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Privately, however, his pandering may have reached jaw-dropping levels.

Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, told The Hill Saturday that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) would support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Perkins said Giuliani told him in a private meeting that if the Defense of Marriage Act appeared to be failing or if multiple states began to legalize same-sex marriages, then he would support the constitutional amendment.

Giuliani did not mention the amendment or the issue of gay marriage during his address to the Values Voters Summit, but that position could win him favor with some social conservatives who view the former mayor warily.

Perkins said that was not enough to assuage his concerns about Giuliani, but “it was nice to hear.”

If I’m not mistaken, that’s a pretty big deal, and Giuliani has vowed a policy position he’s been unwilling to take thus far. Indeed, just a few months ago, some were praising Giuliani for resisting the right-wing calls for an anti-gay constitutional amendment.

Maybe some enterprising political reporter might want to ask the former mayor if he actually told Tony Perkins that he would support such a measure. If so, it’s a rather dramatic shift to the far-right, and perhaps the most shameless example of pandering of the campaign season. If not, Giuliani and Perkins are clearly not on the same page.

Which is it?

For what it’s worth, if Giuliani really is now prepared to endorse a constitutional amendment on marriage, he’s opening himself up to a world of scrutiny that he might find uncomfortable.

We are, after all, talking about a thrice-married serial adulterer. He married his cousin. He told reporters about his second divorce before telling his own wife. He’s estranged from his children. He marched in a parade with his mistress. After one of his wives threw him out of his home for infidelity, he moved in with a gay couple.

And now Giuliani is so desperate to win over anti-gay Republicans that he’s privately endorsing a constitutional amendment to protect the sanctity of marriage?

Seriously?

My hunch is that Giuliani was just pandering, telling Perkins what he wanted to hear. But therein lies the potential for controversy — if Giuliani denies Perkins’ claim, he risks further angering the GOP base. If he confirms Perkins’ claim, he looks utterly ridiculous flip-flopping on a sensitive, vulnerable issue.

So, Mr. Mayor, what’s it going to be?

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