Tag Archives: Todd Akin

Shut Up about Shutting Down

Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin, who lost his Missouri Senate race to Claire McCaskill, is baaack, and he wants us to know he’s sorry — very, very sorry.  In his new book*, Akin regrets that he apologized for claiming women can’t get pregnant if it’s a “legitimate rape.” I think we all knew at the time that his apology was as phony as his biology.

This moron genuinely believes women can magically shut down their bodies.  If only we could shut up Akin and his crappy science.

* Firing Back:  Taking on the Party Bosses and Media Elite to Protect Our Faith and Freedom

How Gerrymandering Hurts GOP

Much has been made of all the safe GOP House Seats, of how their occupants don’t have to fear a general election, just a primary challenge.  Much has been made of how the gerrymandered seats let the GOP keep control of the House even though Dems got 1 million more House votes in 2012.

But there is an enormous downside to the GOP’s failure/inability to develop a strong bench for higher office by electing nut jobs to the House.

You get people in Congress like Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin who don’t just make fools of themselves when they run for Senate, they hurt the party nationally.  Akin didn’t just kill the GOP’s chances of picking up a Senate seat in Missouri, he hurt other Senate races and he hurt Mitt Romney because of his damage to the overall GOP brand.

In the 2014 races, we may see the same thing play out with Steve King in Iowa and with Paul Broun in Georgia.  Their inflammatory and bizarre beliefs will make news all across the country.

All politics may be local, but the politics of crazy has national consequences.

Six Crazies to Watch

Aaron Blake at WaPo* lists six crazy, fringe Senate candidates who keep Karl Rove up at night and make our Founding Fathers roll in their graves:

Iowa Congressman Steve King (another pea in the Todd Akin pod)

Georgia Congressman Paul Broun (says Obama is a socialist and evolution, embryology, and the Big Bang are lies from the pit of hell)

Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (her presidential campaign was an endless stream of crazy, such as that the HPV vaccine causes mental retardation)

Former GOP Alaska Senate nominee Joe Miller (currently pushing the John-Brennan-is-a-Muslim meme, strong ties to Alaska militia movement, as dumb and paranoid as they come, makes Sarah Palin look smart)

Montana state Representative Champ Edmunds

Former Louisiana Congressman Jeff Landry (said Obama gave special waivers to Muslims for TSA screenings)

* “The dirty half-dozen:  Six Senate candidates who could foment GOP civil war”

 

And The Feeling Is Mutual

“In private, Romney has told friends he has little interest in helping the Republican Party rebuild and re-brand itself.”

Philip Rucker, “A detached Romney tends wounds in seclusion after failed White House bid,” WaPo

Look, I can’t stand the guy, but if the GOP thinks it was just him and his 47% percent — hideous as that was — they’re even crazier than I thought. 

The seeds of Mitt’s defeat were sown in the earlier victories of extremist governors like Scott Walker, Rick Scott, John Kasich, and Bob McDonnell.  They were sown in the spectacle of the GOP debates when Mitt had to share the stage with nutjobs like Cain, Santorum, Bachmann, Perry, and Newt.  They were sown in the Senate races of Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, dragging Mitt down with them as they drowned. 

Better Too Liberal Than Too Crazy

The latest Missouri Senate poll shows Claire McCaskill ahead of Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin, 46 to 40%.

His favorables/unfavorables, 31/57, are terrible, but hers aren’t great either, 44/51.

Clearly a less insane Republican would have won Missouri as the GOP planned, but voters would rather elect someone they consider too liberal than someone they consider too crazy.

Todd Akin is another case of the Sharon Angle/Christine O’Donnell Tea Party stupidity that cost them the Senate in 2010.

Another Day, Another GOP Moron

Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Illinois) said at a debate with Tammy Duckworth that abortions are never needed to save the life of the mother.

Todd Akin must have told him that.

He certainly didn’t hear it from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, who said it wasn’t so, Joe.

The “Lock Your Candidate in a Closet” Strategy

The GOP think they can win the Missouri Senate race if they lock Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin in a closet between now and November 6:*

“You know, if you’re that close with Claire McCaskill, then there are some ways to win this without ever having to be in public — or being public in controlled ways,” another Republican strategist who has worked on several Missouri campaigns said. “You wage a campaign without him physically being there, [with] television ads that are very tightly scripted, through mail pieces.”

“He’s an idiot, and everybody knows it,” the source continued. “But, he’s our idiot and he could be helpful to us but only if they get him under control.”  Emphasis added.

Akin’s latest?  He called McCaskill a “wildcat out of the cage.”

* “‘He’s Our Idiot’:  Why Republicans Still Might Back Akin If He Can Just Keep His Mouth Shut,” Pema Levy, Talking Points Memo

Akin At It Again

Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin, newly back in the GOP bosom, says that his opponent, Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill, wasn’t “ladylike” in their last debate.

What does he consider ladylike?  I guess quietly carrying to term the baby of your rapist.

If this man would agree to go back under his rock, I would drive to Missouri to lift it for him.