A Pro-Choice President! Go Rudy go!

It's really important that we reverse the trend of chipping away at a woman's right to control her reproductive life free of government interference. And that's why I am very excited to hear that Rudy Giuliani donated money to Planned Parenthood six times in the 90s, according to The Politico:
Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani in his campaign appearances this year has stated that he personally abhors abortion, even though he supports keeping a legal right to choose. But records show that in the '90s he contributed money at least six times to Planned Parenthood, one of the country's leading abortion rights groups and its top provider of abortions.

Federal tax returns made public by the former New York mayor show that he and his then-wife, Donna Hanover, made personal donations to national, state and city chapters of Planned Parenthood totaling $900 in 1993, 1994, 1998 and 1999.

(via Crooks and Liars) Of course, I suspect that the Republicans who go to primaries and caucuses would be less excited about this solid display of pro-choice support than I am, and alas I suspect his campaign for the Republican nomination will suffer because of it.

Now, The Politico, where this article appeared is associated with The Drudge Report and is a right-wing smear organ and part of our broken political discourse, according to Glenn Greenwald, whose opinion I respect enormously. So when I saw this item on C&L, I immediately thought that some Republican campaign must have tipped off The Politico about this in order to do an anonymous smear on the Giuliani campaign. Sure enough, the very next paragraph of the article quoted above confirmed by suspicion:
The returns have been on the public record for years, but the detail about Giuliani's support for Planned Parenthood -- along with e-mailed copies of the returns -- was provided to The Politico by aides to a rival campaign, who insisted on not being identified.
Oh boy, how right was I? My opinion of my own political acumen just went up a notch. And the whole anonymity thing makes me laugh. Remember: anonymity is very bad and destructive for bloggers, but OK for political operatives launching a hit on a rival campaign. Can everyone please shut up about how their standards are so much higher than those of anonymous bloggers?

By the way, I'd be very interested in finding out who passed that info along to The Politico. I suspect it was one of his Republican rivals, but it could have been a Democratic campaign. Rudy polls pretty well against many Dems right now, so maybe this was a pre-emptive strike to make it harder for him to get the nomination.

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