Watching his old positions makes me like Rudy more.

on the issues, yet Republicans seem to love him.  What's the deal?

Rudy is from the Great Wooly Mammoth branch of the party. Old-school Republicans see themselves in him, but his kind were long ago hauled down to the packing plant and carved up by the religious right.

Why do Republicans love him? 

Three words: Strong leader good.

Four more words: Me like strong leader.

The Christian Right just loves the tough love, stern father figure image.  Rudy's history on the issues though is ultimately going to create a little too much cognitive dissonance. 

The truth is, I probably would have considered voting for a Guiliani or McCain if they had switched parties before 2004.  The influence of the Christian Right on the GOP though has just been poisonous.  It was the Christian Right who helped give us George W. Bush.  As long as the Christian Right has some influence in the nomination process, the quality of the candidates is going to be pretty piss poor.  As a deist, the Christian Right would have even opposed George Washington (and Thomas Jefferson, and perhaps even Lincoln).

I understand Harding though was a regular church going man.  Maybe he would still make the cut in today's GOP.

I would have considered voting for those two also, but now they keep proving themselves as just typical slippery pols.  I used to think both had integrity.

Think about the Coulter epithet used against Edwards today.  http://americablog.b...  CPAC invited her, knowing her reputation.  In fact, she's said many things equally repugnant before.  She's very popular at these ultra-right events.  She did one in Richmond a few years ago.  Why do they keep inviting someone who spews hate?

And why do people like McCain and Guiliani attend these events?

The thing is, the so-called religious right does not hold a religious position.  In my opinion, they're a combination of people who clothe their bigotry in the mantle of religion, and the mentally ill.  (On the latter, see some theories advanced by Robert Sapolsky at http://ffrf.org/ftto...)

The depths to which people sink in order the obtain power.  Unbelievable.

 

are requirements for the GOP. Notice how McCain, Romney, and others begin squirming away from previous so-called liberal positions in order to suck up to the authoritarian, rigid, doctrinaire reight (not just the religious right, but the whole enchilada right)?

Did you notice how the video clip did not mention Rudi's personal life (three weddings, one annulment, one divorce, for example)? Or, is it becoming true of the republican elite as with historical elites, morality is for the peasants, and the elite are allowed much more latitude. Therefore, his personal life is off limits because he is, as another commentary said, a "strong Leader." 

The Conservative Republican Political Action Powers (otherwise, CRAP for short) seem to overlook Newt Gingrich's personal life and fawn all over him, to cite another example.

from what I've read briefly.  http://archive.salon...

With a great deal of restraint and not a trace of opinion, the New York Times last week reported details of what writer Nicholas Kristof calls "an awkward time" in John McCain's life. The story, related in delightfully quaint language, managed to be fairly astonishing regardless of one's feelings about the Republican presidential candidate whose most familiar handle is that of "war hero."

It seems that McCain, who had once revealed to fellow prisoners of war in Vietnam that he wanted to be president, was restless in 1979. As Navy liaison to the Senate, he didn't have the career momentum he had counted on to propel him into an admiralty and on to the White House. He was 42, mired in stifling ordinariness. (Civilians call it "midlife crisis.")

But McCain was making bold career moves on the home front, hotly pursuing a 25-year-old blond from a wealthy Arizona family -- while married. Carol, his wife at the time, had once been quite a babe herself apparently, until a near-fatal car accident (while her husband was in Vietnam) left her 4 inches shorter, overweight and on crutches. The couple had three children, whom Carol cared for alone while her husband was in Vietnamese prisons.

McCain's strategy worked perfectly: After chasing Cindy Hensley around the country for six months, he closed the deal late in the year, had a divorce by February and was married to Hensley shortly thereafter. Bingo! McCain was a candidate for Congress by early 1982, his coffers full, his home in the proper Arizona district purchased.

The story is compelling -- and repellent -- for a lot of reasons. And it raises some familiar questions. We have to wonder why Americans are able to excoriate a presidential candidate (or president) who cheats on his wife but accept one who did the same thing with the concentration and energy of a military strategist. Is it because McCain didn't get caught? Is it because he married his mistress? At this point, after much navel- and penis-gazing, it seems like a moot question, if only for reasons of sheer exhaustion.

The real riddle in that New York Times story, and in the life of John McCain, is his ex-wife's apparent acceptance of his actions and her continuing support. Says Kristof, "No candidate could be luckier in his choice of an ex-wife than Sen. McCain, and he must be the only politician around who could cheat on his wife and divorce her and still get her support and her campaign contributions today."

Anyone know why it's the "whole enchilada" and not the empanada, etc.?