A column appears in yesterday’s Congressional Quarterly – one of the more prestigious political journals out of the nation’s capital – predicting that the Republican Party is on the verge of abandoning its social conservative base. The columnist is Craig Crawford, and his piece is entitled, “GOP Makeover”.

His view is that this makeover is driven by the party’s recent losses in Congress: “Stung by the loss of Congress and dealing with a president in a tailspin, the Republican Party is now engaged in a bruising battle to loosen kits longstanding ties to social conservatism and reshape its image for mainstream voters.”

Such a statement, removed from historical and factual context, might reasonably make pro-Life activists, in particular, quite anxious for the future. (Let’s be honest here: When “smart” pundits like Crawford speak about ‘social conservatism’, they mean those of us who have the crazy notion that human babies in the womb are actually human babies in the womb).

However, this is just the sort of dribble which ascends from Washington media types on a regular basis.

Crawford points to the apparent rising ascendancy of candidates like Rudy Giuliani, who has sometimes proudly proclaimed his pro-abortion views. But what Crawford fails to wrestle with is a slew of recent polling data showing Rudy dropping in preference among Republican voters exactly because of his abortion politics. Thus, he is a bit short of evidence that some sort of widespread revolt is underway.

But implicit in his piece – though he doesn’t have the guts to tackle the issue directly – is the notion that pro-Lifers are responsible for the Republican losses in Congress. And to the degree that his argument/analysis is founded upon this ridiculous belief, his position moves past wrong to the absurd.

Every polling report on the past three election cycles demonstrates that pro-Lifers have been crucial to Republican victories at the polls. Many published articles, including some written by Democrat operatives, concluded that it was Kerry’s pro-abort position which cost him the presidency. Aside from the moral questions involved, it would simply be practically insane for the Republican Party to abandon its pro-Life/pro-Family base.

Crawford’s piece is, therefore, nothing more than a cheerleading piece for his RINO friends around DuPont Circle. And despite his fervent hopes, there is simply no possibility that Rudy Giuliani will become the Republican nominee.