Back during my seminary days, I had an old priest comment to me that we can never allow the best to become the enemy of the better. What he meant was that one should never reject a less than ideal option because it falls short of the ideal, especially when the remaining option is a bad one.

I wish someone would communicate this principle to these folks.

Alarmed at the chance that the Republican party might pick Rudolph Giuliani as its presidential nominee despite his support for abortion rights, a coalition of influential Christian conservatives is threatening to back a third-party candidate in an attempt to stop him.

The group making the threat, which came together Saturday in Salt Lake City during a break-away gathering during a meeting of the secretive Council for National Policy, includes Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, who is perhaps the most influential of the group, as well as Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, the direct mail pioneer Richard Viguerie and dozens of other politically-oriented conservative Christians, participants said. Almost everyone present expressed support for a written resolution that “if the Republican Party nominates a pro-abortion candidate we will consider running a third party candidate.”

The participants spoke on condition of anonymity because the both the Council for National Policy and the smaller meeting were secret, but they said members of the intend to publicize its resolution. These participants said the group chose the qualified term “consider” because they have not yet identified an alternative third party candidate, but the group was largely united in its plans to bolt the party if Mr. Giuliani became the candidate.

So let's see if I've got this straight -- the socially moderate Rudy Giuliani is so unacceptable to these "Christian" "conservative" "leaders" that they are prepared to usher in an administration headed by Hillary Clinton, whose positions are more liberal than Giuliani's are.

They would prefer judges in the mold of Ruth Bader Ginsburg to originalist judges.

They would prefer someone more likely to support gay marriage.

They would prefer an enthusiastic supporter of abortion.

In other words, they would rather support a perfect candidate than the best possible candidate that can win.

That position is not leadership -- it is petulant.

That position is not conservative -- it is reckless.

And I assure you that it is neither Christian nor patriotic, for it not only fails to advance the sort of policies that are in conformity with Christian belief and the best interests of the United States, but it will inevitably result in a worse situation than holding one's nose and supporting a flawed candidate like Giuliani.

And I say that as a Christian and a conservative who does not believe that Rudy Giuliani is the best that the GOP has to offer America -- but who does believe that he is better than anything the Democrats have to offer. And as a result, I will not let the best be the enemy of the better, and will support Rudy Giuliani if he is the GOP nominee a year from now.

Posted by: Greg at 09:51 PM | Comments (43) | Add Comment
Post contains 536 words, total size 3 kb.