In the new Weekly Standard, Fred Barnes has a useful piece on Giuliani and social conservatives. He advises the Republican frontrunner that his abortion position will be a problem, and suggests some steps short of embracing the pro-life label Giualini could take to address it. But the most important item in Barnes’s piece is this: He quotes Giuliani saying he would veto any attempt by the Democratic Congress to gut the Hyde Amendment. This is the first time I’m aware of that he’s been willing to make his new support of the Hyde Amendment that concrete. If Giuliani actually says this publicly, it will be a sign that the new social conservative campaign against him — as inept as I think it has generally been so far — is having some effect.
