Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) said yesterday he intended to stay in Missouri's U.S. Senate race, but there was some question as to whether the decision was final, and whether he might be swayed by intra-party pressure. With an important procedural deadline just four hours away, Akin had to make a formal decision.
He did. The right-wing congressman appeared on Mike Huckabee's radio show this afternoon to declare, "We are going to continue with this race for the United States Senate." Jed Lewison posted this audio clip of the interview:
This covers the first 11 minutes of the appearance; there's a second part of the recording online here.
Note, the Republican congressman doesn't seem to think his remarks were too big a deal, arguing he "misspoke one word, in one sentence, in one day." Akin is, in other words, oblivious to the larger significance, and he went so far as to say the outrage seems like "a little bit of an overreaction."
I'm a little surprised Akin's sticking around, but it's worth keeping in mind that the GOP establishment has never really done him any favors, so Akin doesn't feel especially indebted to the party power brokers telling him what to do. For that matter, if he quit, his career in public service would effectively be permanently finished. By sticking around, Akin still has a realistic shot at winning a U.S. Senate seat.
The question now becomes whether that's realistic.
The RNC, NRSC, American Crossroads, and Romney/Ryan have all said they're washing their hands of Todd Akin, and won't direct any resources his way. Time will tell if they keep that promise -- if it's a close race in October, do they really follow through on these threats? -- but if Akin has no outside support, and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) maintains the strong support of her party, she has to be considered the favorite for re-election.
One factor to keep an eye on is just how much damage Akin's controversy does to the party's national ambitions -- it's not hard to imagine his comments quickly becoming an albatross around the GOP's neck for the rest of the campaign, especially as the party enshrines Akin's anti-abortion stance in the national platform, and we count up the culture-war bills Paul Ryan has co-sponsored with Akin.
For now, however, McCaskill is relieved, the GOP establishment is fuming, and Akin is looking for cash.
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On behalf of progressives everywhere, I'd like to thank Mr. Akin for giving Democrats a free win for the Senate.
Apparently, I'm much more pessimistic than you, but I hope I'm wrong and you're right.
GrumpyLiberalBastard,
Sadly your comment will be echoed by lots and lots of progressives, which will give Akin a real shot. We have to put the peddle down and actively work to kick this guy out of public life.
Regardless of what they say I am willing to bet that if Akin stays close, Rove and the RNC will quietly start spending again in Missouri. My guess is Akin stays close.
and Sharon Angle and Christine ODonnell. We thank you all.
I hope the democrats are not as foolish as Grumpy in believing this is now a 'cakewalk'. Don't be at all surprised that when polls show the race close Rove and the radical bottomless moneypits start shoveling lots of 'Free $peech' in his direction.
I don't think it will be a cakewalk, but a 10 point dip in his numbers will be a hard hole for him to dig out of. Not to mention the loss of the free money from Crossroads and the like; Rove pulled out, SOV, because he knows a losing fight when he sees it.
Don't assume that Rove and the national GOP have pulled their backing permanently. It would make more sense to think that those moves were intended to pressure Akin to withdraw from the race. Since he hasn't, expect the money to come pouring in. Like it or not, Akin is their only horse in that race, so they have no choice but to try to ride him to the finish.
Typical Confederate - too stupid to know he's stupid.
We're now going to find out how stupid people in southern Missouri really are.
Mississippi beat back the Personhood Amendment despite it extremely conservative and religious voters. I have faith that there are enough intelligent voters in Missouri that will help McCaskill win by a large margin. Those votes are going to come from younger women voters even in the deeply red areas. This will hold true in a lot of elections in November.
It's impossible to imagine the GOP won't support him. Just watch.
Absolutely agreed. I feel quite certain the GOPers agitating for him to quit will fall back into line later. They're all partisan hacks these days, and winning the election is all that matters. Once Akin has weathered their pretend-scorn and the drop out deadlines have all passed, they'll get back on board.
this is hilarious.
I'm tellin' ya man- the news is a cartoon!
Ha! The Republican Party is a full length feature cartoon!
That's the 2nd time you've said that, rikyrah. What's so funny?
nice to see fox finally giving this some coverage
Akin will play victim and win this senate seat.
I wonder if Mr. Akin would be alive if abortion was legal when his mother was pregnant. Cruel I know, but barely, in comparison to the poison he represents.
I know it is probably off limits, but what about his two daughters? How old are they and are they the product of their father's mind set? I wonder what they would say to being denied an abortion if they were impregnated by a rapist, forcibly, of course. And, how would grandpa feel about bastard grandchildren whose father is a rapist? These are questions that have to be asked.
re st john...
Akin would LOVE the 'bastard grandchildren', until they are born. Akin may be an @sshole, but I doubt that he is a hypocrite like all of the 'moral republicans' who are willing to exercise 'moral relativism' about allowing some exceptions for abortions.
"The RNC, NRSC, American Crossroads, and Romney/Ryan have all said they're washing their hands of Todd Akin, and won't direct any resources his way. "
LOL of course they will hold their noses (not they have to as they have as much sink on them) and pump money into the race, as they at this point have to keep their 10 seats up never mine adding.
so they can afford to lose this possible pick up.
Funnily enough, he is in sync with the GOP's just passed platform on the very same subject and he polls better than McCaskill.
What politician ever lost by underestimating the intelligence of the average voter?
Rep Akin learned all he knows about rape from watching too many prison movies.
What's the only difference between Tony Scott and the GOP 2012 campaign?
Speed
He's a mainstream Republican. His only crime is being crazy out loud. With the exception of his Stork Theory of Human Reproduction, he's repeating a plank from the Republican platform dating back to 1984.
It's fun to point and laugh, but Akin could win the seat. MO demographics are shifting right. I'm willing to bet there are many conservatives who vote for any Republican, no matter how crazy, over any Democrat no matter how sane.
Why not stay in when his pal, Paul Ryan, gets to be VP pick with the exact same ideas on rape and personhood?
Todd is determined to control laws dealing with lady parts. He is a "vagilante".
Can we get some medial professionals on the show to debunk this "no pregnancy from rape" BS myth?
Rachel, I'm an ex-libertarian, budding liberal and while I enjoy your personality, I find your show to be often a liberal circle-jerk. Please please please, get some physicians instead of the usual Yes men guests, so that we can start to get this false and offensive dialogue out of the public discourse.
Since these are mostly Men talking, which I love, maybe someone should put forward the scenario of a married woman being raped and carrying the rapists child.
Hey Mr. Akin, what if it were your wife carrying that rapists child. How would you feel about abortion then. Mr. Paul Ryan, what about you? Where are the reporters asking these questions?
Eve92: I wrote this upthread. Saying pretty much the same thing, except about his daughters:
"I know it is probably off limits, but what about his two daughters? How old are they and are they the product of their father's mind set? I wonder what they would say to being denied an abortion if they were impregnated by a rapist, forcibly, of course. And, how would grandpa feel about bastard grandchildren whose father is a rapist? These are questions that have to be asked."
I have read that Akin was ahead of McCaskill in the polls leading up to his very awful, no-good, horrible "misspeaking". Presumably on the strength of "the base" which, at heart, is in agreement with the representative. That should give one pause.
Egggszellent Smithers! (tapps fingers) We have them eggsxactly where we want them!
OK, I am hearing a defense of Ryan now, trying to say they didn't co-sponsor a bill, or that liberals are making it up that they are alike. But they DO agree on personhood, Rmoney answered "absolutely" that he thought life begins at conception.
There IS a war on women, they are not allowed to decide or prevent pregnancy!
So political calculation is OK when Rs to ask Akin to step down, but to do the right thing to allow students who were brought by parents to have a 2 year residency is not OK.
Republicans, like Todd Akin, Paul Ryan, and Mitt Romney, should do a Yahoo or Google search UCMJ 120 and see what the Uniform Code of Military Justice has to say about Rape, which is Title 10 of United States Code. in 2007 Congress changed from "Rape and Carnal Knowledge to "Rape, Sexual Assault, and other Sexual Misconduct", there were new charges added to the Article but the first and most important part never changed, the definition of this article 120 is;
(a)Any person subject to this chapter who commits an act of sexual intercourse with any female not his wife, by force and without consent, is guilty of rape and shall be punished by death or other punishment as a court-matial may direct.
(b)Any person subject to this chapter who, under circumstances not amounting to rape, commits an act of sexual intercourse with a female not his wife has not attained the age of sixteen years, is guilty of carnal knowledge and shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
(c)Penetration, however slight, is suficient to complete either of these offenses.
every member of the military has to live under this article, why cant this by the standard that the rest of the country can live under. Mitt Romney want to be the Command in Chief who might not follow this standard, good question for him, if there was a case of a services member who is found guilty by a court-martial of "Rape" and sentence to death would he sign that member death warrant or life in prison? would he purpose a change in Art. 120 to take out the words in definition (c), and add that "Rape has to be forceable in all cases"? these are just a few questions he(Mitt and Paul Ryan) needs to answer too. the best one is how come we have americans serving in the military living under laws that the rest of the country do not have to live under.
here is another article that needs to be checked-out, Article 134, which is the general catchall, where any act could punished under this act or Article, during the 1970's and 80's this Article was upgrade to use help in the fight the war on drugs in the military. I do not trust Mitt Romney or Paul Ryan to follow the Uniform Code of Military Justice since neither one of them as ever served in the military.
If the Dems win the elections with control the White House and Congress, Obama and the Dems are going to be sending thank you cards to Akin.
Stands to reason, the GOP thumbs their nose at the American Constitution, and he thumbs his nose at them!
It seams to me that the tea party controlled republican party is the most anti - American group on tha face of this planet!
According to Ian Mortimer, in 'The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England', (pages 54 - 55 in the paperback edition) the original source of the myth about rape not causing pregnancy comes from the writings of Galen in the 3rd Century.
In Mortimer's words: "Galen teaches that women must have an orgasm in order to conceive a child. ... The implication is that if a man wants to seduce a woman, and rapes a woman so brutally that she derives no physical pleasure from the experience, she should not conceive....if the woman does conceive, then she is deemed to have physically enjoyed the experience (according to Galen's teaching) and so legally no rape has taken place."
That teaching became part of official Catholic teaching by the 14th century. I am not sure when if ever it has been officially repudiated.
So if we follow Mr. Akin's logic that a woman who is raped cannot get pregnant... then the logic would say a rapist has a legal defense against the criminal charges if the woman get's pregnant. He can argue "she wanted it" or something similar, and her body betrayed her charge that she was raped. Total nonsence.