A mixed blessing

Politics is all about coalition building. So it isn’t surprising that Rudolph W. Giuliani, a self-described pro-choice candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, has been courting religious conservatives who disagree with him on legalized abortion. And it can be argued that if Christian conservatives shouldn’t insist on a litmus test in evaluating Giuliani’s candidacy, the former New York City mayor shouldn’t insist that everyone whose endorsement he accepts agree with him 100%.

That said, Giuliani’s endorsement by televangelist Pat Robertson is a bizarre addition to the annals of politics making strange bedfellows. Giuliani has made the 9/11 attacks -- and his performance in the aftermath of the attacks -- a centerpiece of his campaign. Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) was exaggerating only slightly when he quipped during a Democratic candidates debate that “there’s only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun, a verb, and 9/11.”

Given the centrality of 9/11 in Giuliani’s campaign, one wonders what he thought of Robertson’s take on the attacks, immortalized in a colloquy Robertson had with the late Rev. Jerry Falwell on “The 700 Club.” Let’s go to the tape:

Falwell: What we saw on Tuesday, as terrible as it is, could be minuscule if in fact God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.

Robertson: Jerry, that’s my feeling . . .

Falwell: The ACLU’s got to take a lot of blame for this.

Robertson: Well, yes.

Falwell: And I know that I’ll hear from them on this, but throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say, “You helped this happen.”

Robertson: Well, I totally concur . . .

Presumably Giuliani doesn’t concur in this insane exegesis of 9/11. But he nevertheless accepted the embrace of one of its evangelists. Giuliani can claim that he is simply welcoming Robertson and his followers into a big tent, but too many endorsements like this could turn his campaign into a circus.