Republicans Want to Like Rudy

John Podhoretz writes a column today in which he explains why Republicans, even social conservatives, want to like Rudy Giuliani:

Republicans not only like Rudy, they want to like him. Conservative Republicans want to like him. Socially conservative Republicans want to like him.

In this respect, he represents a momentous change from prior candidates hailing from outside the party's socially conservative wing.

Past "liberal" GOP candidates and would-be candidates have sought the nomination by taking strong stands counter to the views of the party's conservative base - like Elizabeth Dole opposing handguns in 2000. Those candidates, that is, were engaging in battle against the social conservatives. They were fighting a culture war within the GOP, trying to rally the party's more socially liberal elements - women and suburbanites in particular - to defeat the hard-line element.

Even John McCain, with a sterling Senate voting record on such matters, ran for president in 2000 by criticizing social conservatives when it came to abortion for what he called "the polarization that has existed and continues on this issue."

Rudy, by contrast, is trying to convince social conservatives that he's their friend. They disagree on certain matters, he'll say, but on the key issue of our time - the struggle of the West against Islamic extremism - they'll never have a better or more staunch ally and leader.

And while his personal views on some issues may differ from theirs, he'll appoint judges in the manner of Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts and Samuel Alito - which is, in the end, most of what a president can do to support the ideas in which social conservatives deeply believe.

As I stated in a previous post, when it comes to the big issue with social conservatives - abortion - there's not really that much the president can do. President Bush is pro-life, but that hasn't slowed abortion one bit. What he has done is appoint Supreme Court judges who tend toward strict constructionism, and who don't seem eager to find new rights under every clause.
Rudy indicated in a Hannity and Colmes interview on Monday that he very much favors the same kind of judges, and that can go along way to crossing the gulf between social conservatives and the pro-choice candidate. You can read more about Rudy's view on judicial appointments here.