The American Spectator

Many of the emails I received regarding my recent column on Rudy Giuliani agreed with my premise that his social liberalism outweighs his important stances on national defense and fiscal conservatism. Still, many more are willing to overlook this; they remain convinced that Rudy is their guy, based mainly on his promise to appoint originalist judges and the “fact” that no other candidate can beat Hillary Clinton.

p>As to the first, what, besides his say-so, gives so many conservatives the idea that he’ll appoint strict constructionalists? One reader lauded Giuliani’s “consistency of sticking to his views” as one reason. But consistent or not, his view of Second Amendment rights is surely not that of someone with an “originalist” mindset: br> /p>

[I]’s part of the Constitution. People have the right to bear arms. Then the restrictions of it have to be reasonable and sensible. You can’t just remove that right. You’ve got to regulate, consistent with the Second Amendment.

br> Besides his disingenuous use of the word “regulate,” the notion that he favors any restrictions on the liberties enumerated in the Bill of Rights — from which governmental interference is strictly prohibited — is disturbing. Worse yet, what sort of originalist would make this compromise: br>

I was in favor of it [the Brady Bill] because I thought that it was necessary both to get the crime bill passed and also necessary with the 2,000 murders or so that we were looking at, 1,800, 1,900, to 2,000 murders, that I could use that in a tactical way to reduce crime. And I did.

br> It seems to me that he is open to abuse of the U.S Constitution in order to serve a “greater good.” I suspect that the overwhelming majority of conservatives would agree that when the supreme law of the land is at stake, the end can never justifies the means. p>Also, someone who suggests that there is a “right” to abortion, is clearly not thinking along originalist lines either. But for this stand he is lauded by the liberal media as a mainstream Republican who is independent from the religious fanatics of the party’s far-right wing. Are they correct? Here’s a little quiz. Whence comes the following quote? br> /p>

We must keep our pledge to the first guarantee of the Declaration of Independence. That is why we say the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and we endorse legislation to make it clear that the 14th Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children. Our purpose is to have legislative and judicial protection of that right against those who perform abortions.