Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This is dead girl, live boy, a goat, two wetsuits and a dildo territory.  oh, and pink furry handcuffs.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

No one could have predicted…

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

When we show up, we win.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Women's Rights / The War On Women / Why Exactly Should Akin Step Down?

Why Exactly Should Akin Step Down?

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The Republican party officially takes the same position he has:

The Republican Party is once again set to enshrine into its official platform support for “a human life amendment” to the Constitution that would outlaw abortion without making explicit exemptions for rape or incest, according to draft language of the platform obtained exclusively by CNN late Monday.

“Faithful to the ‘self-evident’ truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed,” the draft platform declares. “We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.”

Akin’s real sin is letting people really understand how truly insane the Republican party is.

Reader Interactions

116Comments

  1. 1.

    kindness

    C’mon John. It isn’t what Akin actually said which pisses off Republicans. After all what Akin said has been in the Republican platform since 2000 and will be again this year.

    The sin here was one of communication. Akin is not supposed to promote those areas of Republican dogma which may cause a voter to vote Democratic.

  2. 2.

    Linda Featheringill

    I think he’ll stay in the race.

    His apology ad is actually quite well done. When I saw that, I decided he wasn’t going anywhere.

    BTW, somewhere in the bowels of dkos, in the last paragraph of some diary, is mention that DSCC just purchased 400K dollars worth of advertising for what’s-her-face, McCaskill?. FWIW.

  4. 4.

    eric

    he is not stepping down. This just highlights the plank, something that the money class did not want. Whoppee.

    As for those people that are scared that he might win as opposed to some other GOP-nut, let me say “no biggie,” insofar as he will vote 100% with his GOP masters as would any other Missouri Senator from the GOP. He is just a more vocal a$$.

  6. 6.

    JPL

    Akin’s beliefs are the same as Paul Ryan, but Ryan’s smart enough to know you don’t spout quack science.

  8. 8.

    Chris

    I don’t know, but I’m fascinated to see that not only are the writers at PJMedia (my usual wingnut weathervane) calling for his resignation, all the people in the comments section are too – and this is a comments section where I’ve gotten used to reading plenty of obscenely racist, sexist, classist, xenophobic or fundamentalist remarks that go by completely unnoticed. They must be terrified.

  9. 9.

    The Moar You Know

    He simply said what they all believe. I find both the public’s and the GOP’s reaction to it rather astonishing.

    I can’t recall another time in my life when an American political party ran on an agenda that they took pains to keep from the public at large.

  10. 10.

    TenguPhule

    and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed,”

    Left unfinished were “until they are born. Then if they do not come out of the properly santified Imperial Wombs, sucks to be them.”

  11. 11.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Akin didn’t use the code.

    “You stupid idiot! You’re blabbing our position out in plain, easy to understand English!”

  12. 12.

    Rosalita

    How about an amendment to the Constitution that if you don’t have the parts you can’t legislate the body…in other words, to hell with all these white men who have nothing better to do that try to take up residence in women’s bodies.

  13. 13.

    eric

    @Chris: They are because this blows up the gender gap and makes the war on women even “more real.” Everyone knows an exception for rape and ince$t doesnt make logical sense, but most so-called “pro-life” folk I have met still allow for it either out of political expediency or some hand waving argument. Now the plank in the party platform is on display. Ask Scott Brown how he is gonna answer that at his debate with Warren. This is manna from heaven.

  15. 15.

    Valdivia

    They are freaking out because with him around they can no longer play the game in which they and the village pretend they are not as crazy radical as they are. That is all.

  16. 16.

    rlrr

    Rep. Steve King defended Akin and then when on and made the same claim, yet no Republicans are calling for him to resign.

  18. 18.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    So the question is, is Akin really such a clueless twit to think the uproar is over the words “legitimate rape” and not his ludicrously childish belief that epinephrine is a spermacide?

  19. 19.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @JPL:

    This is one of the bitter ironies of the attacks on Planned Parenthood.

    They are about PLANNED pregnancies, which includes extensive pre-natal care to insure a healthy baby and a healthy mother.

    Nothing could be more “pro-life” than that. You’d think.

  20. 20.

    Rob in CT

    I have to think the big worry is that the Dems will be able to tie Akins to Ryan and thus Romney. This should, in fact, be child’s play, given the legislative record. I’ll believe it when I see it working, though.

  21. 21.

    Rosalita

    and because the Master, George Carlin, said it best:

    “Boy, these conservatives are really something, aren’t they? They’re all in favor of the unborn. They will do anything for the unborn. But once you’re born, you’re on your own. Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months. After that, they don’t want to know about you. They don’t want to hear from you. No nothing. No neonatal care, no day care, no head start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you’re pre-born, you’re fine; if you’re preschool, you’re fucked.”

  22. 22.

    RP

    Is the GOP’s position really the same as Akin’s? The GOP is saying that abortion is evil and should not be permitted regardless of how the pregnancy occurred. IOW, the rape is irrelevant. Akin said that a woman who is pregnant could not have been raped.

  23. 23.

    piratedan

    @kindness: bingo… this is simply more fuel for the argument that the media gives the R’s a free pass on damn near everything….. 12 years to uncover this ugly truth hiding in plain sight to find out that a LOT of your fellow citizens find that position absolutely fucking nuts and are only clued into it because of some idiot is repeating it aloud while the cameras were running.

  24. 24.

    Tonal Crow

    Why should Akin resign? For the same reason every other Republican should resign: they’re crazy radicals who’d drag us back to the Dark Ages if they could.

    —
    Tag: Mitt Romney is Sarah Palin with man parts.

  27. 27.

    Stephen Suh

    Akin’s problem with the GOP is that he’s too compassionate. See, by stating that women have a special power that allows them to shutdown a pregnancy if they are ‘legitimately raped,’ Akin is suggesting that forcing women to bear a rapist’s baby might not always be a good idea.

    For the GOP – from Romney/Ryan to the rank-and-file – women are only good for pleasing men and having their babies. They still think ‘barrenness’ is a thing and that it’s a punishment from God. They think that men decide when women should get pregnant, and this extends to the physical process itself. The idea that a woman could choose to not become pregnant, even if it’s a process that takes place entirely inside her own body, is abhorrent to them.

    Akin simply elevates women to a status entirely too high for the modern GOP.

  28. 28.

    wrb

    He must feel wronged right now.

    He said what he believes and what much of the GOP believes and the PPP poll shows the voters are still with him.

    Yet the GOP establishment is backing those he recently defeated in the primaries in calling for his resignation.

    He’s going to stay in to win a victory for the cause over the weathervanes, RINOs and flip-floppers, imo

  29. 29.

    eric

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I am not sure that he is wrong about that. I think people can right off dumb-a$$ science, but not the notion that women routinely lie or are mistaken about rape. I do think it is the legitamte rape point that got him into trouble. If he was talking about wnat a doctor told him about stress and conception, he would just be another run of the mill whacko

  30. 30.

    The Dangerman

    Akin is apparently staying in and he could easily win…

    …and I see he’s already done the “I’m not a letch; I’m you” speech, so he’s basically Christine O’Donnell with balls. He’ll be on TV a lot…

    …and will be a drag on the party nationally. Too bad for them.

  32. 32.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Hunter Gathers:

    So how’s President McCain doing these days?

    Well, not so good after he “fell down a staircase” in the White House six months into his term and VP Todd Sarah Palin took over the Presidency, as McCain was incapacitated (cough, cough).

  33. 33.

    hitchhiker

    This x 1,000:

    Akin’s real sin is letting people really understand how truly insane the Republican party is.

    We’re not supposed to notice that. We’re supposed to be distracted by their massive amounts of $$$$$$$$$$$, which are supposed to be evidence that really smart, competent people are actually in charge.

    Is there any analogous thing that a D representative might say to a local interviewer? Something that’s loony as hell, but generally not acknowledged within the party? Anything?

  34. 34.

    Tom the First

    I generally have a problem the knee-jerk response to gaffes being calls for resignation or withdrawal. Let the voters decide.

    But, I think from the Republican standpoint, no, they don’t really care what he said. If he made that comment within their own hermetically sealed bubble, they’d slap him on the back. The only reason they want him to step down is because they don’t want to lose.

  35. 35.

    TenguPhule

    @JPL: Only if there is a mandatory “Draft the non-whites for the military” plank on their platform.

  36. 36.

    catclub

    an insightful posting is at Washington Monthly. Highly deserving of the tl:dr ;)

    Wheels within wheels? Or We’re down the rabbit hole here, people.

  38. 38.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @eric:

    Which facts are not in evidence? That the GOP wants to take us back to the Dark Ages? Michelle Bachmann has said that the Renaissance was “a mistake”. She wasn’t satisfied with attacking just the Enlightenment.

  39. 39.

    Zifnab

    @The Moar You Know:

    I can’t recall another time in my life when an American political party ran on an agenda that they took pains to keep from the public at large.

    Were you asleep in 2000? How about 2004? How about 2008? Hell, how about ’94? Or ’80?

    Republicans don’t run on their own merits. They run on empty promises and “you can have your cake and eat it, too” happy talk when times are good. Then they run on “the other guys have ruined everything!” when times are bad. Actual policy is conveyed via a series of coded hand signs and dog whistles that only the party faithful are supposed to understand.

  40. 40.

    catclub

    @hitchhiker: Yes! “The drug war is not working and legalization of marijuana is just a start to solving drug problems in America.”

    ETA: The difference is that such a statement is not supported by the national party platform, as Akin’s is.

  41. 41.

    SatanicPanic

    He’s in trouble for getting ahead of the game. Give the Republicans 4-8 years and you can’t get pregnant if you’re raped will be added to the party platform.

  43. 43.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God:

    And while we’ve all been chattering about Ryan’s unelectability, Romney’s been creeping up in the polls.

    Considering the outright infighting, blame storming and pants weating we’ve been seeing from Right over this election it tends to make me a bit skeptical about the polls. When have the GOP ever cut a candidate lose in a senate race like this, so quickly? They never turned on Christine O’Donnell like this.

  44. 44.

    wrb

    @Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God:

    And while we’ve all been chattering about Ryan’s unelectability, Romney’s been creeping up in the polls.

    I’ve been feeling optimistic these last few week after being mostly pessimistic for quite a while (economy too shitty, foreclosures to plentiful, money too much). But the gifts from the Rs kept coming.

    But it is true that things that seem like huge gifts to liberals, which cause the to get giddy and think, “after this no one can vote for this asshole” sometimes have little impact on others.

    It is still very tight. I’d like to see at least a little positive movement in the polls’ results after the exposure of Ryan’s economic extremism & Akin’s exposure of this other extremism I am not filled with confidence, however.

  45. 45.

    Tokyokie

    Six years ago, McCaskill won largely because she favored stem-cell research, and Michael J. Fox did an ad for her to that effect. And that ad only got traction because (Missouri native) blowhard Rush Limbaugh started loudly accusing Fox of faking his symptoms in the ad, which called attention to the issue and the heartlessness of the GOP. It seems to me that the dynamics of this incident could play out in a similar fashion, and I’d give things a few days before declaring that it won’t hurt Akin in the general election.

  46. 46.

    Roger Moore

    @karen marie:
    It really makes you wonder if the Republicans aren’t just a bunch of trolls who are trying to see how crazy they can act and still get elected. I guess that just shows I’m in denial about how evil people are willing to be.

  47. 47.

    MattF

    Akins walks into the room, the subject changes to social issues, Republicans lose. Period.

    Added: My recollection is that there was a ‘Schiavo’ issue, once upon a time. R’s learned from that.

  49. 49.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Keep in mind, too, that there is no guarantee that the delegates at the convention will be quiet and orderly. There are significant knots of Paulista, Santorum, and Gingrich zealots loose there, and they could cause trouble.

  50. 50.

    SatanicPanic

    @karen marie: Facts discrediting the theory of Peak Wingnut continue to pile up. At this rate they’ll be saying that no one ever gets shot with guns or that pale people never get sunburns.

  52. 52.

    Linda Featheringill

    @Rosalita: #12

    if you don’t have the parts you can’t legislate the body

    Amen!

    I realize that it is selfish of me to get tired of a bunch of old men regulating what women can and cannot do. I realize that there are lots and lots of very nice, enlightened, and lovable guys out there. But sometimes I read shit like this and just hate all men, everywhere. Which isn’t right, of course.

    Sorry guys. Love you. But those assholes just really get to me.

  53. 53.

    catclub

    @Zifnab: This is really an excellent explanation for why McCain lost in 2008. He had nothing left to run on from the old grab-bag of GOP methods.

    “Republicans don’t run on their own merits. They run on empty promises and “you can have your cake and eat it, too” happy talk when times are good. Then they run on “the other guys have ruined everything!” when times are bad”

  54. 54.

    hitchhiker

    @catclub:

    But I asked for something loony as hell . . .

    “The drug war is not working and legalization of marijuana is just a start to solving drug problems in America.”

    . . . is not loony at all. It’s common sense.

    The Akin super-lady-power theory is loony. I’m looking for something like — I don’t know. A Dem who says that we should nationalize banks because bankers have a greed gene that keeps them from behaving responsibly.

    Something Akin-level batshit.

  55. 55.

    Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God

    @joes527:

    Look at the polls after they have settled down after the conventions.

    After the GOP convention, a whole deluge of cash frees up for use, and the GOP Air War begins. Obama needs more margin than usual going in (IMO this is why they attacked Romney early on this summer, they knew this). I think he needs at least 5, maybe 10 points of margin to keep it.

    I was hoping it wouldn’t all hinge on the debates, esp. given the choice of moderators (who I deem to be ‘somewhat unlikely’ to call Romney on any untrue BS he says there).

    If I had to bet money today, I’d bet on the low-info geriatrics voting to sell the rest of us out.

    ETA: Sorry to be depressing. But the GOP knows how to appeal to the baser instincts of the Great American Fool.

  56. 56.

    Jay S

    @RP: Actually, I think he is in line with the Ryan wing view that nobody should be allowed to have an abortion, including someone who was raped. He’s just adding on the “they probably weren’t raped anyway, because almost nobody gets pregnant that way” as way to try and minimize the argument for exceptions.

    I’m pretty sure publicly adding the addled logic is what is making most Republicans back away as fast as they can. If he stayed within the fold with “no abortions, period” they wouldn’t have batted an eye and neither would the press.

  61. 61.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @eric:

    Oh.

    Yeah, unless he drops trou and shows us.

    Otherwise, like on his taxes, he’s just asserting something he can prove by taking a few simple steps.

    Harry Reid tells us that an insider at OvenMItt’s athletic club says that he’s dickless. Harry doesn’t know if that’s true or false, but has reason to believe the locker room insider.

    Trust, but verify.

  62. 62.

    Nikita

    @ John up top: My thoughts exactly. I’ve been snarking at a couple of FB friends with this exact logic. Akin’s views and policies are 100% mainstream republican. He just demonstrated that he’s a little ignorant about human biology. Ignorance about biology from a congressman? Err…this is new how?

  63. 63.

    MikeJ

    @hitchhiker:

    Something Akin-level batshit.

    There may be an anti vaxxer candidate out there, but there’s nothing the party as a whole believes that analogously stupid.

  65. 65.

    kindness

    I expect Akin will stay in and I really do believe that Claire is this year’s Blanche Lincoln. In all honesty Claire sucks as a politician. She still goes with that Blue Dog crap even though she has seen 2010 elections where it didn’t help you at all.

    I can’t speak for the good people of Missouri. I know there are some as I have close friends who live there. But the state as a whole is going where Kansas and Oklahoma have already gone and I don’t know if there is anything I can do to stop that.

    Claire is Blanche with a little more luck. She sucks. I hope she wins and if she does win I hope she shuts the hell up about whining about other Democrats or Obama. Not very nice of me I know. See, I don’t like getting beat up by conservatives but I really hate it when it’s a ‘Democrat’ that is doing it.

  66. 66.

    jwb

    @Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God: I disagree. The airwaves are already more or less at saturation levels in all the battleground states, so I don’t think buying more ad time, even if it is possible, will do much. The bigger problem is that such a large percentage of the electorate has made up its mind already, that changing anyone’s mind is going to be extremely difficult. So what we really will have is all that money pursuing the roughly 10% who are seemingly undecided and trying to convince unlikely voters to vote.

    I also see panic on the GOP side that is not in keeping with the apparent closeness of the media polls we have access to. That leads me to question the veracity of those polls, especially since those who buy those polls, i.e., the media, have an interest in keeping the race close. Nothing about this race feels like it is as close as the polls suggest it is. It’s just very bizarre.

  67. 67.

    artem1s

    @The Moar You Know:

    I can’t recall another time in my life when an American political party ran on an agenda that they took pains to keep from the public at large.

    I’ve been having an email argument all morning about the voter suppression efforts of the GOP in Ohio. He keeps whinging about how both sides need to work for voters rights and if we all just get along, blah, blah, blah. He can’t seem to get it through his head that the GOP in Columbus initiated the rules that are rolling back early voting laws that have been in effect for more than 4 years.

    The GOP has been excelling at hiding their dog whistles and true agendas and blaming everything on the mysterious forces of THE GOVERNMENT for so long it has become dogma.

    It’s pretty weird to see them lose hold of that particular tool at this point in the game. But they chose to turn the party over to the 27% so I guess they have it coming.

  69. 69.

    Southern Beale

    Just ran across this from less than 2 weeks ago. Funny how I’d already forgotten!

    Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican nominee for Senate in Missouri, wants to ban the morning-after pill, considering it to be a form of abortion, he told a Kansas City radio station Wednesday.
    __
    “As far as I’m concerned, the morning-after pill is a form of abortion, and I think we just shouldn’t have abortion in this country,” Akin said Wednesday, the day after his victory in the Republican primary, in an interview with Kansas City radio host Greg Knapp. Audio was posted by the liberal site Progress Missouri.

    Again, more pseudo-science pulled out of his ass to further a political agenda that oppresses women. What an idiot.

  70. 70.

    Hunter Gathers

    @Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God:

    If I had to bet money today, I’d bet on the low-info geriatrics voting to sell the rest of us out.

    They will, but there’s not enough of them to matter. In order to win, Romney’s gonna have to get more than 60% of the white vote to win. The only candidate to do that in the past 32 years was Reagan in ’84. Hell, Romney could break 60% and still lose. Since the only part of the electorate that matters to the MSM and to the pollsters are white males, it might be easy to forget that there are voters out there who aren’t white and male. There are black and hispanic voters out there, but you wouldn’t know it by watching the polls or cable news.

  72. 72.

    Someguy

    This actually has the look of a nice controversy to throw in the face of friends who are still 27 percenters. If you have any left.

  73. 73.

    ira-NY

    Last night, after a day of reading about that jackass Akin, I watched Thelma and Louise.

    It seemed right.

    Louise Sawyer: “In the future, when a woman is crying like that, she isn’t having any fun.”

  74. 74.

    scav

    The inability of the traditional éminences grises of the GOP to control either their members or their overall narrative is increasingly spotlit. veddy interesting. Dangerous, yes, but also uncharted terrain so a quick thinking team would be an advantage (more so than one that stuck closely with plays that worked in the past).

  75. 75.

    James E. Powell

    I mentioned this in another thread, but will repeat it here. Doesn’t Akin hold all the cards? Would the Republican big shots ever abandon him to a loss? Why would they do that?

    At at his age and at this stage of his career, what could they possibly offer him to convince him to give up a very good shot at being a senator? As of this week, he is a martyr forever for the anti-abortion movement. They can and will offer more than the Republican big shots. And they will back him up in public.

  77. 77.

    jl

    Disgusting and hypocritical.

    As Crasy old Joe’s dad said: Show me your budget and I will show you what you value.

    Ryans deficit reduction plan include budget for menstruation police, and miscarriage/murder investigations? No.

    Are vicious old white dudes gonona sit still while their daughters, sisters, friends are investigated for homicide because a possible pregnancy possibly ended spontaneously, or DID IT? No.

    No, they will not.

    Yeebus Cripes, sorry vicious old white dudes, you cannot control everything. And God made it that way. Deal with it.

  78. 78.

    Brachiator

    So, the GOP plank pretty much endorses Akin’s position.

    Republicans in Tampa, Fla., are drafting a platform provision that calls for a “human life amendment” to the Constitution: a ban on abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest.
    __
    Nothing new there. The party adopted the same plank four and eight years ago. But this year, the timing could not be worse for the GOP, amid the uproar over Rep. Todd Akin’s statement on “legitimate rape.” Congressman Akin of Missouri, Republican challenger to Sen. Claire McCaskill (D), is under intense pressure from GOP leaders to withdraw from the race, but has resisted.
    __
    Akin has created a perfect storm for the Democrats: He now embodies the Republican Party’s opposition to abortion under all circumstances, a position that the Romney campaign does not follow. Mitt Romney includes an exception for rape, in line with the view of most Americans.

    In light of this, not much reason for Akin to drop out.

    Potential GOP voters who ignore the party’s social policy because they believe that Mittens will govern like a pro business moderate now have to work much harder to avoid the obvious lunacy of the Republicans.

  79. 79.

    catclub

    @hitchhiker: Point taken. I was thinking of something that democrat leaders do not say, but probably believe.

    Actually, if the standard is that: “The other side thinks it is crazy, but we still believe it, but will not bring it up
    to avoid being called crazy.” Then the drug case is one, and gun control would be the other.

    The things that Akin said, many of them do believe, but know that saying them is political poison. Likewise (but reflected) for our thoughts on the drug war.

  80. 80.

    roc

    @Villago Delenda Est: The GOP is pro-life in the way that the Catholic Church is against pre-marital sex and masturbation: it has nothing to do with objective outcomes and everything to do with making everyone feel guilty, ashamed and doubtful of their own nature, intuition and judgment.

    i.e. They’re made to feel ‘wrong’ in having their natural desires, so they assume they’re ‘off’ in some way they really don’t want to announce to society for fear of being cast out. So they are more-willing to defer to those who seemingly have a more-clear moral compass.

  81. 81.

    Brachiator

    Weird. Got moderated trying to link to a news story that the official GOP plank pretty much endorses Akin’s views.

    Ban on abortion. No exceptions.

  82. 82.

    catclub

    @Southern Beale: “As far as I’m concerned, the morning-after pill is a form of abortion, and I think we just shouldn’t have abortion in this country,”
    Akin said.

    Who this _we_ , Kemo Sabe?

  83. 83.

    Anya

    Here’s Steve King saying bat-shit crazy things again.

    King told an Iowa reporter he’s never heard of a child getting pregnant from statutory rape or incest.
    ___________
    “Well I just haven’t heard of that being a circumstance that’s been brought to me in any personal way,” King told KMEG-TV Monday, “and I’d be open to discussion about that subject matter.”

    This so ignorant and offensive, I really don’t know what to say. I just don’t understand how can sane person vote for this asshole.

    When I was doing placement work, I worked with a young woman who got pregnant 6 times as a result of her father raping her. She had serious mental health issues and he’s been raping her since she was child. She came directly from the hospital where she gave birth. Her child was immediately taken by child services. She was still lactating. It was the hardest thing I had ever dealt with. This was 2007 and I still think about her.

  84. 84.

    cmorenc

    @Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God:

    And while we’ve all been chattering about Ryan’s unelectability, Romney’s been creeping up in the polls.
    Not liking my fellow Americans very much right now.

    Keep in mind that the two+ week interval between Romney’s rollout of his VP nominee and the Democratic Convention were always highly likely to be one of the more favorable ones for Romney’s apparent level of support in the polls. Recall that in 2008, for about ten nervous days post-GOP convention, McCain/Palin were up six or seven points on Obama/Biden. The good news here is that outside of helping Romney consolidate hard-right GOP base support, the Ryan VP pick has so far induced such a relatively small bump in his support, especially compared to Palin. The bad news, if anything, is that the Ryan pick has momentarily made Wisconsin much closer.

    Remember that until Labor Day, most of the electorate that’s still “in play”, either as to which side to vote for or more particularly whether they’ll be motivated enough to turn out, hasn’t been paying more than very superficial, intermittent attention yet. Keep in mind that even those among us who are only moderately tuned in to all the various campaign turns compared to hard-core political junkies, nevertheless have a knowledge and information level that is vastly better and more sophisticated than most voters still actually in play (decision or turnout). Low-information and unmotivated voters are a far bigger problem than even the motivated stupidity and toxic ideology of a substantial plurality of the electorate.

    Patience. Let’s see where the race is a half-dozen days past the Democratic Convention, for that will be a far more telling snapshot of Obama’s re-election chances than any snapshot taken between now and the start of the Democratic Convention.

  85. 85.

    J.D. Rhoades

    Have any of the masters of the false equivalency brought up Whoopi Goldberg’s “It wasn’t ‘rape’ rape” comment? I’ve been expecting that kind of bullshit any minute now.

  87. 87.

    Trentrunner

    @ira-NY: Love that movie. But in mind, they parachute out after the final freeze-frame, and now run a profitable diner called “At Your Cervix” in Bisbee, AZ.

    In my mind.

    Love Susan Sarandon in that movie. (Her lookalike but blonde daughter has a cameo at the beginning as a customer of Louise’s at the diner.)

    That movie is now 21 years old. And we’re going backwards, it seems, on the issues it raised.

  88. 88.

    Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God

    @wrb:

    But it is true that things that seem like huge gifts to liberals, which cause the to get giddy and think, “after this no one can vote for this asshole” sometimes have little impact on others.

    This, exactly.

    Most GOP voters (esp. the older ones) aren’t arriving at their votes through processes of logic, reason, or critical thinking. When confronted with Republican madness, the response seems to be to just deny that the position is real (re: that group of voters that refused to believe that Ryan was actually for the Ryan plan when it was explained to them, because it was so radical– same for Akin’s diatribe on self-defending ladyparts).

    This is definitely a Firewall Election.

  89. 89.

    Anya

    Here’s Steve King saying bat-shit crazy things again.

    King told an Iowa reporter he’s never heard of a child getting pregnant from statutory rape or inc%st.
    _______
    “Well I just haven’t heard of that being a circumstance that’s been brought to me in any personal way,” King told KMEG-TV Monday, “and I’d be open to discussion about that subject matter.”

    This so ignorant and offensive, I really don’t know what to say. I just don’t understand how can sane person vote for this asshole.
    When I was doing placement work, I worked with a young woman who got pregnant 6 times as a result of her father raping her. She had serious mental health issues and he’s been raping her since she was child. She came directly from the hospital where she gave birth. Her child was immediately taken by child services. She was still lactating. It was the hardest thing I had ever dealt with. This was 2007 and I still think about her.

  90. 90.

    J.D. Rhoades

    @Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God:

    Other defense mechanisms include: (1) At least he’s not Obama or an Obama supporter; (2) You’re just talking about this to distract us from the terrible Obama economy; (3) Well, some Democrat said something stupid, too, why aren’t the libs upset about that? (e.g. “Well, Shirley Jackson Lee asked if the Mars Rover took a picture of the flag Neil Armstrong left on Mars”).

    They’re endurance trolls. As long as they can come up with an answer, any answer, however dimwitted or dishonest, they’ll never admit they’re wrong.

  91. 91.

    danimal

    @hitchhiker: Here’s one: Bush and Cheney should be convicted of war crimes for their torture policies. Many Dems believe it, but saying it aloud would cause massive, jerking spasms in the MSM.

  93. 93.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @Brachiator: Well, that makes it simple, doesn’t it? Any woman with more than two brain cells rubbing together who votes for the GOP is insane. It’d be like African-Americans voting for a “pro-lynching” amendment.

  96. 96.

    TuiMel

    Can’t have the truth of the Republican party on such obvious display. He makes it all too plain that the entire party IS waging a war on women.

  97. 97.

    jl

    @Linda Featheringill:

    I agree with LF. The Bush Social Security scam tried the same divide and conquer approach, trying to buy off oldsters and older middle aged with promises of no changes in future benefits for them in exchange for gutting program for younger people. Not enough elderly and older middle aged were fooled.

    And Romney’s scam is more problematic. I think plenty of elderly and plenty of their younger relatives and especially middle age kids who often have to supervise financial arrangements, understand that gutting Medicaid has huge implications for anyone on Medicare who needs, or might need, long term care. And the implication of gutting Medicaid is that lots of current Medicare recipients will get financially hammered, and probably die prematurely due to even worse long term care than the US has now, or lack of access to any long term care at all.

    I would not bet on Mitt riding to victory on a unified block of duped, or self destructively short sighted and selfish elderly.

  100. 100.

    Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God

    @J.D. Rhoades:
    I am totally stealing the phrase “endurance trolls”.

    @Linda Featheringill:
    Here in MA, personally, I don’t know any white, married people over 40 who aren’t Republicans. (That ‘married’ part seems to be important, all the libs I know –except me, at 44– are either under 40 or single/divorced/widowed).

    That said, I should probably be more careful when I splatter my assumptions around with a broad, broad brush. It’s a big country.

  103. 103.

    hilzoy

    No. His “real sin” was not “letting people really understand how truly insane the Republican party is”. Republican elected officials have been saying crazy things for ages without provoking anything like this reaction.

    His real sin is being the weakest candidate against Claire McCaskill, having won the primary despite this, and having given the leadership of the GOP something that’s a plausible excuse to ask him to step aside.

    Mitch McConnell does not get the vapors every time some Republican says something stupid. What’s different this time is that that Republican staying in the race might prevent him from becoming Majority Leader.

  105. 105.

    Elizabelle

    @hilzoy:

    I love the idea of Mitch McConnell feeling personally threatened by having Todd Akin in the Missouri US Senate race.

    It may be the only sentiment we share.

  106. 106.

    wrb

    @hilzoy:

    His “real sin” was not “letting people really understand how truly insane the Republican party is”

    I think his real sin was making them sound stupid. He would have been fine saying that only forceable rape was legitimate rape. It was only his theorizing about magical secretions that got him in trouble.

    But, since this is the only problem, they will soon forgive him. He doesn’t know everything about female biology, but it would be a little weird if he did, ya know?

  109. 109.

    ottercliff

    And if he did step down, I assume he would go back to his very safe House seat anyhow. Don;t hear any Repubs calling for him to vacate that as well.
    Willard, what say you?

  110. 110.

    Mnemosyne

    @jwb:

    I also see panic on the GOP side that is not in keeping with the apparent closeness of the media polls we have access to. That leads me to question the veracity of those polls, especially since those who buy those polls, i.e., the media, have an interest in keeping the race close. Nothing about this race feels like it is as close as the polls suggest it is. It’s just very bizarre.

    There is definitely something weird going on, because the Romney campaign isn’t acting as though the polls are moving in their favor. They’re acting as though they’re losing big chunks of the base and have to desperately throw red meat at them to try and hang on to them while ignoring all of the moderate and independent voters who need to be convinced that the Ryan plan won’t leave them eating cat food in their sunset years.

    I mean, McCain scoffed at the idea of an abortion being needed to preserve a woman’s health and he got pounded. Now they’re going to try and go all in on “no abortions, ever, for any reason” as their road to victory?

  111. 111.

    hitchhiker

    @danimal:

    Bush and Cheney should be convicted of war crimes for their torture policies. Many Dems believe it, but saying it aloud would cause massive, jerking spasms in the MSM.

    That’s close . . . except that sort of statement would be about an interpretation of law and policy, right? Not a statement about a scientifically verifiable fact. I guess I just can’t get my head around the fact that one of our two parties is really in the hands of people who are not grounded in reality.

    I’m very slow, is the problem. A decade of hyperventilating about the hoax of global warming should have been enough to convince me.

  112. 112.

    jl

    @Mnemosyne:

    Fivethirty eight blog has Obama staring to move up again in electoral votes and probability of winning election, which, rounded to even numbers, is still at 70 percent.

    Silver does not include a veep announcement adjustment in his prediction model because he feels not enough evidence to build a reliable formal model. But he notes in a recent post that the ones he has played with indicate a below average veep bounce, and that his models with adjustment for veep announcement would still show Obama gaining.

    Soooooo…. yeah…. looks like trouble, and that was before vicious idiots like Akin and Steve King opened their yaps and put the GOP barbaric savage reproductive health policies front and center.

    Edit: I cross out barbaric, since that characterization is insulting to many barbarian cultures throughout history. Probably same true of savages, but I need a word here. My bad, and I apologize to all humane savages.

  113. 113.

    LanceThruster

    McCaskill was on MSNBC the other night and you could tell she was hoping that Akin would still be her opponent. She said it’s not the national party’s job to tell the regional party structure what to do.

  114. 114.

    LanceThruster

    @jl:

    I think you can use thuggish with a clear conscience as thuggery pretty much varies only in matter of degree.

    This is not an electronic lynching but the foundation for a real world mugging on top of the assault already committed in the hypothetical (which sadly, happens far too often in real life).

    Rethuglican seems an appropriate catch-all term.

  115. 115.

    Wally Ballou

    @lacp: @The Thin Black Duke:

    You’d be surprised how many pro-patriarchy women there are out there.

    Also too, lots of affluent pro-business women will plug their noses and vote their pocketbooks, figuring they’ll always be able to get their (or their daughters’) abortions.

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