BBC's Kay said "values voters" can "take a gamble with Giuliani" because Supreme Court is already conservative
On the November 11 edition of the NBC-syndicated Chris Matthews Show, during a discussion of whether Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, if he "does make it to the general election," would "stick with the pledge" he made to "appoint Supreme Court justices like [Samuel] Alito and [Antonin] Scalia," BBC Washington correspondent Katty Kay said, "In a way he's quite fortunate, because he's already got a conservative Supreme Court that he's inheriting. In a sense, I think, that's what he's able to hide behind at the moment. That's what the values voters are also able to hide behind." Kay continued: "They'll be able to say, 'We can take Giuliani as our president because we know we've got a Supreme Court that is already very conservative.' ... [T]hey can take a gamble with Giuliani because Giuliani's selling fear of two things: he's selling fear of Osama and fear of Hillary. And Hillary trumps in this case."
By adopting the label "values voters" to characterize those voters who might be willing to "take a gamble with Giuliani" because they "know [they've] got a Supreme Court that is already very conservative," Kay joined other media outlets -- as documented by Media Matters for America -- in advancing the myth that social conservatives are the only political constituency that votes their "values." As conservative columnist George F. Will wrote in his May 18, 2006, Washington Post column, titled "Who Isn't A 'Values Voter'?," the phrase "values voters" "is used proudly by social conservatives, and carelessly by the media to denote such conservatives." He added, "This phrase diminishes our understanding of politics. It also is arrogant on the part of social conservatives and insulting to everyone else because it implies that only social conservatives vote to advance their values and everyone else votes to ... well, it is unclear what they supposedly think they are doing with their ballots."
Similarly, on the October 7 edition of ABC's This Week, Will stated: "[T]here's a vanity in this group right now -- they call themselves 'values voters.' I have news for them: 100 percent of the American electorate are 'values voters'; they vote their values. And this kind of semantic imperialism that they have when they say, 'We vote values' -- everyone else votes what?' "
From the November 11 edition of the NBC-syndicated Chris Matthews Show:
MATTHEWS: We put it to the "Matthews Meter," 12 of our regulars. If Rudy does make it to the general election next November, will he stick with this pledge he's made to appoint Supreme Court justices like Alito and Scalia? The verdict -- this is rare on this program: unanimous, 12-zip, the meter says Rudy will stick with his pledge if he's president. Katty, when you're bought, you stay bought. Is that the old rule of politics? Amazing. He's going to be the tough, strict constructionist judge-picker that he promises to be.
KAY: I mean, in a way he's quite fortunate because he's already got a conservative Supreme Court that he's inheriting. In a sense, I think, that's what he's able to hide behind at the moment. That's what the values voters are also able to hide behind. They'll be able to say, "We can take Giuliani as our president because we know we've got a Supreme Court that is already very conservative." He's not going to get rid of Alito and Scalia and those people.
MATTHEWS: So they've had enough --
KAY: So that doesn't -- so I think they feel they've got something that they can bank already, and they can take a gamble with Giuliani because Giuliani's selling fear of two things: he's selling fear of Osama and fear of Hillary. And Hillary trumps in this case.
