Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Carbonetti's Spin   [Ramesh Ponnuru]

Byron York has interviewed Anthony Carbonetti, "Giuliani's longtime right-hand man." He argues that the candidate's apparent gaffe last month on taxpayer funding for abortion was actually a consequence of his thinking too much about the issue: “If a reporter says, would you ban all federal funding for abortions, in the back of his mind, he knows that the Hyde Amendment does allow for rape, incest, and life-of-the-mother abortions. Most people don’t realize that the Hyde Amendment does those things. They think it’s a ban on all funding.”

Nice try. Go back and look at the interview transcript. Giuliani was shown a clip from 1989 in which he said, "We cannot deny any woman the right to make her own decision about abortion because she lacks resources." He was then asked if that would be his position as president. He said, "Probably." Asked if he supported taxpayer funding "in some cases," he answered that he would if denying it "would deprive someone of a constitutional right."

As a lot of people, including York, have pointed out, Giuliani's constitutional argument makes no sense. But it also has nothing to do with the rape, incest, and life of the mother exceptions that Carbonetti is now invoking. And Giuliani wasn't asked if he would eliminate all federal funding—he was, at first, asked if he still thought that women needed "resources" to make their own decisions about abortion. Strictly from a political point of view, Giuliani has mishandled this question from the start, and his campaign is, amazingly, still carrying on that tradition.

05/01 09:53 AMShare