Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) said on the Mike Huckabee Show moments ago that he has no intention of dropping out of the Senate race against Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) in the wake of controversial comments he made about rape and abortion.
“I’ve really made a couple of serious mistakes here that were wrong and I need to apologize for those,” Akin said by phone on the show in his first media appearance since the scandal broke.
On a local TV station, Akin was discussing his policy on pregnancy resulting from sexual assault: “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
“Rape is never legitimate; it’s an evil act committed by violent predators,” Akin said today. “I’ve even known some women who have been raped.”
“I’ve spoken in error. I wanted to get that straight off the bat,” the congressman continued. “I was talking about forcible rape and it was absolutely the wrong word.”
He also conceded that “women do become pregnant from rape.”
Huckabee asked Akin about calls from within the GOP for him to step down from the Senate race — notably, from Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Scott Brown (R-Mass.).
“I don’t know that I’m the only person in public office who’s suffered from a foot-and-mouth disease here,” Akin said. “This was a very serious error. On the other hand, there are so many good people in Missouri who nominated me.”
“I’m not a quitter and my belief is we’re going to take this thing forward,” he added. “I’ve not yet begun to fight. …Just because somebody made a mistake doesn’t make them useless.”
“No one has called me and said, ‘Todd, I think you should drop out.’ I think they are saying it in the media but no one specifically called me and said that.”
UPDATE: The chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, John Cornyn (R-Texas), responded by advising Akin to keep thinking about it. “Congressman Akin’s statements were wrong, offensive, and indefensible,” Cornyn said in a statement. “I recognize that this is a difficult time for him, but over the next twenty-four hours, Congressman Akin should carefully consider what is best for him, his family, the Republican Party, and the values that he cares about and has fought for throughout his career in public service.”
UPDATE 2: After rumors that Akin would be dropping out of the race tomorrow, Akin told Sean Hannity on his radio show, “I was told a decision had to be made by 5 p.m. tomorrow.” Then the congressman said he’s not dropping out.
Before going on the show, Akin tweeted, “I am in this race to win. We need a conservative Senate. Help me defeat Claire by donating.”
Send me your phone number Todd and I will ask you very politely to DROP OUT NOW! Don’t you see the McCaskill campaign’s ammo now? “Idiot running for Senator in Missouri”! “Women can be legitimately raped and with mental will power cause an abortion”! Where did this moron come up with that medical data? Just the fact that he allowed himself to be asked such inflammatory questions and then responded to them shows that he is incapable of handling the msm. We can only hope that the good people of Missouri realize that Akin is ten times better than McCaskill and vote for him anyway.
Classic Republican mistake: publicly stating what they believe to be true.
Yes, sort of like “spread the wealth around” and “you didn’t build that” and “America is downright mean” and “for the first time in my life I was proud of my country” and “clinging to guns and religion”.
The difference being is that comment will most likely expand the gender gap to 20 points (from 15). It was a BIG mistake and everyone knows it because what he said is what he believes. For conservative republicans forcing a rape victim to bear the child of her rapist is just promoting good family values.
Oh good grief, let it go! This is just the dems demegoguery over something they are deflecting about in the first place – women’s reproductive rights. Dude should just stop right there and say, “Look, this was all about the democrats forcing Catholics to provide abortions to their employees. How’d we get so far off track?” Period! Put it back on them!
Feeding into their bull is a no-win.
Todd, drop out. First of all you’re an idiot who doesn’t understand basic biology, and as such I want you nowhere near the levers of power. Secondly you just made the race un-winnable for yourself, which means that by staying in you’re severely jeopardizing our taking back of the Senate and, therefore, you are endangering the nation.
Drop out, idiot. Now.
The first rule of holes is stop digging. Akin apparently thinks a backhoe will help him out of this one.
He’s toast. When Cornyn says that, the guy is dangling from a bridge. Adios, moron.
He needs to drop out. Yes, others have said dumb things and won (or not be held accountable, see Biden, Joe), but this is going viral and is not going to go away. Give the GOP a chance at picking up a vulnerable seat.
Given the stellar record of Tea Party-inspired candidates for Senate in 2010, namely in Delaware, Nevada and Colorado, seats that should have been captured by the GOP, I pray he steps down. I admire the principles the Tea Party stands for but the unsophisticated candidates they seem to endorse for the Senate have been distressing. There are exceptions but not the norm.
Ahem…..Akin was not endorsed by Palin or the Tea Party. That would be Sarah Steelman.
I had it that the Tea Party was behind him. If I’m wrong, my bad. None of which proves that the Tea Party doesn’t need to learn about finding good candidates.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/sarah-palin-cuts-tv-ad-for-sarah-steelman-in-missouri-senate-race/
It IS funny though how a lot of commentators immediately jumped all over Palin and the Tea Party types…..
As I said, my bad. Are you denying the Tea Party’s record of finding qualified candidates … um, needs some work?
As opposed to the establishment leaderships ability to choose candidates?
I’d say one has at least as good a track record as the other.
This race is too important to let egos get in the way, and we need all hands on deck to defeat the Obamabots in November. Time for the establishment republicans to drop the self righteous bull$hit and pull together with the Tea Party grass roots.
Seems you share the same stellar record of inaccuracy. The Tea Party record in Nov. 2010 was 113 wins, 16 losses across the nation.
Hadn’t thought to double check those stats – excellent point Tex!
And in at 3 of those losses, Rove & the Establishment party went out of their way to trash the tea party candidate or actively support their opponent in the general election
By the way, Christine O’Donnell did not drop out and we ate it on that one in 2010. Are you listening, Republicans? We can’t afford to lose these Senate seats.
https://www.google.com/search?q=i+am+not+a+witch&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
And the establishment Republican leadership left O’Donnell hanging out to dry and didn’t put more than a token effort of support behind her. Reference Krauthammer’s hatchet job on her at the time for more insight.
She lost the moment she gave credence to the drum-beat democrat witch hunt by declaring, “I’m not a witch.” BAM! Done!
Are you suggesting the leadership of the RNC was ever supportive of her?
The very act of challenging the establishment candidate was enough to earn their wrath – as enunciated by Krauthammer. They were almost apologetic in providing what tepid support they finally were shamed into giving her in the general election.
As for the “witchcraft” comment, if I’m not mistaken, that was made by her about a decade earlier and then Bill Maher dredged it up and recycled it through that election. To add insult to injury, Rove crawled onto the bandwagon as well in attacking her.
Face it, she never had a chance of winning after defeating the establishment candidate as they preferred to lose rather than to have someone not of their choosing win.
All I’m saying is that it’s useless to play their games. She was doing fairly well before the witch thing – she should never have played into their hands.
As for the Gop, we’ll never get rid of the rino’s if we allow them to set the game. They have to be replaced – all of them.
How, when words she spoke years earlier are dragged out for conjecture and ridicule, should she have responded?
Silence? Nope, doesn’t work.
The better thing for her to have done would have been to laugh it off as a stupid issue. Given the right support in the campaign it could have been neutralized fairly quickly.
Unfortunately the Mahers, Roves, and Krauthammers of the world would not allow that to happen for their own various reasons. Using her as an example of poor judgement by the Tea Party is a poor foundation to build an argument on.
Oh, and regarding the RINO’s, I agree wholeheartedly!
Dead man walking. There’s no way he stays in the race and survives that comment. He is handing the Dems a Senate seat they should by all rights lose. And Akin is going to be the Republican face for the Dems’ stupid “War on Women.” By the time he’s down 10 or 15 points, he’ll realize that he should have done the right thing for the Party and dropped out, but it’ll be too late.
What the heck is the matter with someone who’s running for the Senate, for God’s sake, to say something so unbelievably damaging to himself and his Party. Fall on your sword immediately, sir; save yourself further embarrassment and give Republicans a shot at the seat that might mean taking the Senate away from Harry Reid.
First impression when this story broke is he is just another power hungry politician talking above his level of good judgement who will bring the whole house down with him rather than give up an ounce of power – or even the chance to gain power.
Second impression now is, when someone says they are not stepping down ya better get out of the way as there are forces behind the scenes that will either let him step down gracefully, or will force him out disgracefully.
Reason being that those forces behind the scenes like power too and this idjit just threw a king sized monkey wrench into their plans with his idiotic statement.
Best for him to ‘step aside for the good of the party’ and ‘spend more time on reflection with his family’ than continue to try to push what has now become a losing hand.
Perhaps the local Republican party should consider replacing this guy with John Brunner – or, since they are now running from behind and need all the help they can get, perhaps they should consider looking to the Tea Party candidate Sarah Steelman that they shunned in the primaries?
Brunner polled ahead of her, but the Tea Party can get out serious grass roots efforts against McCaskill.
Either one would have a better shot now at unseating McCaskill than Akin.
#1 “we can only hope that the good people of Missouri realize that Akin is ten times better than McCaskill…..” With comments like what he said, I seriously doubt that. Akin’s sort of comment doesn’t just pop out; it originates with deeply held beliefs. We lost a Senate seat here in Colorado two years ago because candidate Ken Buck also couldn’t keep his mouth shut.
Among other things, Akin wants to re-litigate civil rights laws and compares federal student loans to “stage three cancer.” He may have a point about those loans, but he could say things better. Akin comes from a far right wing cocoon and amply has proven that he isn’t ready for prime time.
Seconded.
“and compares federal student loans to “stage three cancer.” He may have a point about those loans, but he could say things better.”
You just think using the cancer word is bad? He’s right. I didn’t realize this, but previously, student loans were typically a type of debt you couldn’t really erase through bankruptcy. However, a loan taken through a federal program is one that you can get erased entirely thru bankruptcy filings. I’m not sure when this change took effect, it may have been slipped in through the ACA, but yes, that’s going to be a catastrophe. It will inflate the price of tuition due to the endless money from federal loans, the feds will hand out wads of money, and the student can just walk away from it with no more than a temporary blip on their credit rating. I wish people would pay attention to things like this instead of pretending that these verbal slips really matter.
That’s the problem. The destruction continues apace, while people fret about gotcha theater.
SteveB, you come from a far left cocoon and have given the world ample reasons why you should be excluded from the public square. How is the gas industry bashing coming along? ABO2012
On top of all else, the statement is stupid biology. The last thing the GOP needs is an “exhibit A” like him to allow the donkeys to pretend to be all sciency.
Eccentrics are attracted to politics.
Springfield, MO here, Todd. Drop out now. You’re an idiot. I don’t care that this means the establishment candidate will have to run in your place. The Tea Party, with whom I’m generally in agreement, has an unfortunate and amateurish habit of supporting real idiots from time to time. You are one of them. They’ll get better. This situation won’t. You are are jeopardizing the country’s future by trying to brazen this out.
You’re an idiot^2. Drop out now.
Yes, against that corrupt hag we have now, I will vote for a syphilitic baboon but you clearly don’t come up to that level of intelligence.
Did I mention you need to drop out now?
It’s August – who’ll you replace him with?
Just wait till the October surprise.
You people have no backbone!
This is demonstrative of how the Stupid Party’s “be nice” ethic is so destructive politically. First is the Stupid Party candidates’ compulsion to answer any question put to them in the way it was put to them. One of the first things any decent advocate coaches a witness about is not answering with a yes or no if the question calls for more and not trying to figure out what the questioner is asking for if the witness doesn’t understand the question, or if the witness is at least half smart not answering questions that assume a fact not in evidence, though on the latter, in the adversarial situation, a witness would have the help of his proponents objection usually and candidates and officeholders don’t have that backstop. Anyway, the Stupid Party really ought to make candidate schools a part of the the nomination process and simple witness prep training by any experienced advocate could keep candidates and officeholders out of a lot of trouble.
Second, if a dog yelps, you’ve hit it. If the left is screaming about something you did, you’ve either hit them with something that hurts or thrown something to them that they think they can hurt you with. If you meant to say it or even if you didn’t but think you can defend it, man up and defend it. I suspect that a little research would graphically show that pregnancy as the result of rape is pretty rare and pregnancy as the result of violent or otherwise forcible rape even more rare. Hell, pregnancy itself is fairly rarely brought about; lots of things have to be lined up right for a woman to conceive even from the most joyful and consensual sex. So, I believe one could defend the statement that pregnancy as the result of a singular incident of forcible rape is very, very rare.
Defending the statement about how the female body has some resources to defend against pregnancy in the case of forcible rape is harder, but it isn’t counter-intuitive that such resources would have biological utility and may be the cause of the relative difficulty to arouse a woman as compared to a man. That difficulty of arousal would have biological utility if such arousal made conception more likely and sex without arousal made conception less likely. I know Mr. Happy is a lot happier when things are hot and all the juices are flowing freely; I frankly can’t imagine why somebody would want to have sex with a woman who’s not at all aroused and fighting him every step of the way, or even a woman who’s resigned herself to it and is just laying there, though marriage is a good argument for the efficacy of the latter – gray, I think I’ll paint the ceiling gray.
Anyway, I just made up both of those arguments off the top of my head after reading this article. If you’re not facile enough to make up arguments like those on your feet in response to a question you took on the fly, you really ought to give some thought to whether or not you were cut out to be a Republican candidate because nasty questions caught on the fly are your lot in life as a Republican candidate or officeholder.
All that said, I don’t agree with his position against abortion even in the case of rape or incest. I appreciate that rape and incest are holes in the wall just as “health of the mother” became. Plenty of women would claim rape to get an abortion. Lots less fathers, step-fathers, brothers and uncles would be willing to take an incest/molestation rap so the little skank could get an abortion, however. Where it gets dicey with a rape exception is in the “I was too drunk/stoned to give consent” variety of rape. I’ve had sex right out of the audition for a porno movie with women who the next day swore and be-damned that they “don’t remember a thing about it.” Girls lie too – to themselves and others. The guy isn’t very facile but I believe that was what he was trying to get at with the use of the term “legitimate.” ‘Course, there’s nothing you can do to make the wymyn like that, but they weren’t going to vote for a Republican anyway.
I think a perfectly legitimate argument for abortion in the case of rape or incest can be fashioned in the same manner as self-defense arguments are fashioned. A woman has every right under self-defense doctrines to use deadly force to defend herself against rape. Why should she not have the same right to self-defense against the product of that rape. I think that is a perfectly legitimate position for civil society. An argument as to whether that blood on one’s hands, like the blood on Moses’ hands, bars entry to the “Promised Land” is an argument between the woman and God, not an argument that civil society needs to have. I know to an absolute moral certainty that had my minor daughter been impregnated by a rapist, as soon as I learned of it, she’d have been on the next plane to Seattle for an abortion and God and I would have sorted out the morality of it later.
Oh, and let the World note and long remember that for once I kinda, sorta defended a Tea Party candidate, or at least laid out a way for him to defend himself if he’s up to it.
Yes, I too understand what the guy was getting at with the word “legitimate.” But I’m intelligent (reasonably), literate and charitable. So I know what he was trying to say, how badly he botched it, but also savvy enough to know that in the current political climate there is no way a statement like his gets heard as anything other than one of the most sand-poundingly stupid things ever said by a politician, and that’s one hell of accomplishment (except for Joe Biden who is exceptionally gifted in this area.)
Not ready for The Bigs. He’s got to go. For the first time in my life, I honestly believe this next election is as crucial as we say every election is.
Drop out now, Akin.
It’s mid-August. Who is going to replace him?
Barney the Dinosaur, as far as I care.
I am willing to support the death penalty for forcible rape, provided that the same sanction is also imposed for false accusations of rape, and that DNA evidence confirms the identity of the rapist, along with hospital records confirming that it was indeed a forcible rape. However, there is NO justification EVER for killing the child for the crime of the father.
You’ve either never had a daughter or if you did, didn’t give a damn about her future. Abortion of a pregnancy that results from rape or incest is just as justified as “murder” in self-defense. I’ll not argue that abortion isn’t the killing of a human being, but civil society allows certain justifications for killing a human being. Civil society doesn’t have to impose YOUR religious beliefs unless you are a muslim. You like that “American Taliban” label”? You would-be theocrats need to get a clue or find another political party.
Wow, I rarely read anything of yours that I agree with but I could not add anything to what you just said. You nailed it. The “American Taliban” label fits perfectly. They are just proposing Christian Sharia law rather than Muslim Sharia law (basically no difference).
You do not kill the child for the crime of the father- period. And if you think that defending legalized abortion means you care about your daughter, remember that it’s your grandchild you’re talking about chopping up, regardless of how that grandchild was conceived.
And if the crime of my grandchild was to try to rape a woman and she killed him to defend herself? Your position reflects your religious belief perhaps, but it is not a belief that a secular civil society can or should realistically countenance. I’m as cynical about Sunday morning rape and as opposed to abortion for birth control as anyone, but the “legitimate” rape victim should not be compelled to bear the spawn of the rapist. If you’re right about God, that’s a discussion she’ll have to have with Him, and I’ll have to have, I suppose, for defending her, but we write laws for their utility in civil society, not to set your religious belief in statute.
You obviously don’t understand the female maternal instinct, which is as much a survival instinct as drinking clean water. Every female is hard wired to choose a father for her children who meets her criteria for producing what she feels will be a good offspring. You cannot take that inalienable right to be human away from a woman any more than you can take away your own inalienable right to try to be that man. When a rapist forces himself on her, he takes that birthright away from her. Of course, in the case of rape, a woman should be given a choice in what to do about any resulting pregnancy. Your religious beliefs will never trump natural selection. God gave us that privilege, if you will. What God did not give us is a way to biologically reject a baby produced under those rare and unhappy circumstances. Dealing with the rapist would be just as likely to be seen as the job of a man trying to protect his offspring from further abuse. And that should be an inalienable right, too. Now you know how my stick floats on that subject. Akin is a complete idiot, and that can’t be changed either. He was born with that problem and he will die with it. Why do you think the Democrats spent big money trying to see to it that Akin became McCaskill’s opponent? ABO2012
No, Jim, as compensation for raping her, the woman ought to be able to demand anything she wants from the rapist, up to and including his life, provided that she can prove that he is, in fact, a rapist. Nor do I believe that a woman’s right to choose the father of her children is absolute: once she takes a husband, that choice is irrevocable, to be reversed only by the death of her husband. So yes, she can marry any man she wants who will have her, but once she is married, she cannot bear the children of another man for any reason, especially by means of artificial insemination or in-vitro fertilization.
Try rereading my post, myth buster. And this time try to read for comprehension. How do you get to “a woman can only have her husband’s child” from my argument that she has a right not to have the child of a forcible rapist? Are you saying that the woman should be allowed to have the rapist killed, but that she should not be allowed to kill a fetus inside her body which was produced by his crime? So, we can kill this criminal, but we can’t stop him from being the father of his victim’s child? Sheesh. I think you have chosen your moniker poorly, myth buster. ABO2012
I am in MO, but his web site only allows e mails from his second district, not even from elsewhere in MO much less out of state. So I used the West Alton , MO zip code and sent him this e mail :
“It isn’t all about you, Mr Akin. The “good people of Missouri” to whom you alluded have now rejected you and regret your nomination. Why? Because the most important thing is to get rid of Claire McCaskill, and you no longer have a chance of doing so. You need to do the right thing and step aside in place of someone who has a chance of winning.( That would be either Brunner, or Steelman, if Brunner is no longer available. )Getting control of the US Senate and getting the millstone of obamacare out from around our necks and that of future generations is what matters-NOT your personal desire to be a US Senator and live in DC. If you run, McCaskill wins : It’s as simple as that. PLEASE show you care about Missouri, the USA, the Constitution, and future generations, and step aside-NOW.”
I was angry when I wrote that; I tried to be polite yet forceful and maybe I failed in the “polite” part , but in any case, that’s the e mail I sent him.
Go Coryn!
I also sent an email to the RNC and to the Republican party in MO begging them to get rid of Akin. Who knows, maybe our e mails will make them lean on him a bit???
I just sent email to info@mogop.org. Dump Akin now.
He won’t step down. He won’t put the interests of the party and country before himself. Imagine that. What a shock.
Akin doesn’t acknowledge yet that every one of us at every level will be called on to defend him. Every criticism of the Kenyan will be countered by, “…before we get to that, do you agree with Atkin’s idiocy?”
The media will contextualize EVERYTHING with Atkin’s comments and anything else he says. He’s already turned Biden into a statesman. He has to go, RIGHT NOW!!!
Even if he might win, he’ll become the stupidest person in Congress.
Al Franken???
But seriously, yeah he has to go. Just because the leftists put idjits in power doesn’t mean we should do the same.
Did this Akin guy just suddenly become a retard? He’s been in Congress for over 10 years – he just won a Senate primary. I think this says more about Republicans in general than this 1 guy ‘mis-speaking’.
Or not. It doesn’t take a Fields medal winner to get into congress. If it did, Sheila Jackson Lee’s head would’ve imploded the moment she decided to run.
Just like that, the Republican advantage to take over the Senate is gone.
Akin has go to be THE dumbest nitwit I have ever seen in American politics.
The McCaskill seat was the easiest pick off and this nitwit has nationalized his campaign as he goes down in flames.
Amazing how dumb some of these pols are.
I’ll be honest with you. I despise McCaskill. Most of those I know do too, but I’m in a bit of a cocoon here myself. Akin might be able to brazen this out and win it. But the damage he will do to our chances in the rest of the country may be devastating.
yeah – he screwed up, but what about the rest of the party? If you clowns weren’t constantly trying to roll back women’s/reproductive rights using retard arguments maybe you could weed the idiots out before it’s too late.
If you weren’t obviously a troll who thinks ANY argument for the sanctity of life and the humanity of the fetus is a “retard argument” we could have a profitable discussion.
We’re done here.
What concern is that of mine? My position is that abortion is non-negotiable, and it must be outlawed in every case. Anything short of that is merely incrementalism toward that ultimate goal. Anyone unwilling to do that doesn’t deserve my vote. I would vote for Akin if I lived in MO, not in spite of his position on abortion but because of it. Alas, I don’t live in MO, so I can’t vote for him.
Connect me to the part about we can only have freedom if we completely eradicate abortion. I guess it would depend on the definition of we, eh?
Akin has to go. Now. Period.
If the political world was flat even and fair, this was simple misspeak.
Pearl Harbor was “legitmately” bombed, meaning, there is no question the attack was an ACTUAL full fledged military raid. By using the word “legitimate” I don not mean it was “justified”.
As for NOT getting knocked-up when youre raped, eveyone knows stress and conception dont work well together. Ask any couple TRYING to conceive…This was simple impoliteness, a minor incident, a clumbsy thing to say when defending life, and dismissing abortion as ANOTHER act of violence that solves nothing…It should NOT be a career ender….
However, in the Dual-Plane world where Dems can do no wrong, and get away with the ugliest and most viscious statements imaginable as a mateter of course, he as a Republican, will have to step down.
But its a shame because we are going to get clobbered by the Left and their Media Enablers either way…
Even if we (again) toss a guy from our side because of the make-believe gotcha from the left, it wont diffuse the issue. They still have gotten another scalp, another sneering “see?” victory to gloat over. Its a lose/lose situation for us, because its all B*llsh*t.
Me?
I’m just waiting for the gloves to REALLY come off,
Go mob to mob, flag to flag, fist to fist, bullet to bullet with these Lefty Jerks once and for all. Union Bums, Thugs, OWS’ers, the Beautiful Ones, bring em on.
Yesterday aint soon enough.
Drudge now reporting he’s dropping out.
This just cracks me up! THIS is the difference between the dems and the gop. Dems says something unthinkable (deys gonna put yo back in chains!) and dems immediately circle wagons and won’t budge.
Gop guy says something stupid and the party tars/feathers and runs the guy out on the rails.
Guess what? They don’t care. You could burn the guy at the stake and they will NEVER give you credit for doing the right thing. They don’t CARE! All that will be remembered is that gop are from the stona age and want to chase women back to back alley abortions when the argument from the START was forcing a Catholic employer to provide birth control pills to their employees.
See how far you have let them carry the narrative?
Lolly,
Damn straight when are we going to realize we are at WAR with these weasles?
Not politics.
War.
Tea Party has best record running. Cut with the nonsense unless yo have some facts.
Good. Self-correcting mechanisms are so important to vitality.
Now we can get back to what this should be about: the utter incompetence of the current occupant of the big chair.
It’s a tweet from Erick Erickson. You be the judge of what it means.
https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/237617906337325056
I have said it before & will say it again: The Pubs don’t serve their interests at all well by delving into the social issues. They need to come up with the most noncommital, vague answers to these obnoxious questions designed to rope-a-dope them each & every time. What would be even better is to dodge these queries altogether with dismissive responses alluding to more important issues such as the ecomomy & jobs.
I was resistant to the idea that Akin should step down but on more careful consideration, it might be wise in light of the fact that the Republican Party is struggling so (as unfair & unjustified as it truly is) with the image of being a bunch of dumb, knuckle-dragging misogynists.
Hang it up, Akin. Do it for the party. Do it for victory in the Senate this fall.
No, they need to grow a spine and act like this is 1860! Abortion is a greater travesty of justice than slavery, and the anti-slavery party needs to start acting like it. It is long past time for the Republicans to come out and say, “We believe that abortion is murder, and we support a total ban of direct abortion, without exception, and we support imposing the death penalty for violating this ban.” If America rejects that, good night America, I’ll sing a dirge for your funeral.
I submit that the GOP needs to adopt the “Joe” test. Any time any Republican says something stupider than Joe Biden, that’s grounds for immediate dismissal. Sorry, but Akin just met the “Joe” test.
People like Akin give Republicans a bad name!! Is this guy delusional or brain dead that he will make such horrible comments about the crime of rape!! The sooner he is dropped the better for Republicans!!
Yes.
Get a little headwind, and then one of these idiots marches out of the bushes and says something beyond dumb.
And from what I’ve seen of his opponent Claire (“speaks out of both sides of her mouth depending on which way the wind is blowing”) McCaskill, she needed to be replaced.
“Get a little headwind, and then one of these idiots marches out of the bushes and says something beyond dumb”
Gee friend, did ‘ja ever think its BECAUSE we have a little headwind that something like this suddenly gets “found” ?
With all the races going on, and all the genuinely nasty political things being said DAILY by the Left, they just happen to stumble upon THIS sound-bite and make hay from it?
It wasnt dumb.
It was inevitable.
The press “needed” something more “outrageous” than “put y’all back in chains, and they “found” it in this story…
If not this guy, and this statement, then it would be some other.
We’re being played….played like a fiddle, and nobody has the nerve to say it out loud.
He just made the statement yesterday, right ? And tried to backtrack today, or, as they say, walk it back.
But it seems to me legitimate fodder for the Leftoids, and I hate giving them that.
You can give the guy the benefit of the doubt, stretching some basic facts about reproductive biology WAY beyond the breaking point, but ultimately what he was trying to say was this:
If a woman has intercourse with a man against her will, she cannnot get pregnant so she doesn’t need an abortion. If a woman has intercourse with a man and gets pregnant, she she wasn’t raped – she wanted it, so she doesn’t deserve an abortion. Therefore, according to Akin, no woman who was raped or claimed to have been raped should have recourse to an abortion – QED.
I think this position is a bit beyond the fringe. I can’t speak to the technicalities of female arousal; as far as I know, if there’s an egg in the right place at the right time, a woman can get pregnant whether she wants to or not. I respect the diversity of opinion about abortion on this site, but I don’t think many commenters agree with this congressman’s science or his logic.
Having said that, I’m not sure what he said is any worse than any of the other gaffes our pols have made over the years, from “macaca” up to “put y’all back in chains.” Our schools and political institutions simply don’t turn out decent public speakers. These men and women literally cannot form an intelligent-sounding sentence on the spur of the moment. They blurt. They babble. They gleefully shove both pedal appendages into their oral cavities and try to swallow. Orators of note, they are not.
The question is, does the inability to speak carefully and considerately make one a complete dumbass? Could we do any better if we had microphones shoved in our faces by frantic newsies? Could we resist saying stupid, patronizing things to an audience we thought might be hostile to us? Do the absurd things politicians say really reflect what they believe? Would they sound any better if they wrote editorials instead of trying to talk? Are they actually capable, reliable men and women who are simply tongue-tied on occasion? Does it matter? The media don’t think so, nor do the parties. We love the game of Gotcha…
You make really good points to which I’d like to add: In the current era of in-your-face bluntness, many people have lost their grasp of the art of tact & diplomacy. There’s a reason they said “back in the day” that in “polite society” sex, politics & religion are not discussed. To some degree that comes across as anal but one must admit that when these things are hashed out among people who don’t agree on them, it becomes very difficult to get along with one another. The evidence of this abounds, as we are as polarized as ever.
What he was saying is this…
Of the millions of children killed every year in abortions, nearly “zero” of them are sacrificed for what was, in the beginning, the Lefts MAIN argument for Abortion…the perjury of Roe Vs Wade, in which they peddled a knowingly false story that she was impregnated “against her will” and thus had a RIGHT to an abortion.
His argument is, 99.999% of the millions of Abortions performed now are simply for convenience, they are a cavalier after the act form birth control that has NOTHING to do with the original Court Decision.
And his position is, that even IN the case of rape, a secondary act of violence against the innocent child is not justice. It is not the womans “right” to kill another innocent person to compensate for the crime inflicted against her. The child committed no crime. It should not suffer for the sin of others.
Forget about HOW clumsily he said it. Get to the meat.
That’s his position. It’s a valid position. Make his opponent argue the other side of it.
Playing nice and dumping this guy is no use:
“Republicans disgraced again, dropped from the race, film at 11:00”
Youre just telegraphing to them they will continue to have a free hand to set the agenda, to define the debate, and use whatever version of the truth suits their needs, as they need them.
Our cowardice at calling them Hypocrites, Co-conspirators, Racists and Agent Provocateurs (particularly in the face of the “chains” nonsense from Biden!?) only makes them stronger.
In the spirit of changing the subject, our dissembler-in-chief said at today’s press conference, in response to a (very good) question:
“Nobody Accused Mr. Romney Of Being A Felon”
Recall all the Bain rumor mongering from Obama surrogates back in July that directly contradicts that statement.
Obama is parsing his words here like Clinton’s “is”.
Don’t try to predict the voters of Missouri. They might just elect this tumor anyway. Not. What a complete idiot. Why does the Republican Party nominate this type of buffoon? The whole party will be mercilessly attacked by the media over this. So much for taking the dialog away from Obama. Does Akin not even understand the damage he has done to the entire 2012 effort? He must be proud to know that if the Communist dictator gets re-elected, he will have played an integral part in it. Akin must be a Democrat plant. Sheesh. Republicans can’t vet their Senate candidates any better than this? The damage is already done and there is very little chance of unseating McCaskill whether he gets out or not. What a stupid, stupid, stupid political party. Was I emphatic enough? GET THE HELL OUT OF THIS RACE NOW, AKIN!
No! He needs to see this through to the end! We NEED a total ban on abortion, or what else are we fighting for? If we don’t ban abortion, liberty is dead. Don’t bother trying to save the Republic if you will not defend the unborn, for unless we ban abortion, the Republic cannot be saved.
You guys should run on that one. “A Total Ban on Abortion” campaign is your ticket to the White House …
I dont have a problem with real principals, even when they are uncomfortable.
That sticker would alienate a lot of people, but so what?
Your parties bumper sticker are “no capital punishment, no matter how heinous the crime”
And: “..but kill the babies when they’re a drag”
And of course “condoms in school at 12, because girls, you just GOTTA put out”
Nice record you people have with principals.