Marginalizing themselves

A group of Christian conservative leaders gathered over the weekend to fume about the possibility of Rudy Giuliani winning the GOP nomination. They are talking about fielding a third party candidate if Giuliani is the Republican nominee.

Some of the nation's most politically influential conservative Christians, alarmed by the prospect of a Republican presidential nominee who supports abortion rights, are considering backing a third-party candidate.

More than 40 Christian conservatives attended a meeting Saturday in Salt Lake City to discuss the possibility, and planned more gatherings on how they should move forward, according to Richard A. Viguerie, the direct-mail expert and longtime conservative activist.

If they really did carry through with their threats to field a third party candidate, it would be a disaster. Not only for Republicans but for such cultural conservatives. They could siphon off enough votes to guarantee Hillary Clinton's election. Is that going to endear them to the Republican Party? Think of how fond Democrats are of Ralph Nader now. And do they want to get the Republican Party used to running without their votes. Wouldn't they be more influential working within the party to hold Giuliani to his promises to appoint judges in the Roberts and Alito mold?

They would do better to listen to Gary Bauer's advice.

"Nobody has actually voted in a Republican primary yet. And so I think that it's just a time for reflection and long-term strategy, rather than this kind of approach," Bauer says. "And it's not clear to me how by blowing up the Republican Party and guaranteeing the election of Hillary Clinton – it's not clear to me how that ends up saving unborn children, since I know, without a shadow of a doubt, the kind of judges President Clinton would put on the Supreme Court."

There is a candidate in the race right now who fits all the needs of these cultural conservatives - Mike Huckabee. They could be mobilizing behind him. If Huckabee started moving in the polls and surpassing expectations in the early states, these conservatives might be able to convince Giuliani (if he were to win the nomination) to put Huckabee on the ticket to alleviate some of this cultural conservative angst. Huckabee is a nice balance for all the personal flaws of Rudy Giuliani. Of course, I don't know how much the vice presidential nominee actually does serve to erase the personal weaknesses at the head of the ticket - think of Lieberman and Gore - but having a Vice President Huckabee would do more for these guys than trying to field a failed and disastrous third party candidate.