Rocket boo-sters hit Rudy
Giuliani jeered for Yankee pride, not pro-choice
BY KATHLEEN LUCADAMO and DAVID SALTONSTALL
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
nydailynews.com
Posted Saturday, May 12th 2007, 4:00 AM
Rudy Giuliani gives a speech at the Houston Baptist University yesterday, where he got roundly booed for backing the Yankees just days after ex Astros hurler Roger Clemens signed with Bombers.
Rudy Giuliani headed to conservative Texas to reaffirm his pro-choice views and ended up getting booed yesterday - but not for what you might think.
Students at Houston Baptist University responded politely until the Republican presidential hopeful expressed affection for his beloved New York Yankees - who recently stole ace pitcher Roger Clemens from the Houston Astros.
"This is something you have to learn about me - I tell you what I think," said Giuliani after joking that a baby with an "I Love NY" T-shirt could use a Yankee cap, evoking boos from the Astros-loving crowd.
The former mayor was also clearer than he has been that he favors a woman's right to choose whether to have an abortion, even though he said he personally considers the practice to be "morally wrong."
"We have to leave it ultimately to the choice of a woman," Giuliani told the crowd of 450 students, faculty and business leaders. "I would not be open to removing the right."
The speech was unusual for Giuliani, who almost never raises the topic of abortion without first being prodded by a questioner.
But yesterday, after a week of being buffeted for his contradictory comment at last week's GOP presidential debate that it would be "okay" if the Supreme Court outlawed abortion and "okay" if it didn't, he seemed at pains to set the record straight - while acknowledging that most Republicans will likely disagree with him.
"You have a right to evaluate this in figuring out if you can support me, and at what level you can support me," Giuliani said. "Everybody's got to make a choice."
Giuliani also talked up his conservative credentials on tax cuts, crime and the war in Iraq in a speech that ultimately won him kudos from some in the crowd.
"I think he was wise and courageous to do it," said Robert Sloan, the university president.
dsaltonstall@nydailynews.com |
