Robertson picks his candidate — the 'proven leader' Giuliani

WASHINGTON — Televangelist Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition, endorsed Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday.

"It is my pleasure to announce my support for America's mayor, Rudy Giuliani, a proven leader who is not afraid of what lies ahead and who will cast a hopeful vision for all Americans," Robertson said during a news conference with Giuliani in Washington.

The former New York mayor backs abortion rights and gay rights, positions that put him in conflict with conservative GOP orthodoxy, and he has been trying to persuade evangelical conservatives like Robertson to overlook their differences on those issues.

Evangelicals have split in their support for the leading Republican candidates. Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, a favorite of Christian conservatives and who dropped out of the race last month, endorsed fellow Sen. John McCain of Arizona on Wednesday. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney recently announced that Paul Weyrich and Bob Jones III were on board with his candidacy.

Romney on Wednesday dismissed Robertson's endorsement, according to the online political publication Politico. He told reporters at a Hilton Head, S.C., campaign stop that it would not help ease concerns that some conservatives have about Giuliani.

"Not at all," Romney said. "I don't think that the Republican Party is going to choose a pro-choice, pro-gay civil union candidate to lead our party."

Romney added that he thinks "in order to win the White House, we have to bring together the coalition of conservatives that won the White House for Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.

"And that's social, economic and foreign-policy conservatives. And that's why I think that others who are running in this race, myself included, have a better shot at getting the White House."

Asked about the Robertson endorsement, McCain, at a news conference with Brownback in Dubuque, Iowa, said: "Every once in a while, I'm left speechless. This is one of those times."

Giuliani is best known to voters for leading New York in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Shortly after 9/11, Robertson released a statement in which he said the attacks occurred because Americans had insulted God and lost the protection of heaven by allowing abortion and "rampant Internet pornography."

According to a Gannett News Service analyst, some portray the endorsement as Robertson jumping aboard the only GOP train he thinks is capable of derailing New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democrats' front-runner.