Abortion-Rights Supporters Lieberman, Giuliani To Speak At Republican Convention

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 22 Aug 2008 - 5:00 PDT

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Republican Party officials announced Wednesday that abortion-rights supporters Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) will be given featured speaking slots at next month's Republican National Convention, the Washington Post reports. According to the Post, the decision to include Lieberman and Giuliani in the convention lineup furthered concerns among some social conservatives that Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) would consider adding an abortion-rights supporter to the ticket (Barnes, Washington Post, 8/21).

According to the AP/Hartford Courant, Lieberman, who was the Democratic Party's vice presidential nominee in 2000, is considered to be a serious contender for the vice president slot on the Republican ticket this year. Some Republican officials said top McCain advisers have been reaching out to large donors and high-profile delegates in key states to gauge what kind of effect a vice presidential nominee who supports abortion rights would have on voters.

Conservative advocates are "waging an increasingly vocal campaign against the move, raising the prospect of acrimony at the convention," the AP/Courant reports. Some Republicans have speculated that Lieberman's name is being floated as a potential running mate only to make former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge (R) -- who also supports abortion rights and was cited by McCain as a potential vice presidential choice in an interview last week with The Weekly Standard -- seem more acceptable to conservatives, according to the AP/Courant (Miga, AP/Hartford Courant, 8/20).

Giuliani on Wednesday said the Republican Party would support a vice presidential nominee who supports abortion rights. "Any choice you make for vice president has pros and cons, and that's true for both" Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and McCain, Giuliani said, adding, "It seems to me that the Republican Party is not, as far as I can tell, ... a one-issue party. [Abortion rights] would just be one issue among many that would have to be evaluated."

Giuliani, who was criticized by some conservative leaders for his support of abortion rights during his own presidential run, said that he has spoken with McCain about the issue and said that he believes McCain will pick a running mate who would be able to be president if necessary. "Our main criteria is knowing we could sleep at night knowing they could be president of the United States," Giuliani said, adding that McCain will "select the best person who's able to do that, and if that person happens to be pro-choice, the party will support that" (Rushing, The Hill, 8/20).

Reaction

Although adding Lieberman and Giuliani was intended to attract moderates and independents to McCain's campaign, "it seemed destined to add fuel to the fight already smoldering over abortion rights," the Los Angeles Times reports. Since The Weekly Standard interview, McCain has been trying to "shore up his conservative credentials," particularly during Saturday's forum moderated by influential evangelical minister Rick Warren at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., according to the Times. During the forum, McCain said that his administration would have "pro-life policies." McCain during a town hall meeting Wednesday in Las Cruces, N.M., declined to discuss his vice presidential selection process but said he "will nominate a person to be vice president ... who shares [his] principles, ... values and ... priorities" (Drogin/Reston, Los Angeles Times, 8/21).

In an interview with conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham Wednesday, McCain said that he made it "very clear" at the Saddleback forum that he has a "pro-life record, ... pro-life policies" and that his administration would have "pro-life policies." In response, Ingraham said that from the "conservative perspective, we are literally imploring you to not turn your back on your great pro-life record over decades now" (Bacon, "The Trail," Washington Post, 8/20).

Washington Post Examines Recent Polls on Abortion Issues

Recent polling finds that abortion rights ranked near the bottom of top issues in the presidential campaign: just 2% of respondents named it their single most important consideration in a June Washington Post-ABC News poll, the Post reports. However, for a "small, yet substantial, group of voters," a candidate's position on abortion rights remains a "dealbreaker" when deciding which presidential candidate to vote for, according to the Post.

The Post reports that overall, the U.S. is "fairly evenly divided" on abortion issues, with the majority favoring the "pro-choice" view by a narrow margin. In the June Post-ABC poll, 53% of respondents said abortion should be legal most or all of time, and 44% said it should be illegal most or all of the time. The poll indicates that people who support abortion rights are about as likely to consider the issue central to their vote as people who oppose abortion rights.

Nearly two-thirds of Democrats said abortion should be legal in most cases, while about six in 10 Republicans said abortion should be illegal most of the time. According to the poll, independents are split nearly in half, with 52% supporting legal abortion in most or all cases. Opinions on this question have remained relatively stable in polling going back to the late 1990s, the Post reports (Agiesta/Dropp, Washington Post, 8/20).

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