THE LOGIC BEHIND Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge as George W. Bush’s vice presidential running mate is almost impeccable. Ridge would make Bush oddson to win Pennsylvania, a marginally Democratic state in presidential races and one Al Gore desperately needs to offset Bush’s strength in the South, plains, and Rockies. Ridge is Catholic, and Catholics are the single most sought after group by the Bush campaign. Ridge is experienced, both as a House member and a governor. Like Bush, he has a moderate-to-conservative record on hot button Republican issues such as taxes and school choice. He’s a Vietnam vet and slightly disabled. And Bush likes him, which is an important factor, and so do many other GOP leaders, including a cluster of Bush advisers. Ridge’s value to Bush, says a Republican strategist, has become “pretty apparent, pretty widely.”
There’s just one problem: abortion. While Ridge doesn’t favor abortion on demand, he is pro-choice in a party that’s at least nominally pro-life. But the problem goes beyond the anger that Bush might kindle among ardently pro-life Republicans if he picked Ridge. As a Catholic, Ridge has for two years been barred by his hometown bishop in Erie, Donald Trautman, from speaking or even appearing at any Catholic event. He is allowed to attend mass, but that’s it. Thus, there’s a double problem with Ridge. Pro-lifers oppose him, and so do a number of Catholic Republicans who are close to Bush. They believe that putting a pro-choice Catholic on the ticket, particularly one who’s feuding with his bishop, would drive away the conservative Catholic voters that Bush is eager to attract.
There’s a counter-theory, however, that says picking Ridge would be Bush’s version of Bill Clinton’s attack on Sister Souljah in 1992, which demonstrated Clinton’s willingness to stand up to Jesse Jackson and the Democratic party’s left. It positioned Clinton in the political center, exactly where he wanted to be, and made him more acceptable to moderates and even conservatives. In Bush’s case, tapping Ridge would show he has the moxie to confront the GOP’s pro-life wing. It would tilt him toward the center, win praise from the media, and lure moderates and liberals. What gives this theory credence is that Bush is already emulating some of Clinton’s 1992 strategy. He emphasizes the other party’s issues, while holding his own party’s base. He’s distanced himself from his party’s congressional wing. He’s stayed calm in the face of relentless attacks.
Republican leaders who favor Ridge make a different case: Ridge is not all that pro-choice and wouldn’t touch off pro-life protests. “Every exception to abortion you can name, he’s for,” says a prominent GOP backer of Ridge. Ridge opposes partial-birth abortion. He favors parental consent if a minor wants an abortion. He’s against taxpayer-funded abortion. However, the claim Ridge is only mildly pro-choice is undercut by his inconsistent record in the House. He voted against forcing abortion providers to notify the parents of minors who had sought an abortion. He once voted to repeal the Hyde Amendment, which bars taxpayer-financed abortions, but later voted for it. He supported, then opposed, the “Mexico City policy” of ending foreign aid to organizations that promote abortion around the world.
As luck would have it, there’s already been a trial run of whether Ridge’s pro-choice views would rile a significant number of Republicans. Last month, a Reuters reporter from Washington, Alan Elsner, interviewed Ridge and quoted him as saying he wishes the antiabortion plank in the GOP platform would be dropped or modified to include “at least a recognition that the decent God-fearing people don’t always have the same view on this.” The abortion plank as written since 1980 hurts the party, Ridge indicated. This, of course, clashes with Bush’s position that the platform shouldn’t be tinkered with. In fact, Ridge was first alerted that the Reuters story led with the abortion issue by an official of the Bush presidential campaign.
The public reaction to Ridge’s comments was muted, though Republican David Dreier, chairman of the House Rules Committee and a Ridge backer, told Fox News Channel the remarks were not helpful. But the private reaction was highly negative. Deal Hudson, the editor of Crisis, a conservative Catholic magazine, said Ridge had “seriously damaged his status [at Bush headquarters] in Austin.” Hudson is a close ally of Bush strategist Karl Rove and put together a Catholic advisory group for the campaign. Hudson told me: “To select a Catholic running mate who is under sanction by his bishop would be an insult to Catholic voters.” Hudson said Bush has “already taken risks” with his pro-life supporters by refusing to rule out a pro-choice vice president. Picking Ridge now, he said, would jeopardize Bush’s support among both Catholics and pro-lifers, including Hudson himself.
Would it really? Some in the Bush campaign think pro-lifers have no place else to go. Patrick Buchanan, the likely Reform party candidate and a strong abortion foe, “has no legs,” says a Bush adviser. Besides, the adviser says, pro-lifers have grown up and realize there are bigger things at stake in the election than the vice presidential candidate’s position on abortion. What matters is winning the presidency and Congress and making sure conservative judges are nominated. “Most pro-lifers have focused on the doughnut, not the hole,” the adviser says. And they may be assuaged by Ridge’s insistence that he doesn’t want a platform fight, since that would help Gore. Ridge also says he would acknowledge Bush’s position on abortion takes precedence over his.
Perhaps some pro-lifers will be mollified, but picking Ridge would hardly be risk-free. As it now stands, Bush’s decision on Ridge looms as one of his most important of the campaign. Ridge is bound to be near the top of Bush’s veep list, if only because others have taken their names off. Former defense secretary Richard Cheney says he’s promised the board at Haliburton, the oil services company he heads, that he won’t leave any time soon. Colin Powell and senators John McCain and Connie Mack are adamant about not wanting the job. Ridge is clearly available, and should Bush pass him over, the press will jump on him for wimping out. But if he opts for Ridge, “the whole three months [after the Republican convention] will be about abortion, and that’s not on message,” says GOP senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. As everyone knows, Bush is downright obsessive about staying on message.
BY FRED BARNES
