Associated Press
About a month ago, Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin acknowledged, almost in passing, that he'd been arrested at an anti-abortion protest many years ago, and promised he'd release the details of his arrest soon. Soon after, the Missouri congressman changed his mind and said there would be no additional details.
This, of course, only made folks like me more curious about what he's hiding.
As of a few weeks ago, we learned that the right-wing lawmaker had been arrested at least three times -- Akin went by a different name, which made public-records searches tricky -- and now we know the total number is actually quite a bit larger.
Missouri Republican Senate candidate Rep. Todd Akin was arrested at least eight times in the 1980s at anti-abortion protests, according to newly obtained records.
That is four arrests in addition to four the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported last month based on a review of its contemporaneous coverage of protests. The four additional arrests each appear to have occurred outside a women's health clinic in Ballwin, Missouri in St. Louis County between 1985 and 1987.
"Right Wing Watch," a project of People For the American Way, a nonprofit group critical of Akin's ties to what it calls radical elements of the pro-life movement, obtained incident reports on the arrests Friday from the St. Louis Country Police Department under Missouri's sunshine law, and provided them to National Journal.
As People for the American Way's Michael Keegan has explained, "These were not non-violent protests. These were aggressive, physical efforts to shut down clinics.... What's remarkable is how long Todd Akin has been able to hide these incidents."
We also learned that Akin was arrested while protesting with an anti-abortion group later taken over by Tim Dreste, who started a militia group and was accused of supporting political violence. Akin contributed financially to Dreste when he sought public office.
As for the larger context, if Akin is elected tomorrow, he'll have one of the more extensive criminal records of any U.S. senator in history.
Leave a Comment:
But the sodomy charges were dropped. The sheep disappeared . the day before the trial.
But Akin's supporters threw a backyard party featuring grilled mutton shortly thereafter...
The secret is in the sauce!
and while insisting he was not intoxicated he could not explain his nudity
So, just how scared of a guy with a real good tan do you have to be to vote for someone who thinks it's ok to kill a teenage girl with acid for looking at a boy, or shooting her in the head for learning how to read? Why is the Teaparty/Taliban so afraid of women making decisions?
I met these people 25 years ago, with clinic defense in LA. Not him in particular, but the type. I finally had to stop doing it because I wanted to kill them. Still do.
I know what you mean, TC. I did clinic defense 20+ years ago in Wichita. Those folks are batcrap crazy.
Shouldn't insult the bats like that. lol
The Missourian Candidate is a political thriller about an violent anti-abortion activist who changes his identity to become a US Senator.
So does William Todd Akin get a cut of the royalties? Or only if he wins tomorrow?
Is that the name, William Todd Akin? What's up with the name change? That's the question I really want to see pursued.
Wouldn't you want to change your name a tad if your criminal record was such and you wanted to get into politics? Sad and scary he could get so far.
Todd Akin is the definition of the lesser of two evils arguement. These mouth-breathers seem to always show their true colors eventually. Rightous sociopaths masquerading their way through life with their so near normal act almost fooling us. Not so fast Akin we know what you really are. Your Misogyny precedes you,cloaked in false piety swelling withmyopic hubris as you are you might as well wear a sign around your neck saying "Spit Here!"
Do the terms "non-violent protests" and "aggressive, physical efforts" really go hand-in-hand? Because that looks like they are really Opposite Day to me.
Wow. In some states, that would put him in prison for life, wouldn't it?
(for the record, I know that's not exactly the case)
Wait a minute, if Todd Akin had a (D) behind his name - the reich wing would be all over this! Second, and more importantly, at what point have WE so lowered the bar on those that WE put into office that WE have these crazies representing US? This guy is what I call a "domestic terrorist" - his beliefs that he is pushing on the rest of US and he is willing to use violence "all in the name of G-d" - yeah, that's Christian Taliban - and it is so NOT what this nation is supposed to be about!
Missourians, please keep these people out of office! You are supposed to be the "Show Me" state - well how about "showing me" (& many others) that you all have some common sense and morality left among you?
So because he represents the highest "Christian" values, now that we've found out that Akin wasn't even close to the truth, he's going to drop out of the race, right?
I sort of wish this was Japan where people commit suicide for these types of things.
Seppuku.
Gesundheit Lisa.
Drop out of the race? I bet this only strengthens his standing with the tealiban base. It's one thing to talk about it and it's another to go out there and do it - he's saved the lives of the unborn on at least 8 occasions - he's prevented murder. The man's a hero/national treasure. I originally thought I was being sarcastic, but I bet I'm not far off in writing what his supporters most likely think about him.
Brewer...,
Yes, unfortunately there will be too many people who will be practically orgasmic in their admiration for Akin now. That is what the US has become.
We could have been rid of Mitt months ago. Suicide to save face. Somehow this ended up in the wrong place.
Have to agree with Entropy Rules, up thread; to a certain segment of the voters he'll be a hero, who had the balls to actually *stand up and fight* for his convictions (bad, but unintentional pun. I know he's been arrested but not convicted)
This is a test of the comment system, which thus far has not worked for me. This time it worked.
It was a deeply strange and fortunately short lived period of time in our history where men gathered for the purpose of assaulting women who might be pregnant, in front of witnesses, and were occasionally arrested for trespassing.
He hid his criminal past about as effectively as he hid that hairline. Hint: combovers only work for a short time . Then everybodys on to you.
Yes . That was petty. But fun for me. And ME is all that mitters , right Mitt?
Not suprising that Akin is a religous terrorist, trying to use violence and fear to get his way. Alas, I think that this will be the order of the day if Obama wins.
These are arrests, not convictions--or am I wrong?
You guys, I am from Missouri, and you are giving this nut job way too much credit. Not only is he not a good lawmaker, he's not really very smart. He's the kind of person who just routinely says things that any other rational person would never say. And he is really pretty stupid.
Rumor has it that at one point when he was in the state house he called up the clerk of an appellate court and told him he wanted to know how a case was going to come out, and the clerk told him he couldn't tell him that. I can't say whether or not that's true, but if it is, it demonstrates a complete absence of any common sense. No rational legislator would think you could do that. But Akin would because, as someone else said on here, he is bat-crap crazy (sorry bats). What's scary is that McCaskill is only up 7 points on the jackass.
In the vernacular of our Native American brothers, I would designate our congress and senate as: "White and Colored men and women with many wires down!" Todd Akin is definitely included here!
Is there not a law about X criminal takeing anything in politics let alone Tax Evasion that someone who put`s his profit`s in safe haven`s
I live in the state of Misery. Republicans here will just ignore the facts. It's called the Show Me State because residents want you to show them the facts so they will know what to ignore.
This story has more to it. From an aggregation posted to Daily Kos:
In 1995 the Springfield News-Leader ( in an article dug up by Right Wing Watch) revealed that Todd Akin met with a St. Louis-area militia and defended it in wake of the Oklahoma City bombing. The article undermines his later claims that he did not even know who the militia group was.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/03/1154829/-GOP-Sen-Candidate-Todd-Akin-had-to-be-carried-out-by-police
There's an aricle in Salon about the connection here http://www.salon.com/2012/10/23/todd_akins_militia_ties_exposed/