Rudy Giuliani

Focus on the Family's CitizenLink gloats over Rudy Giuliani's departure, saying "Dr. Dobson was right ... Dr. Dobson has never been someone who takes stands or issues statements based on polls. He just doesn't put a lot of stock in them — particularly when they are trying to predict who is going to win a presidential election that at the time was more than a year away. Some people scoffed at him when he said, 'Hold on, there's a lot of campaigning still to do.' But time has proven him right."

Even after President Bush’s visit to Jerusalem, the prospect of peace between Israelis and Palestinians faces many obstacles, but at least one man hopes Bush’s plan fails: “It is just insanity!” said an exasperated Pat Robertson:

And if we do this, there is a judge in heaven, and that judge in heaven is going to take vengeance against those who damage Israel. That’s what the Bible says: Don’t touch them—he who touches you touches the apple of my eye. You’re sticking your finger in God’s eye. That’s what the Bible says. Terry, I fear for our country if we go forward with this nonsense.

Robertson said the U.S. and Israeli governments are “just asking for the wrath of God” by talking about giving part of Jerusalem to a Palestinian state. For Robertson, the “wrath of God” can mean a lot of things: natural disasters, terrorist attacks—even a persistent vegetative state. Almost exactly two years ago, when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke that has left him in a coma to this day, Robertson blamed it on God’s wrath over Sharon’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

While Robertson says Bush is “in a fog,” the televangelist has been campaigning for Rudy Giuliani because of the former New York mayor’s foreign policy stance. However, when Giuliani was asked about Bush’s visit during this week’s Republican presidential debate, he didn’t mention the wrath of God.

Not every religious-right leader has fallen in love with Mike Huckabee. Although Christian Coalition founder and “700 Club” host Pat Robertson has a lot in common with Huckabee, whose surge in Iowa in some way mirrors Robertson’s run in 1988, Robertson is a firm backer of Rudy Giuliani, as he made clear last week.

Perhaps responding to Huckabee’s recent rise in South Carolina and even in Florida—Giuliani’s stronghold—Robertson has taken a break from meteorology to hit the campaign trail (by radio, anyway). On a Panama City, Florida station, Robertson emphasized that terrorism is his first priority, followed by the economy—no mention of those social issues that make James Dobson so angry:

BURNIE THOMPSON: “[G]lad to have you and I’ll tell you, Mayor Giuliani really does want Bay County’s vote. He’s been on talking with northwest Florida and I know that Florida’s very important to the Mayor. But I’ve got to tell you Dr. Robertson, I’m sitting with a very conservative Republican friend of mine who’s an evangelical Christian and his question he said ‘Please ask Dr. Robertson why, why would you endorse … Mayor Giuliani’”

ROBERTSON: “Well it’s real simple. I think the overriding issue in our society is going to be defense against terrorism. We’re in a war against militant Islam and I think we have to defend the American people. I think that’s the overriding issue and the second issue has to do with whether we’re going to destroy the economy or whether we’re going to build it up and have a future for our children.”

And on a Savannah, Georgia—Hilton Head, South Carolina station, Robertson promised right-wing Supreme Court appointments:

EDWARDS: “[H]e also is an administrator and most of the other people running for president have never run anything.”

ROBERTSON: “Well I felt that too. You know the United States government is the biggest corporation---executive decisions that a president has to make. … And especially the thing that strikes me also is his selection of judges. He has promised the American people, promised me, promised others that he’s going to put in judges after the stripe of Scalia, Thomas …”

Where does that leave Giuliani nemesis Randall Terry, who protested Robertson’s endorsement at the D.C. office of the televangelist’s Christian Broadcasting Network? Terry headed in the opposite direction, holding “vigils, literature drops, pickets and more” in New Hampshire “to expose the agenda of Rudy Giuliani.” Terry’s “literature” includes a fake pamphlet for the campaign of a white supremacist named Smith—“A Candidate with the courage to deal with the disaster of free Negroes, and the ‘white man’s right to own!’” The punchline: It’s a thickly-veiled metaphor for Giuliani, of course.

Should a Christian vote for someone who supports slavery? No!

Should a Christian vote for a racist who supports segregation? No!

Then how can a Christian vote for a candidate that supports the murder of children by abortion?! …

Don’t be seduced! If you vote for Rudy or Hillary or any pro-choice candidate, you share in the sin of child-killing, and betray the very Law of God. … Do the right thing: vote according to principle, not party; life, not death.

Conservative Christian activists in Iowa are playing a key role in the sudden success of Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, through groups like the Iowa Christian Alliance, the Iowa Family Policy Institute, and now the Iowa Pastors Coalition. It was Pat Robertson’s quixotic presidential run in 1988 that first developed the Religious Right as a political force in that early-caucus state—indeed, the Iowa Christian Alliance used to be the Christian Coalition of Iowa, a chapter of the national group Robertson founded after the campaign with his hard-won mailing lists.

So it’s hard not to compare Huckabee’s rise to Robertson’s strong second-place finish in the caucuses (ahead of George H.W. Bush, the eventual nominee). Huckabee, like Robertson ordained as a Baptist minister, shares Robertson’s views on social issues, and he even had a brief career in televangelism, working for culture warrior James Robison.

But the connection between the two men will apparently stop at that, since this year, Robertson has already endorsed Rudy Giuliani, citing terrorism as reason to ignore differences over abortion and gay marriage.

So when Robertson brought commentator Dick Morris on the “700 Club” Tuesday to wax nostalgic over how similar Huckabee’s run is to Robertson’s, the two were sure to bring it back in the end to the importance of eventually nominating Giuliani.