Life's tough these days for the hard core leaders of the hard core right wing. They're having a hard time anointing the next GOP nominee. They've been huddling at a top-secret meeting in Florida trying to find someone to love:
The event was a meeting of the Council for National Policy, a secretive club whose few hundred members include Dr. James C. Dobson of Focus on the Family, the Rev. Jerry Falwell of Liberty University and Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform. Although little known outside the conservative movement, the council has become a pivotal stop for Republican presidential primary hopefuls, including George W. Bush on the eve of his 1999 primary campaign.So, try as they might, apparently, McCain, Giuliani and Romney can't pander enough to the wingers.
But in a stark shift from the group’s influence under President Bush, the group risks relegation to the margins. Many of the conservatives who attended the event, held at the beginning of the month at the Ritz-Carlton on Amelia Island, Fla., said they were dismayed at the absence of a champion to carry their banner in the next election.
Many conservatives have already declared their hostility to Senator John McCain of Arizona, who once denounced Christian conservative leaders as “agents of intolerance,” and former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York, a liberal on abortion and gay rights issues who has been married three times.
But many were also deeply suspicious of former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts; the council has been distributing to its members a dossier prepared by a Massachusetts conservative group about liberal elements of his record on abortion, stem cell research, gay rights and gun control. Mr. Romney says he has become more conservative.
This AP article about Romney's polygamist ancestors probably won't help him with the theocrats. And, a new Quinnipiac poll that Josh Marshall posted showing homo-loving, anti-gun, pro-choice Rudy with a big lead is probably making some heads explode down there at the secret club meeting in Florida.
