Why Pat Robertson is supporting Giuliani for President

Speculation as recent as several months ago was that the Republican Religious Right would not accept Rudy Giuliani as the Republican Presidential nominee because of Rudy's "soft on abortion and gays" beliefs. So why has fundamentalist broadcaster Pat Robertson just endorsed Rudy? David Kurtz at TPM reports what Walter Shapiro at Salon noted during the press conference.

The Washington press conference announcing the Robertson endorsement was carefully constructed to make it all look like an alliance of strict-constructionist legal philosophers. Introducing the televangelist was not the campaign's director of evangelical outreach, or a political figure known for sharing Robertson's literal reading of the Book of Revelation. Instead the task fell to Ted Olson, the former solicitor general in the Bush Justice Department, a leading conservative legal thinker. The message was clear: This melding of minds was about putting more Antonin Scalias on the Supreme Court, not about Giuliani's personal life and beliefs.
[Highlighting mine - editor WTF-o]

Pat Robertson's support of Giuliani has nothing to do with his beliefs and probably nothing to do with Giuliani's perceived capabilities to protect Americans from terrorism. It's about getting more Scalia's onto the Supreme Court.

Robertson's endorsement will chip into the potential Republican Christian Right voters who were going to sit this election out rather than vote for someone who is Mormon or someone is pro-abortion rights and pro-gay. The question will now come down to how unified behind the Republican nominee the Republican Christian Right will be, and how actively they will work for the election of a Republican President who does not fully share their religious beliefs.

I expect that the campaign once the two party nominees have been determined will be one of vilifying the Democrat in order to unify the Republican base and excite them to get out to vote against the threat. The under-the-radar vilification (such as the viral email already making the Republican rounds that alleges that Barak Obama attended a Madrassa and is a secret Muslim - The Republicans have a load of attacks waiting for Hillary) is going to be truly fierce. Since Bush is a failed President, the Republicans have nothing positive to run on, and will take every opportunity to distance themselves from Bush and Cheney.

As I wrote previously, I think this election is going to be between Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani. Pat Robertson's endorsement of Rudy seems to be a recognition of this, and Robertson is now working to get the Republicans to unify behind the potential nominee most likely to win the nomination and with the best chance to win the Presidency. If Rudy were to win the Presidency, Robertson wants him beholden to the Christian Right. The only realistic alternative to Giuliani is Mitt Romney, and Romney's Mormon religion will cause too many Evangelistic Republicans to sit out the election for him to possibly win.

Even if Rudy does not win the election, the fact that the Evangelistic Republicans have been a power, probably representing the largest Republican voting block, in helping him get the nomination will permit them to retain a presence on the national political stage within the Republican Party. It means that potential Republican Presidential nominees in 2012 will be expected to go to the Evangelistic Republicans hat-in-hand to get the nomination, much as John McCain found it necessary to do in his effort to win this nomination.

Robertson's endorsement of Giuliani also represents the Republican Social Conservatives beginning to try to unify behind their preferred Republican nominee. The goal is control of the Supreme Court as the aged Liberal Justices retire after this next election and retention of their power to pick the Republican Party's top leaders.