Washington, D.C.
Conservative leaders have surveyed this year’s crop of Republican presidential candidates and are unimpressed, The New York Times reported this week. After an elite group of social conservative activists known as the Council for National Policy met at a Florida resort, several said they were dismayed by the absence of a champion to carry their banner. Few in the group, which includes Christian leader James Dobson, fund-raiser Paul Weyrich, and anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, care for John McCain, who once called fundamentalists “agents of intolerance.” Thrice-married former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani receives low marks for his liberal social views, and Mitt Romney is suspect because of his liberal record on social issues during his tenure as governor of Massachusetts. Still, Norquist said, candidates can redeem themselves, just as born-again teens can “recover” their virginity after having sex. “It’s called secondary virginity,” Norquist said. “It is a big movement in high school and also available for politicians.”
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