for you know what.
Lots of speculation and “inside info” on the internets.
Update: Perhaps this will provide some clarity (radio link here)
Todd Akin on today’s show 12:35 central.
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Comments
For Guffman?
Akin? I’ve already seen the “Akin really just said what the GOP thinks columns.”.
That idiot is not going anywhere. Since he’s not going anywhere, the entire GOP must act – fast.
CAC as Ace of Spades looks critically at that PPP poll that had Akin up. It is a trap. Akin is dead man walking.
He has to. Right? I mean, what a horror show if he doesn’t.
This just in: Godot tweets his regrets.
Remarkably selfish of Akin.
If you are clueless enough to say what Akin said, you are clueless enough to stay in the race.
I supported Sharon Angle in the general (and I still like her, but Tarkanian was the best choice). But Akin’s gotta go.
I predict he won’t. People don’t shake off delusions and self-deception in just 24 hours very often.
I hope he does.
Just throwing this in there, we could’ve won that race if Danny won the nomination. I don’t blame Sharon Angle, but I know a fair number of people who pulled the lever for Reid purely because of her.
A fair number of levers pulled themselves for Reid.
Agreed. As I said, Danny was the better choice.
My point is even Angle, who some held out as the highwater mark of a bad Senate nominee until O’Donnell came along, was more worthy of support than Akin (based on what I knew/know).
I thought Angle’s pro-life position was consistent and defended honestly and straightforwardly (agree or disagree) — not the equivocating nonsense that got Akin in trouble. She did lots of good fiscally conservative stuff in the Nevada legislature from what I read.
She wasn’t electable in 2010 at the end of the day, but I was willing to support her with a check. She just wasn’t my ideal candidate.
But Akin doesn’t meet even that threshold. He doesn’t have my respect.
And my 2 cents is – if I was willing to write a check for Angle and not Akin (who I didn’t support in the primary either), then Akin is not going to draw the support needed.
And Claire, who by all rights is a 100% loser, suddenly has life.
That stinks.
I’ve tried to think how this could just be a flub.
“Legitimate rape” – If you want to contrast “legitimate” or forcible rape vice consensual, statutory rape that part could make sense.
I’m ok with that part.
It’s the rest that’s indefensible. If you don’t know about things, whatever they might be, don’t talk about them. Defer until later. Have an aide put something up on the website.
Abortion in the case of rape for a pro-life candidate can be a murky issue and talking about it needs nuance that can’t (shouldn’t) really be handled in a quick soundbite.
I’ve commented here many times about the essential import of messaging.
We have to be aware of the landscape we occupy…what the troopers call “situational awareness”. High, low, sweeping all the time for threats and opportunities.
And, like in a rife company, a single dummy can get a lot of people hurt, and cause mission failure.
Looking at the Aiken statement, he shows an amazing lack of awareness. Think of the Collective memes he walked into; conservatives are at war with women, at war with science, are religious extremists, are willing to use BIG GOVERNMENT when it suits them, etc.
And we can see how that artless (but not evil) statement is being used against all Conservative or GOP candidates, and our cause in general.
Mr. Aiken may have a role in some support position, but we can’t afford him in the front lines.
This whole thing was definitely sabotage.
This is what open primaries often lead to.
John McCain’s 2008 campaign was on life support by the end of 2007. Yet, somehow, he survived. How come? Most decisive primaries were open ones.
Open primaries are the perfect avenues for Democrat sabotage. That was exactly what happened in MO.
Hopefully the entire GOP wakes up to this and establish close primaries in every single state. If a party can no longer select their own candidates because others are playing with their electoral process, then why have a political party? This has to stop.
Flash! This news coming across the ticker . . .
Ater much discussion about all the partisan politics in Washington, Biden and Akin have decided to make a bi-partisan run for the White House in 2016!
Akin was publicly spanked on Hannity, something Hannity rarely does to Republicans.
Everyone in sight has withdrawn support, including the NRSC and GOP chairman.
…and this clown tells CBS, “I’m staying.”
Akin is a clueless egomaniac. Words cannot begin to convey my contempt for this fool. On such small men does history sometimes turn.
P.S. I tried to call Aiken’s two Missouri offices: he’s disconnected his phones. You get a message that “this mailbox is not currently active.”
Can you say, “Psycho!”?
Try email. I’ve sent several.
http://www.akin.org/contact
Done. Thanks for the tip.
P.P.S. No one is answering his campaign office phone number, either. You get a phone tree that demands to know your area code and phone number.
So…he’s disconnected ALL of his phones. Everyone is screaming for his head. Just how does he imagine he’ll survive this?
P.P.P.S. One man’s view: Aiken will be forced out somehow. His idiotic statement was bad enough, but his handling of this mess has been disastrous. His political career is OVER.
Yes. And wouldn’t it be post-modernly “poetic” if this momentous election turned on this stupid little man?
The only way it helps Republicans at this point is if Democrats overplay their hand.
This seems unlikely unless Obama’s campaign makes too much use of it. Air Claire may win now, though, and that’s bad enough. But the damage to the rest of the ticket, to Romney/Ryan. . . I’m stunned that Akin is so self-absorbed that he won’t take one for America. This election is not just any election. And we need the Senate, regardless of who wins in November. I feel like crying.
Look if the GOP is stupid enough to have someone who supported Universal Healthcare like Romney to be our GOP, then we are certainly stupid enough to support Akin. Like everyone here said about Romney, we have to support the guy we’ve got.
All you have to say is, “He misspoke, Akin does not support rape”, seriously democrats want to release hundreds of drug dealers and felons on the streets, the exact kind of people who commit rapes, so Democrats are manifestly for rape. Akins is not for rape.
Well Buzzfeed is reporting that Akin bought ad space for this week going into next. Doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere if this is true.
…or maybe he’s “whistlin’ past the graveyard.” People are known to make bold, stupid moves to convince themselves all is well.
Yes, Akin should withdraw. Meanwhile I’m waiting for the MSM to notice this story.
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/08/21/mn-democrat-tests-limits-of-well-known-axiom-on-political-death/
Mark Halperin says Akin is no longer taking calls from the GOP establishment. How shocking the guy turns his phone off and doesn’t want to speak to the people who treated him worse than a serial killer yesterday.
They messed in their own bed. Now it looks like he’s gonna make them sleep in it.
I read somewhere this morning a GOP “insider” involved in negotiations with Akins was asked how it was going. All he said was “You can’t reason with an idiot”.
Can’t reason with an idiot, huh? How much “reason” was used when Crossroads announced early Monday morning that they were pulling advertising in the Missouri Senate race? That does not sound like an appeal to reason. That sounds like a command. Get out.
Then Scott Brown piled on for his own political gain.
The Republican feeding frenzy, or “swarm” as Prof J. calls it, then took on a life of its own (though I suspect there was some coordination among establishmentarians late Sunday night as Think Progress and the rest of the Left successfully turned an interview intended for the local eastern Missouri market into an international incident).
I certainly can’t quibble with anything you just said.
The writing is definitely on the wall for that idiot – in MO.
“In Missouri: 54% Call For Akin to Quit Bid for U.S. Senate; 76% Do Not Share His Views on Rape and Abortion”
And yet, that idiot is still incommunicado. No one can reach him – and I mean, no one. Not even his constituents.
If he doesn’t heed the warnings and stays anyway, he’s gone beyond the realm of idiot. He’s going higher, into the realm of a——.
From proteinwisom.com:
“Communication doesn’t necessarily stop with a soundbite. We have the capacity to press the question, to draw out longer responses, to explain what it is we meant.
– unless, that is, we yet again wish to play the left’s game and pretend that a text exists on its own, divorced from any originary intent, and subject to our interpretive whims (or, for the more advanced, cowardly, and self-serving sophists on the right, subject to being taken out of context, and so therefore irredeemably faulty and worthy of condemnation for its very inartful presentation).
In which case, as I’ve tried to explain time and again, we’ve already lost.
There’s a reason we keep rushing to eat our own, and the left simply sits back and smiles every time we do so. As we pretend we’re holding “our own” to some lofty standard of intellectual rigor, terrified at the supposed consequences should we not, what we’re really doing is straining to appear as something other than the knuckledraggers the left has attempted to paint us as en mass (when really, the knuckle draggers are but “purist” nutjobs at the fringes of the base).
And in so doing, we’re propping up and institutionalizing an idea of language that is collectivist and authoritarian, along with an intellectualism that is so tied to socially/politically approved speech that it is not only PC, but it acts as a kind of self-abnegation of the First Amendment.
And Republicans are helping lead the charge.
Brilliant.
So, let me ask again: has Akin clarified his remarks? Or is it too late now — political pragmatism is our sole allegiance — and we must burn this newest GOP witch?”
Again, it’s not the words he used.
It’s the thought process that preceded the words.
Go there and read Goldstein’s latest post on the subject. Or not.
OK, so now you want me to join the camp of “hey, he said something bad, but he probably meant something good, because it’s not possible to be that utterly clueless, so we need to find deeper clues to his real meaning”??
No thanks.
I’ll stick with the “he said what he thought. And if he’s that clueless on this subject matter, he is most certainly utterly clueless on other subject matter–in my opinion.
If we can’t discard a politician for suggesting that if a rape victim gets pregnant, it’s not a “legitimate” rape then we may as well join the left.
I agree with SmokeVanThorn:
[W]e keep rushing to eat our own, and the left simply sits back and smiles every time we do so.
I disagree that “knuckle draggers” are but “purist” nutjobs at the fringes of the base. He needs to be specific about whom he refers in this.
But it is TRUE, we’re aiding and abetting the idea of language and THOUGHT so tied to socially/politically approved speech that it is not only PC, but it negates the First Amendment. Not only the 1st Amendment, but freedom of thought itself. If I want to discriminate on the basis of skin color, religion, sex, eye color, height, intelligence, national origin, or whatever, that is my God-given right. I never owned a slave and have no mea culpas to make. Freedom of association is a valuable right we’ve given up because of things I never did. I never agreed to give it up.
If we had actual freedom instead of this thought police garbage, we could get rid of every illegal alien in hospitals birthing their multitudes of infants at our expense. If the hospitals had FREEDOM, they could refuse to serve them. Instead medical professionals (!) have been reduced to serfs to illiterate uneducated Mexicans.
And I have been reduced to a serf, paying to educate these foreigners.
Restrain freedom and thus good judgment at your peril.
Maybe Akin was helped by McCaskill. If so, that’s the most damning thing. But if he was the establishment GOP’s choice, then make them live with them. I get so tired of the lilly-livered GOP establishment, I could move to Australia. As Andrew Breitbart said, eunuchs.
And I’m sure by “legitimate” rape he meant “actual rape.” Gosh, unless you’re utter verbal perfection itself, you can’t hold office?
An unattainable standard. Utterly ridiculous.
Let he who has never misspoken, throw the first stone. Seriously.
“Legitimate rape” or “actual rape”, it doesn’t make a damned bit of difference. The context in which he used the words matter. That’s why he’s being thrown under the bus. Freedom of speech doesn’t protect you from the results of saying something stupid or offensive, nor should it.
Hey Professor and fellow regulars: look at all the concern trolls out today. Looks like Claire & Barack have been busy!
1. I took a closer look at Akin. Per my note in the Tip Line, I am not impressed. (Caveat: my research was cursory.)
2. Nobody seriously believes that Akin thinks some rapes are legitimate. The killer is that he apparently believes that post-rape abortions should be illegal.
3. Gosh, maybe the Democrats and their allies will forget to mention that, just like Akin forgot to mention it in his “apologies”.
Yessir, maybe the Democrats will agree to put this whole nonsense behind us and talk about the economy.
Latest news I’ve read:
https://twitter.com/BuzzFeedBen/statuses/237929985439051776
Remember, everyone: THIS was the GOP Establishment choice.
Last year they stomped on conservatives for not nominating Mike Castle in Delaware and whoever in Nevada.
Gee…like our folks did so much worse than this clown.
No. Not really.
He was the evangelical pick, which is why Hucksterbeee is the guy who is either going to make the sale he should withdraw or not.
He was also the Deemocrat pick, btw. They put 1.5 million into supporting him.
I’d have had more respect for the guy if he’d come out guns blazing against the media, the GOP establishment and the democrats. But instead he offered a puling, self-abasing apology. He’s the worst of both worlds. He offers nothing to anybody but failure.
Akin has “raped” the Republican message by inserting his seeds of intolerance AND stupidity, against the will of the whole body. We can prevent the race from becoming pregnant with his stupidly injected thoughts, if he withdraws now.
The whole of the Republican body is trying to kick him away … screaming NO NO NO.
You screwed up Akin … do the right thing and accept the will of the people. Yeah, you won the primary, but that was before you popped off your poisonous message. Listen to the people … things have changed.
If I am reading Twitter correctly, Dana Loesch just tweeted that Akin will be on her show today at 12:35 Central
All I can figure he might have meant by “legitimate rape” is that if rules are different for rape, some would claim rape when there was none. But the other part seems like some wort of witchcraft type belief, that the woman can curse the demon seed or something. He might as well admit to being a snake handler.
The “abortion card” was no doubt going to be played at some point by Democrats … perhaps this is a good chance to clear the air early.
On Facebook I saw a “friend” quoting HuffPo, that the Republican platform (draft) included making all abortion illegal, no exception for rape”.
I think (and I’m giving Akin a lot of credit here) that “legitimate rape” might mean rape other than statutory.
There’s already been some crap being put out about Ryan’s support for a law that had the language “forcible rape” in it.
People are saying “what other type is there?”, supposedly trying to say that unconscious victims wouldn’t be protected. Not the case.
There is another type, statutory. Which, if Akin meant legitimate in the sense of forcible, would make sense in the “logic” of the rest of his claim.
The Akin Diet.
Suddenly I don’t feel hungry anymore.
Various newspapers are making the claim that Todd Akin was “Tea Party”. NO! Akin was never Tea Party. Akin beat the tea party candidate and the one endorsed by Sarah Palin, Sarah Steelman in the primaries.
It seems Claire McCaskill was hoping Akin would be her opponent, hoping he would implode. Sadly, he did — far too early for her, as the GOP seems to be taking measures to get another candidate in Akin’s place. I hope the GOP swiftly finds a replacement — the race and its important to the country is such a priority we need someone in there who knows how to handle the stress.
Akin is a member of the House Tea Party Caucus, but he’s not Tea Party? That doesn’t make much sense. Better make sure Republicans don’t hear you, or you’ll be Akinized. They’ll run you off the internet on a rail for uttering one stupid sentence.
The list is alphabetized. I’m confident you’ll be able to find his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_Caucus#Members.2C_112th_Congress
Does that mean a white guy who belongs to the Congressional Black Caucus is the black candidate?
He may belong to the Tea Party CAUCUS, but he was not the choice of the Tea Party in Missouri.
Anyone can join the TP caucus.
1. According to Media Matters (so read with caution), Loesch has been sticking up for Akin. He would consider her an ally.
2. Fwiw, I haven’t been able to connect to the Missouri Libertarian Party. The site could have fallen into disuse—or it could be swamped with inquiries third-party-wise.
Steelman and Brunner both polled a three points better against McCaskill (49-43) than Akin (47-44) on Aug 1 (per Rasmussen. Of course we could probably subtract ten points now.
Given the Democrats’ “Republicans hate women” campaign, Steelman would seem a good choice. She has health care and finance background, and looks good.
I don’t know how they would decide, but of course Akin has to do the right thing first. He only got 36% in the primary … what percent would he get if the election were held today? 20%?
I see the feeding frenzy of the PC Piranha has begun in full force.
This sets a terrible precedent for anyone who makes any off statement. (Yeah, I know you’ll reproach me and start feeding on me, too.)
Calling this guy an “idiot” is reprehensible. I don’t like what I am reading.
Having him step down for the “good of the country?” Where is the good in what you are saying?
If he ran openly on this line of thinking, that raped women can reject the rapist’s sperm … then I guess he deserves to stay. If he kept his real thoughts secret, now releases them for the general, he should expect the shit storm he is getting. The process (even when abused) allows him to stay in.
And if Akin really got $1.5 million from McCaskill, in support of what she thought was the weak candidate, then he should definitely step down.
An angry reaction at a guy that waits to reveal an outrageous position, does not indicate “PC thinking”. It would seem to be righteous anger.
But I didn’t really follow his campaign. I’m sure he had slogans about raped women not being allowed abortions.
“Calling this guy an “idiot” is reprehensible. I don’t like what I am reading.”
Everyone’s entitled to their opinion.
Maybe you’d rather lose the Missouri Senate seat on principal? How very…Republican.
Dana @DLoesch Interviews #Akin 1/2 past the hour. Video Streaming FM NewsTalk 97.1 Is Here==> 971talk.com/webcam/ #p2 #tcot #FRC
CNBC.com just put up a breaking news banner that says he’s staying in the race.
audio is silent during commercials. Akin due on air now.
The MO firing squad coming in:
“Missouri GOP Godfathers Act As One to Force Akin Out.”
And by Godfathers, they mean “Missouri Senator Roy Blunt and former Senators John Ashcroft, Kit Bond, John Danforth, and Jim Talent”.
And the Cherry on Top: The Most Famous Missourian gave the order: “Fire!”
I was waiting for the fat lady. She is Todd Akins.
THE MISSOURI GOP/RNC NEEDS TO CONSIDER OFFERING A WRITE-IN CANDIDATE NOW.
Given how angry Tea Party activists and Republicans are at Akin’s inane stance, resources can be used to support one of the 2 opponents Akin had: Preferably, Steeleman, as Palin supported her and that is a big spotlight.
I will also remind everyone that such an approach work worked in the Alaska Senate race in 2010. Though, this time, the write-in candidate will have grassroots support on a vast level.
Akin’s idiocy has caused me now to support McCaskill. I urge the Missouri GOP to think outside the box if Akin remains.
Dude is not quitting. Sigh.
Listening now (12:45 pm CDT). Akin declaring “rush to judgment”…”one word, one sentence, one day”…
Admitted he has lost “many millions” of donations/potential donations. Made a plea for donations.
“I have stood on principle.” Cites PPP poll.
“We are not getting out of this race.”
“I have stood on principle.” Cites PPP poll.
___
So the PPP was, in fact, a troll poll. Congratulations on your re-election, Senator McCaskill.
I’m listening to him on The Dana Show right now. This guy has no clue as to what he did wrong, why republicans are upset, or how badly he’s managed to screw everyone in the country that opposes a rape/incest exception for abortion. Not to mention the entire cause of repealing Obamacare.
Crap. I guess the write-in route is all Missouri Republicans have left. What is the signature deadline to get a independent candidate on the ballot in Missouri?
How do you run with no money?
Listening to Akin on Dana’s show right now. He is not going to withdraw. He belives he can win,come hell or high water.
Dissing the establishment. Clueless about national implications.
When asked about where his financing will come from, he belives he can make it up through the grass roots.
Claims he wasn’t aware “changed media enviroment”. Again clueless.
Cites PPP poll as proof he can win.
Again, clueless.
“Shortly before Willkie died, he told a friend, that if he could write his own epitaph and had to choose between ‘here lies a president’ or ‘here lies one who contributed to saving freedom,’ he would prefer the latter.”
“Here lies a failed Senate bid” or “here lies one who contributed to the permanence of Obamacare.”
You could use both, I guess.
Akin’s position – one he is clearly incapable of articulating – is that abortion ought not be permitted even in cases of rape, based on the idea that the unborn child ought not be punished for the crime of the rapist. (Bear in mind that some yahoo out in the NC sticks – me – just articulated in one sentence what Akin could not and still can’t).
How did Akin verbally support this? He said, in essence, that in cases of ‘legitimate’ rape the female physiology automatically shuts down the fertilization process, preventing pregnancy, therefore, in cases where women seek abortions after rape, the fact they are pregnant indicates their rape must have been less than ‘legitimate’. There is no other inference to draw from this.
Furthermore, he attributed his expertise on the inner workings of the female reproductive system to medical doctors by whom he was educated on the point. (And how do we react when global warmists abuse and misrepresent science to further their personal politic agenda?)
Yesterday Akin said he had to continue his campaign because it was “providential”, determined not by him but by God. (That’s what providential means: determined by God).
In a tweet today, the purportedly apologetic Akin said ‘I misspoke one word in one sentence on one day.’ That’s the extent of his insight into what he’s done.
Go ahead. Defend that. Akin will have to, every day from now till November 6th.
Go ahead, Akin supporters, defend that. I double dog dare you to defend that without sounding like an idiot incompetent to hold office.