Does Craig situation help Romney?

I sent the below Corner entry to a correspondent who is a strong opponent of Giuliani:

Craig Helps Romney [Rich Lowry]
Once he’s over the momentary embarrassment of his association with Craig, Romney is probably helped by this scandal at the margins. When a party is reeling from scandal after scandal—some of them involving gross sexual misconduct and adultery—the wholesome guy who is loyal to his wife and family is going to look more appealing.
08/30 12:15 AM

The correspondent replies:

Good. Yes.

And speaking of Giuliani, how could conservatives ever again write of the need for husbands and wives to stay together for the sake of the children?

- end of initial entry -

Emily writes:

I was delighted to see your post on Romney and Giuliani vis a vis the Craig situation. I almost emailed you this morning about Romney and Giuliani, but changed my mind.

It wasn’t about Craig so much, but Romney’s reaction, and lack thereof amongst the others, that seems to point to a pattern: an outrage against traditional morality occurs and Romney immediately denounces and sometimes he is followed by a couple others. Giuliani, meanwhile, is never heard from. As of this writing, for example, Romney is the only one who has spoken out against an Iowa judge striking down the ban on gay marriage in that state that just occurred.

You say that a big problem with Giuliani is that he as nominee or President weakens conservativism as we weaken our morals in order to defend him against charges of immorality. The problems are manifesting themselves right now. Candidate Giuliani himself does not, and cannot, defend traditional morality. Worse, his silence hasn’t been commented upon by his Evangelical supporters and little credit is given to Romney for being vociferous.

Emily continues:

I just saw this updated at NRO.

Right after I emailed you I googled the Iowa ruling and saw articles returned spinning Romney as a baiter, homophobic, etc. I think much of this had to do with the fact that he was the only one out on a limb saying what he said, a position I know you relate very well to. Romney said in a press release on Thursday:

“The ruling in Iowa today is another example of an activist court and unelected judges trying to redefine marriage and disregard the will of the people as expressed through Iowa’s Defense of Marriage Act. This once again highlights the need for a Federal Marriage Amendment to protect the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman.”

What will Giuliani say?

LA writes:

Here is the transcript of the conversation between Officer Karsnia and Sen. Craig after the latter’s arrest in the Minneapolis airport men’s room. It is, as Officer Karsnia keeps repeating, “embarrassing”; in his disgust at the senator’s statements, he even says, “No wonder why everything’s going down hill.” This wouldn’t have occurred to me, but several observers have pointed out that if Craig had been innocent, he would have expressed shocked indignation and disgust that his innocent acts were being construed as something perverted, rather than engage in a long detailed discussion with the officer about how he moved his feet and hands and how those movements should be interpreted.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at August 31, 2007 09:27 AM | Send