New York Daily News
To centrist voters attracted to presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani for his moderate views on social issues like abortion and gay rights, the endorsement of his campaign last week by televangelist Pat Robertson is dispiriting.
The man who infamously assented when the late Jerry Falwell blamed 9/11 on feminists, abortion doctors and gays seems the most unlikely supporter of the former New York mayor. Even stranger is that the chief architect of the evangelical Christian conservative political movement - one of the nation's most strident supporters of prayer in the public schools - would endorse a thrice-married, pro-choice, pro-gay lapsed Catholic.
But who's the real sellout here?
To listen to Giuliani's critics, one would think the former mayor has made a giant leap toward the dark side of Christian conservatism. Wrong. Rather than demonstrating the political pull of Christian conservatives, the Robertson endorsement shows their utter desperation. It was not Giuliani who went begging to Robertson, but vice versa.
The reason: The once-mighty Christian Coalition, founded by Robertson in 1989, is a shadow of its former self. Over the past 10years, it has suffered dramatic losses in membership, annual revenue and political influence.
Robertson's fall mirrors that of the organization. Once a formidable political figure (he even ran for President in 1988, beating George H.W. Bush in the Iowa Caucuses), he is marginalized even within his own movement.
Little wonder a man who claimed flying rainbow flags would bring about the wrath of God is now reduced to supporting a man who annually marched in New York City's raucous gay pride parades.........
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