Inside Politics

Front-runner 1

“When Mayor [Rudolph W.] Giuliani takes the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C., at noon [today], it will mark the end of a long, strange, fitful anti-courtship between the man increasingly known as ‘Rudy’ and a venerable right-wing institution that just doesn’t know what to make of a crime-fighting, welfare-reforming, abortion-supporting, drag-wearing foreign-policy hawk,” Ryan Sager writes in the New York Sun.

“CPAC is the conservative movement’s annual family reunion. Two years ago, Mr. Giuliani was the black sheep. Though he won the yearly CPAC presidential straw poll in 2005, measuring the mood primarily of younger convention-goers, he was decidedly persona non grata with the higher-ups. The former mayor, known for his leadership after the September 11, 2001, attacks, asked to speak — he even offered to waive his usual fee — but was flatly rebuffed. ‘I would assume he wanted to come here to boost his conservative credentials, but we didn’t think that would be useful,’ David Keene, the head of the American Conservative Union, which runs CPAC, sniffed at the time to a Rudy-friendly columnist, Deroy Murdock. …

“The reception Mr. Giuliani gets at CPAC [today] will be telling. … Because, after all, the conservative movement has to begin dealing with the fact that Mr. Giuliani is now not only the ‘viable candidate’ Mr. Keene denied he was, but far more — he is the front-runner.”

Front-runner 2

Former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani was leading 10 other candidates last night in a nonbinding straw poll in South Carolina’s conservative Spartanburg County, the Associated Press reports.

With 71 of 75 precincts reporting, Mr. Giuliani garnered 123 votes. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California was running in second place with 110 votes, and Sen. John McCain of Arizona was third with 86 votes, county Republican officials said.

Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas had 68 votes, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney had 59 votes and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee rounded out the front-runners with 18 votes.

The voting isn’t binding and is conducted as the county party goes about the business of organizing precincts and ultimately sending people to its county convention and the state Republican convention in May.

Booted from Navy

Navy Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt was dismissed from the Navy this week, after waging a lengthy and at times bitter battle to overturn what he insisted was unfair restriction on prayer in the military.

Lt. Klingenschmitt, who has long insisted he was punished for praying in Jesus’ name, was discharged for defying the military’s prayer policy. He challenged that decision, but earlier this week the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled against him, he said, and the Navy ordered him to leave by yesterday.

“It’s now official and final; today I was booted from the Navy,” he wrote in an e-mail. “This morning I signed the [form] ending my 16-year military career.”

His battle began when fellow sailors complained about a service he held for a deceased Navy officer. During the service, he said, he told listeners that Jesus is the way to heaven and for that his supervisor punished him.

Lt. Klingenschmitt eventually was stripped of his chaplain certification after being reprimanded for appearing in uniform at a press conference outside the White House last year and offering a prayer in Jesus’ name. He said he was protesting an unfair policy that banned chaplains from offering public sectarian prayer in uniform outside of an official military chapel or service. After a court-martial last year, he led a successful effort to have the ban overturned.

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