The conservative backlash to Rudy Giuliani's campaign was inevitable and now it is upon us. The forces that helped bring the demise of Harriet Miers and the oh-so honorable Swift-boaters are back to take on the presumed front-runner for the Republican nomination. These groups are angered by his socially moderate stances on abortion, support of regulating handguns and favoring rights for homosexuals. All of these things are terrible to conservatives such as Paul Nagy, who is a leader in the fight to have someone of his ilk run as the Republican nominee.
From The Huffington Post:
The early success of Rudy Giuliani's presidential bid has provoked a groundswell of opposition from disparate forces including conservative Catholics, remnants of Pat Buchanan's presidential campaigns and regional political operatives seeking to break into the Republican firmament.
The opposition is united in its determination to block Giuliani, a supporter of abortion rights and gay rights, from becoming the GOP's standard bearer. But lurking just beneath the surface is another motive for these anti-Giuliani conservatives: cash. The groups hope to benefit from a large constituency of donors willing to write big checks to bring down the former New York Mayor City mayor. The donors include backers of Giuliani's competitors as well as ideologues of the right.
The new organizations are relying on two fundraising models, both of which were highly successful in previous attacks. One is the drive in 2005 to force White House counsel Harriet Miers to withdraw her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. That campaign, spearheaded by conservatives opposed to Miers, raised an estimated $2 million. The other is the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign in 2004, which began with a modest budget but ended up raising millions in an effort to destroy Kerry's reputation as a war hero.
So the goal for these guys is to enrich themselves while supporting their extreme causes (or what goes for mainstream in today's Republican party). The Swiftboaters did an excellent job of that three years ago while attacking John Kerry with lies and distortion. Paul Nagy and company must have figured they can get their piece of the pie almost a year and a half away from the Presidential election.
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