In my House district (the new NY-25), the trick for a Republican is to be pro-life on the down low – keep it off the website, don’t discuss it in the campaign, but put out the word to the pro-lifers that you’re one of them. Akin is forcing Maggie Brooks, who’s a serious challenger to Louise Slaughter, out of the closet, and it’s interesting to watch. I wrote a couple of posts about it on my sadly neglected race blog (here and here) if you want more detail, but the net of it is that Slaughter is beating Brooks over the head with Ryan, Akin, and all the Republicans who signed on to the forcible rape bill and gave Brooks money.
Brooks was caught flat-footed, because pro-life lite™–a rape and incest exemption to abortion and acceptance of contraception–has worked for Republicans around here for decades. Now the tubes are spastic, and the usual “keep your mouth shut and your bowels open” strategy on abortion just ain’t gonna cut it. One of the factors in this race is that Slaughter is a hard core, true believing choice advocate who doesn’t mince words about her support of the right to an abortion. Her abortion talking points are hard-edged and well-practiced. Last she was asked, Brooks was still making up her mind on Planned Parenthood, and now she’s got to tell us what kinds of rape are really rape rape, and which ones are non-abortion slut rape.
This is even more important over in the new NY-27, where Kathy Hochul is running to keep the seat she won in a special election by running on the Ryan plan. Her opponent is the white, male asshole Chris Collins, and I’m going to love seeing him explain reproductive biology the next time he emerges from whatever bunker he’s hiding in.
lamh35
“KDKA Political Editor Jon Delano asked: “Should abortions to be available to women who are raped?”
Ryan opposes abortions in all cases except for when the life of the mother is at stake, which is different from Mitt Romney’s position — Romney would also carve out exceptions for rape and incest.
“I’m proud of my pro-life record,” Ryan said. “And I stand by my pro-life record in Congress. It’s something I’m proud of. But Mitt Romney is the top of the ticket and Mitt Romney will be president and he will set the policy of the Romney administration.”
“You sponsored legislation that has the language ‘forcible rape,’” Delano noted. “What is forcible rape as opposed…”
“Rape is rape,” Ryan interrupted. “Rape is rape, period. End of story.”
“So that forcible rape language meant nothing to you at the time?” Delano asked.
“Rape is rape and there’s no splitting hairs over rape,” Ryan said.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/08/ryan-refuses-to-explain-forcible-rape-as-dems-attempt-more-akin-izing-of-the-gop-ticket/
lamh35
Ryan should be forced to answer this question at every stop!
“KDKA Political Editor Jon Delano asked: “Should ab*ortions to be available to women who are raped?”Ryan opposes ab*ortions in all cases except for when the life of the mother is at stake, which is different from Mitt Romney’s position — Romney would also carve out exceptions for r*ape and in*cest.
“I’m proud of my pro-life record,” Ryan said. “And I stand by my pro-life record in Congress. It’s something I’m proud of. But Mitt Romney is the top of the ticket and Mitt Romney will be president and he will set the policy of the Romney administration.”
“You sponsored legislation that has the language ‘forcible r*ape,’” Delano noted. “What is forcible r*ape as opposed…”
“R*ape is r*ape,” Ryan interrupted. “R*ape is r*ape, period. End of story.”
“So that forcible r*ape language meant nothing to you at the time?” Delano asked.
“R*ape is r*ape and there’s no splitting hairs over r*ape,” Ryan said.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/08/ryan-refuses-to-explain-forcible-rape-as-dems-attempt-more-akin-izing-of-the-gop-ticket/
Yutsano
@lamh35: Sweet. He flops just as much as Willard does. Not libertarian enough for the Randroids and not Christan enough for the Jeebus freaks. Methinks that bounce mistermix is hyperventilating about will go poof here quite soon.
Punchy
May I inquire into the origins of said phrase? I’ve seen it like eleventy times today on this blog, so i know it’s gone from upstart to fetish to meme.
red dog
I’m with Punchy….spastic tubes?
schrodinger's cat
@Punchy: It is from the good doctor Wilke, whose endorsement Mitt Romney sought way back in 2008.
Roger Moore
@Punchy:
It’s a quote from the doctor Akin was relying on for his quack medical opinion that rape is unlikely to lead to pregnancy. The quote ABL had yesterday was:
People made the immediate connection between that and Sen. Ted Stevens’s comments about the internet being a series of tubes, and away the meme went.
HRA
I wish Louise Slaughter was my Rep.
I have the choice between Hochul and Collins. Last time I saw Collins on the TV, he looked physically unwell. I have to vote straight D which is not a problem except I am not particularly happy about Hochul.
Romney is a chameleon. Now Ryan is one, too. Wiser people will take notice of it.
Buffalo Rude
I was never so proud of my Congressional Representative as I was when I lived in Louise Slaughter’s district (back in the earmuffs days).
Joseph Nobles
Spastic tubes: the doctor from whence Akin got his biology lesson on rape and the modern uterus explains the rejection of rape sperm by saying the tubes get spastic.
YellowJournalism
@red dog: One of the a-hole “experts” claimed that women’s “tubes” become spastic under the stress of rape, therefore magically stopping sperm from reaching the egg.
Tehanu
That’s easy, per Akin’s latest attempt to “explain” what he meant: slut rape is a woman telling a lie so she can have big-time fun on the abortionist’s table. After all, as a “real” man, Akin knows all about what lying sluts women are. Actually, my guess is that every woman who ever told him he was good in bed was lying — and deep down, he knows it.
Violet
I think Elizabeth Warren would do well to discuss the Republican party and their treaatment of women too. Lump Scott Brown in with the Republicans. Point out how Republicans can’t be trusted with women’s rights.
nodakfarmboy
Positive anecdote from the field:
I was visiting with an acquaintance at a local establishment last night, mainly friendly banter, when she suddenly shifted the conversation in a new direction, stating “I don’t usually pay much attention to politics, but did you hear about that idiotic rape guy?”
She was incensed. And this from someone who is young, not all that politically connected, and probably meets the definition of “low-information” voter. She’s a smart person, but had never shown any signs of any political interest at all. But she’d caught wind of this, and was not a happy camper. She followed up by mentioning “And this Ryan Paul or Paul Ryan guy- I got an email about him. He’s awful for women’s issues!”
And it struck me- THIS is why the Republicans are freaking out. When people who otherwise pay no attention to politics are suddenly motivated to go out of their way to bash your candidates? Let’s just say it’s probably not a good sign for your PR efforts. If that indignation channels into votes, things could get dicey for the Republicans this fall.
kindness
I grew up in the northeast where most my family was Republican. But New England/NY Republicans were typically socially liberal and fiscally conservative.
What happened to all them? I don’t know. I know if my Ma was still around she would not be voting for these Republicans. So I’m at a loss to understand the dynamics of today’s Republican Party. Is their polling support a facade? Do women actually buy this bullshit? I hope not but honestly don’t know.
November will tell.
@Punchy: Akin trotted out a physician who claims a theory that when a women is raped, she is so freaked out her ‘tubes become spastic’ so that she can’t become pregnant. No one but the Christian right believes this but they claim it’s true so Akin et al are running with it.
wrb
So do we have a schism among the faithful?
Not just between RINO and fundie but within the fundies between the church of the lady secretions and the church of the spastic tubes?
Game on.
mistermix
@HRA: What’s your beef with Hochul? Unfortunately in that district (I think it’s R+5), she’s going to have to be a bit of a blue dog to get elected.
Mark S.
@Yutsano:
Not before Mitt gets a one or two point bounce from the convention, and every pundit starts talking about the unstoppable Romney juggernaut. It’s going to be an annoying week.
Pluky
@kindness: Once the party adopted the “Southern Strategy,” it no longer needed the types represented by your family to prevail politically. If you are not needed, your postions no longer factor in determining policy.
Elizabelle
@nodakfarmboy:
Love your anecdote. Thank you.
Visited a beloved elderly relative this weekend. Total libertarian/hardcore conservative Republican from way back, but respect for women and their rights.
He’s fired up to vote for Romney. (Last visit, it was Herman Cain.)
Took note that most of his children support Obama. He’s badly outnumbered, within his own (privileged) family.
Davis X. Machina
@kindness:
The Civil War. Not the old one, the new one, the one where the Confederates won.
Roger Moore
@Tehanu:
I think it’s more of a slutty woman lying about a god-fearing man to avoid the god-given punishment for her unauthorized sexytime. I suppose she might also want to use the fetus as part of her Satanic rituals, also, too.
Actually, I think that’s going to be Mitt’s answer if he ever gets cornered on Stericycle. He wasn’t running the business for anything as crass as profit. He was giving those poor dead babies proper treatment so that they wouldn’t be stolen by Satanists and used as part of a Black Mass.
lamh35
(@ThePlumLineGS)
8/22/12 10:06 AM
AP poll: Obama holds double digit leads on social issues, personal attributes; 8 point lead on Medicare: wapo.st/SnIraY
bemused
So has the brilliant physician Willke appeared on Fox to expound on “uptight” women and their “spastic tubes” yet?
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@Violet:
As was said over at Teh Orange this morning, every Dem candidate should do exactly what Brown did against Chafee in 06: tie the candidate to the national party, ie., you elect this person and in reality you’re getting all these BATSHIT, INSANE TEATARD TALIBANGALISTS!!!!!!!!!
In some ways, it worked for McCaskill back in 06 as well. She didn’t beat people upside the head with it because she’s a scared politician, but she essentially ran on a “I’m not him” platform and it worked. Back then, Misery voters could be counted on to connect the dots, now, not a chance.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@Violet:
As was said over at Teh Orange this morning, every Dem candidate should do exactly what Brown did against Chafee in 06: tie the candidate to the national party, ie., you elect this person and in reality you’re getting all these BATSHIT, INSANE TEATARD TALIBANGALISTS!
In some ways, it worked for McCaskill back in 06 as well. She didn’t beat people upside the head with it because she’s a scared politician, but she essentially ran on a “I’m not him” platform and it worked. Back then, Misery voters could be counted on to connect the dots, now, not a chance.
Violet
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage: Yes, every Dem should do this. Hang Akin around the neck of the Republicans and show them as the crazies they are. The party itself is crazy if you look at its platform. Make it public. Make every Republican candidate answer questions for it.
rikyrah
man,
I love hearing about Democrats running as Democrats on a Democratic issue and beating the shyt outta mofos who have been lying about their true intentions, well, for forever and a day.
HRA
@mistermix:
“What’s your beef with Hochul? Unfortunately in that district (I think it’s R+5), she’s going to have to be a bit of a blue dog to get elected.”
That’s it.
wrb
Yep, he just took all those Christian babies and baptized them Mormon in a midnight ceremony in one of those inner chambers of their temples that they never let anyone view.
Why else collect dead babies?
Roger Moore
@kindness:
Centralization. In the post-WWII era, central party control was weak and state control was strong. State parties adjusted their ideological positions to be on either side of center for their state, rather than nationally. That meant you wound up with Rockefeller Republicans in more liberal areas and Dixiecrats in more conservative areas. The national parties weren’t too coherent, which is why Congress so often could and had to get bipartisan agreement to get anything done.
That really started to change with Democratic support of the Civil Rights Act and even more so with Nixon’s Southern Strategy. National politics took over as the most important concern, and state politicians more and more had to align themselves with the national platform. Rockefeller Republicans turned into Blue Dogs and Dixiecrats turned into Talibangelicals. That’s meant more single party dominance at the state level and less bipartisan agreement in Washington.
Corner Stone
@Tehanu:
I’ve been trying to come up with a way to express this in negative real numbers…
Roger Moore
@wrb:
Hey, that’s unfair. Mormons don’t need a body to baptize somebody posthumously. How do you think they baptized all those Jews who were cremated during the Holocaust? There were no bodies there! Or how about their ancestors who have been dead for so long they don’t even know where they’re buried? They can baptize any dead person any time.
Corner Stone
@Violet:
I’m going to invoke my purely superficial knowledge of MA politics and disagree with this. I think she doesn’t particularly want to remind them she is, in fact, a woman. IIRC, they don’t seem to do well in these type contests.
She needs some phat Citizens United PAC cash to make the dirty linkage for her. Over and over again.
Corner Stone
@Roger Moore:
I always wondered…
Corner Stone
Just for a purely scientific research project, where exactly would one find all these slutty women? If one needed to, complete completely legitimate research.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@Corner Stone:
I guess the point is that somebody needs to do it, whether it’s the campaign or SuperPAC black money or the DSCC. I think we’re all in agreement on that.
lol
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage:
You meant Sheldon Whitehouse, not Sherrod Brown.
The main message he ran in his commercials was “The most important vote a Senator casts is the first one” and that while Lincoln Chaffee is a fairly liberal guy himself, that first vote enables all sorts of crazy behavior for the right.
catclub
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage: You may not like Scott Brown, but he clearly has some political brains, and possibly a bit of foresight.
That deal that Warren made with Brown on no outside PAC funded advertising is looking better and better for Brown.
wrb
@Roger Moore:
A midnight dead baby baby baptism is a better baptism.
According to the secret Seventh Scroll of the Angel Macaroni, only midnight dead baby baptisms get you the Shining Soldiers who enforce your will over the Jews and other rabble with whom you’ve populated the planet in the Kolob system over which you are God.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@bemused: No, but he’s been hailed as “a world hero” by Ohio House Speaker William G. Batchelder. Isn’t that telling? Story – with video – here.
Something to share with women who will vote, no? This is who they are.
Joey Maloney
@HRA:
To quote Adlai Stevenson, “That’s not enough, madam, we need a majority!”
satch
@Violet:
Scott Brown is taking credit for being the first Republican to call for Akin to drop out of the Senate race, and for asking the RNC to drop the total anti abortion plank from the platform. That’s our Scotty: always ready to take a principled stand when he knows it will cost him nothing, and will have absolutely no effect on the outcome of anything.
Nancy Irving
Tell John he needs to make “The Tubes Are Spastic” a new BJ tag.