Rudy Giuliani made Tommy Thompson his national co-chair. Hedid the same for Steve Forbes. Hell, Jeb Bush Jr. is the chairman of FloridaYoung Professionals for Rudy. But Pat Robertson? He’s title-less.
There’s no doubt that today’s official endorsement fromtelevangelist Robertson is a major coup for the pro-choice Giuliani. But thecampaign isn’t putting Robertson front and center in Giuliani’s cabal of endorsers.Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for Rudy, told me that Robertson doesn’t have anofficial title and didn’t have any plans to give him one. Today, she said, wasjust the first step-an opportunity to be in public talking about his supportfor Giuliani.
One would assume more steps will follow, but she offered nospecifics. I asked her if Robertson planned to campaign on Rudy’s behalf. Shedidn’t have an answer. I asked her if he could be expected to be a Giulianiproxy on cable news. Unclear.
That conversation, combined with today’s hasty pressconference-where Giuliani and Robertson seemed to have little in common besidesa history of prostate cancer-makes me wonder how much Giuliani wants toassociate with Robertson.
Remember, this is the same Robertson that said the U.S.should whackHugo Chavez , that abortionscaused 9/11 , and that in the nextmonth and a half there will be a “mass killing” in the U.S. Doesn’t soundlike somebody a frontrunner wants mouthing off on his behalf.
Tomorrow is the first day in Giuliani’s post-Robertsoncandidacy. Will we ever hear from Robertson again? Or will Rudy hope thattoday’s deluge of news coverage is enough to convince the religious right thathe’s their guy?
Giuliani flies to Iowatomorrow. Robertson won’t be joining him.
