The Note: Abortion and the GOP

May 11, 2007— -- Who needs an opposition party anyway? The Republicans are doing an efficient job of tearing themselves up these days, with research teams spinning and campaign jabs flying. You know it's bad when The Wall Street Journal's editorial writers have to revive their role as disciplinarians of conservatism: "If the GOP wants to lose in 2008 they should keep this up." LINK

Most of the attention has been on Rudy Giuliani (R-N.Y.), who is ending a very bad week on the campaign trail (World Series rings? OxyContin?). The Giuliani campaign knows he needs to make his views on abortion more clear before Tuesday – or he risks being eaten alive on stage at the GOP debate in South Carolina. A new NARAL questionnaire is making the rounds online, with Rudy checking "yes" to opposing parental notification laws and Medicaid-funded abortions "without any restrictions." LINK

Giuliani gets his first chance to explain himself at 9:30 am ET today with a speech at Houston Baptist University in Texas, and he plans to use the speech to directly address questions over his abortion stance. He also plans to address issues raised in that questionnaire, and outline some areas where his thinking has "evolved" over the years, a campaign aide said.

Giuliani's not the only candidate struggling with abortion. Former governor Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) – Time's new cover boy - last night saw his first major abortion speech protested by both abortion-rights groups and anti-abortion hardliners, including some hecklers who broke out the old John Kerry flip-flop costumes, reports Raja Mishra of The Boston Globe. LINK

We're waiting for the first campaign ad that shows Kerry's face morphing into Romney's.

On the other big political issue of the week – Iraq – Karl Rove and company are steamed that Tuesday's meeting between President Bush and House Republican moderates became public knowledge, the Hill's Jonathan Kaplan reports. LINK

But no reading of the riot act will change underlying concerns about the war, and the list of fed-up Republicans is only growing. LINK

Perhaps it's a coincidence that the president is now talking for the first time about accepting "benchmarks" for the Iraqi government as part of a war-funding bill. (Bush aides say there's no change in the president's position, but that's what they always say.) The White House knows that yesterday's war-funding vote could be the last time the GOP sticks together on Iraq, presidential veto threats aside.

But the story with the biggest implications yesterday can be told with a single eye-popping number: 171. That's the number of House members who voted to cut off funding for the war, keeping money in place only to bring home virtually all US troops within 90 days. It was all about giving liberals a vote on ending the war, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) parted ways, but let that sink in: Two Republicans joined 169 Democrats - more than 70 percent of the caucus – in voting to CUT OFF FUNDING FOR THE WAR. Looks like those fears of being painted as anti-defense are dissipating fast.

Also worth watching:

Another Giuliani revelation: His consulting business, Giuliani Partners, advised a company that pleaded guilty Thursday to charges of misleading the public about risks of OxyContin, ABC News' Brian Ross reported last night. Giuliani "personally met with the head of the DEA when the DEA's drug diversion office began a criminal investigation into the company." LINK

His new strategy of embracing his "pro-choice" views drew a chuckle from Phyllis Schlafly: "I don't know that he's going to help himself by talking more about it," she said, per The New York Times' Robin Toner. LINK

The Washington Times' Brian DeBose surveys black elected officials and finds them "puzzled" that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) hasn't been as aggressive in soliciting endorsements as Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). LINK

The Clinton folks are the timid ones all of a sudden?

Obama's wife, Michelle, is the subject of two front-page looks in major papers today, as she takes on a larger public role in her husband's campaign. USA Today's Judy Keen has her rejecting the "Camelot" image for her husband's possible presidency, calling it "a fairy tale that turned out not to be completely true because no one can live up to that. And I don't want to live like that."LINK

In The Washington Post, Anne Kornblut has Mrs. Obama acknowledging that "cooking isn't one of my huge things," and allowing that she hasn't decided what kind of first lady she'd be.LINK

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was back on the Hill yesterday (did anyone even notice?) and looked like a man who thinks he's keeping his job. The Washington Post's Dana Milbank noticed Gonzales whiffing on a softball about how many lawyers work in his department, but he nonetheless "literally laughed at his questioners yesterday." Maybe the firestorm has passed. LINK

But National Journal's Murray Waas is reporting new details that will quickly become Democratic talking points: The Bush administration is withholding records "showing that senior White House and Justice Department officials worked together to conceal the role of Karl Rove" in landing a job for his protégé, Timothy Griffin, as a US attorney in Arkansas. LINK

Room for more White House meddling? Margaret Talev and Marisa Taylor of McClatchy Newspapers report that, just before last year's congressional elections, "the White House urged the Justice Department to pursue voter-fraud allegations against Democrats in three battleground states." LINK

Weekend preview:

Sunday shows are chock full of '08ers: Obama will be on ABC's "This Week," Giuliani's on "Fox News Sunday," Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) appears on "Meet the Press," while Romney gets the "60 Minutes" treatment.

The kicker:

"The answer is no," Romney, asked on "60 Minutes" whether he and his wife, Ann, broke the Mormon Church's prohibition on premarital sex, per CBS's press release in advance of the show.

Today's Must-Reads: LINK

The Sneak Peek: LINK