Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

As the Republican race fails to congeal, this week's Friday Look will look at what some of the major interest groups are and are not doing.

Issue-oriented political interest groups can be broken into two categories. The groups who have real constituencies and whose endorsements alone will change people's minds, and the groups who have money to get involved and change people's minds. Although no group can be pigeonholed into one category as they all have money and constituencies, some definitely follow one pattern more than the other.

The groups we will examine are National Right to Life, Club for Growth, and the Log Cabin Republicans.

When it comes to endorsing in primaries, interest groups have to weigh the candidates' records and positions against the likelihood that that person will eventually be the one they have to deal with in Washington when it comes time to lobby. Thus they tend to stay out of primaries where distinctions on issues like taxes, abortion, and gun control tend to be minimal between the candidates, and wait until the general election where the differences are clear.

But this also does not stop them from encouraging and courting candidates. The Family Research Council's current Value Voters Summit is just the latest example of this. National Right to Life and the NRA held conferences earlier this year, and Club for Growth just did recently.

National Right to Life falls into the first category. Although they don't have a lot of money to advertise with, their endorsement does carry a lot of weight in the right-to-life movement. Additionally, they stay out of primaries. While they have held true to form for this Presidential primary, they did put out a flier that detailed the candidates' stances on issues. It could be interpreted as a veiled hit on Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and John McCain.

For Giuliani they quote his support of embryonic stem cell research and his belief that "[abortion] is an issue of conscience, I would respect a woman's right to make a different choice." For Romney, they have his most recent quotes against abortion despite his previous statements to the contrary, and his support of embryonic stem cell research. Similarly for McCain, they have his very strong pro-life record coupled with his paradoxical support embryonic stem cell research.

For Fred Thompson, Mike Huckabee, and the rest of the pro-life candidates, they have the relevant quotes and records against abortion. It's clear that one of them is the preferred candidate.

Club for Growth, who has never had any qualms going after candidates or endorsing in primaries, falls in between the two categories. They have a solid constituency, but they are at their best when they go on the attack. They have also stayed below the radar this primary preferring to court the candidates instead. But similar to NRLC, they have put out detailed compilations of the candidates' records.

They call McCain's economic record tenuous, call Romney's record a puzzle referring to his fee hikes as Governor, have questions about Huckabee, and characterize Thompson and Giuliani as "pro-growth." They are unlikely to endorse in this primary, and the Biz thinks they're saving their ammunition for the general election.

Log Cabin Republicans fall into the second category; they have a very small constituency in the Republican party, but they can dish out hits with the best of them. And they have, by far, been the most active in the primary.

Although they generally don't have many friends in the Republican Party, we bet most of them are going to vote for Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani has a history of supporting gay rights having marched in gay pride parades, dressed in drag, and had gay roommates.

So instead of explicitly endorsing Giuliani, which may actually hurt him with Republican primary voters (we can see the ads now), they instead went after his chief rival: