Consider yourselves warned

Without even mentioning his name, James Dobson tells the Republican Party it had better not even think about nominating Rudy Giuliani for president.

The context is a discussion that took place at a meeting of religious conservative leaders in Salt Lake City, Utah.

If neither of the two major political parties nominates an individual who pledges himself or herself to the sanctity of human life, we will join others in voting for a minor-party candidate. Those agreeing with the proposition were invited to stand. The result was almost unanimous.

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Speaking personally, and not for the organization I represent or the other leaders gathered in Salt Lake City, I firmly believe that the selection of a president should begin with a recommitment to traditional moral values and beliefs. Those include the sanctity of human life, the institution of marriage, and other inviolable pro-family principles. Only after that determination is made can the acceptability of a nominee be assessed.

The other approach, which I find problematic, is to choose a candidate according to the likelihood of electoral success or failure. Polls don’t measure right and wrong; voting according to the possibility of winning or losing can lead directly to the compromise of one’s principles. In the present political climate, it could result in the abandonment of cherished beliefs that conservative Christians have promoted and defended for decades. Winning the presidential election is vitally important, but not at the expense of what we hold most dear.

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If the major political parties decide to abandon conservative principles, the cohesion of pro-family advocates will be all too apparent in 2008.

If any of the Big Money power brokers in the GOP thought Christian conservatives would go along to get along on this one, they were wrong. They're not about to give up on a decades-long project to impose their religious views on this country. And, they're not about to endorse Giuliani just because they're afraid of Hillary.

[Mike Farris, founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association], who has joined members of the Arlington Group in their interviews of Republican presidential hopefuls, said that Giuliani in the White House would be more damaging to social conservatives’ policy objectives than Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). Farris said that Giuliani and Clinton are similarly liberal on social issues. The difference is that Republicans in Congress would oppose Clinton’s agenda while they would feel obliged to support Giuliani, he said. Farris has endorsed former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) for president.

The GOP has a problem.