The Wall Street Journal
Rudy and the Right
May 11, 2007; Page A10
As if Republicans don't have enough problems, their Presidential candidates and interest groups seem eager to re-stage a fight over abortion the American public doesn't want to hear. Blame both Rudy Giuliani and his conservative critics, but if the GOP wants to lose in 2008 they should keep this up.
(snip)
Mr. Giuliani has wandered all over town on the issue, saying one week that he favors federal funding for abortions, while later noting "It'd be OK" if Roe v. Wade were overturned and "OK" if it wasn't. In a recent interview on CNN, he said he supported a "strict constructionist" reading of the Constitution while also saying he believed abortion "is a Constitutional right ultimately." The missteps speak to a lack of discipline by Mr. Giuliani, or perhaps a lack of preparation by a first-time Presidential candidate. He would do better to be consistent and direct, which by mid-week his aides were saying he finally plans to be. It isn't as if Mr. Giuliani doesn't have a case to make. Whatever his personal views, the political reality is that abortion policy is now determined largely by the courts.
(snip)
Say that Roe was overturned and abortion again became a matter for states to regulate. Most would probably enact measures reflecting the rough public consensus that abortion should be legal but more restricted than it now is. We doubt there would be any major or radical shifts. In 2006, voters in South Dakota -- not Manhattan or Vermont -- overturned a ban on most abortions that the state Legislature had passed the previous year.
As for the politics of 2008, the last thing the GOP needs is another intramural abortion brawl. As a resurgent Democratic Party advances all manner of misguided proposals for the economy, taxes, national security, health care, energy and the environment, voters need Republicans to revive their own reform agenda. An abortion fight will make the party seem irrelevant to the main voter concerns, or captive to its litmus test interests. Mr. Giuliani has his strengths and weaknesses, but he shouldn't be disqualified for the nomination because of his views on a single issue that a President can't do much to change other than through the courts. The only victor in a drawn-out GOP abortion donnybrook will be the Democrat who winds up in the White House.
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