A most excellent headline on the Fox News website...

[WilliamPitt]

...from the AP: :)

Analysis: Right Splinters on GOP Field
Wednesday, November 07, 2007

By LIBBY QUAID, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON — The splintering of prominent Christian conservatives over the Republican presidential contenders reflects a schism - between the dogma of God, guns and gays and the desire to beat Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Months of disagreement within this important GOP voting bloc culminated this week in a flurry of endorsements: Televangelist Pat Robertson is backing Rudy Giuliani. Conservative Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas is supporting fellow Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Moral Majority co-founder Paul Weyrich is going for Mitt Romney.

All the candidates are flawed in the eyes of the Christian right, which is why some evangelical leaders are holding out and might favor a third-party candidate. "You've got a wide-open primary, and you have various people who are ideologically acceptable _ not perfect, but ideologically acceptable," Brownback said in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press.

"If they're acceptable and can win, that's better than losing," Brownback said, speaking by telephone on a campaign swing through Iowa with McCain. "I think you're seeing a more pragmatic expression taking place." For his part, Robertson said he worries not about electability but about terrorists. Also, he feels reassured that Giuliani would appoint Supreme Court justices who view abortion from a conservative stance.

(snip)

Evangelicals don't seem to feel all that good about any of their choices. Not only does Giuliani back abortion rights, the former New York mayor has been married three times and has had frosty relations with his children.

Evangelicals still have bad blood with McCain, who has feuded for years with them and in 2000 called Robertson and Jerry Falwell "agents of intolerance." And there is mistrust of Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, both because he has changed his mind on issues like abortion and because of his Mormon faith.

Other candidates are trying to take advantage of these flaws; Thompson began running TV ads in Iowa this week promoting his conservative voting record. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister, reminds voters he is a die-hard social conservative.

More: http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Nov07/0,4670,RepublicansConservatives,00.html