no apparent 'want to,' " the founder and chairman of Focus on the Family wrote. "And yet he is apparently the Great Hope that burns in the breasts of many conservative Christians? Well, not for me, my brothers. Not for me!"
..."Perhaps more than ever, electability is part of the thing that social conservatives are weighing, because the prospect of Hillary Clinton is so disturbing to them," said Gary Bauer, a conservative activist who ran for president in 2000. "They're looking for both the candidate who is closest to their views but also the candidate that they credibly think can win."
Giuliani argues that he fits that bill, even as Bauer and others continue scouting for someone else.
For now, some key evangelical leaders say religious conservatives must soon join forces to back Romney, Thompson or another candidate -- whatever his flaws -- to stop Giuliani.
Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said the early caucuses and primaries in January would show whether conservative evangelicals understood "that politics is the art of the possible, and you don't make the perfect the enemy of the good."
"Sometimes," he said, "three-quarters of a loaf is better than none."
It appears that some Christian conservatives can't see the forest for the trees.
Any of the Republican candidates, with the exception of Ron Paul, is far superior to any of the Democrat candidates.
Christian conservatives aren't entirely comfortable with any of the top tier Republican candidates.
That's too bad.
Giuliani and, to a lesser extent, Thompson aren't socially conservative enough, especially when it comes to abortion. Romney, too, is questionable on abortion and other social issues.
So what?
While they may not be perfect, backing a third party candidate would be suicidal.
It would guarantee that a liberal Dem, most likely Hillary Clinton, would control the White House.
That's particularly troubling given that the next president can expect to fill at least two Supreme Court vacancies and potentially impact the direction of the country on social issues for a generation, not just the span of a presidential term.
Giuliani has explicitly stated that he would appoint strict constructionist judges like John Roberts and Samuel Alito. Thompson has said the same.
If Giuliani or Thompson wins the Republican nomination, the Christian Right can take solace in that.
When it comes to social issues, having the power to select judicial nominees is critical.
The Christian Right needs to understand that there's nothing noble in stubbornness and threats that would land a Democrat in the White House.
Evangelicals aren't selling out by supporting Giuliani or Thompson or Romney.
Supporting a third party candidate would be selling out their principles.
They need to get a grip and cut the hissy fits.
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