Well, this is some good old-fashioned sexism.
Todd Akin of the Legitimate Rape Akins thinks he’s beating Clair McCaskill in the Missouri Senate race because McCaskill was hella aggressive with Todd Akin during the debates, and not as ladylike as she was when she debated Jim Talent in 2006:
Part of his confidence, he said, comes from McCaskill’s demeanor during their debate last week, which he said was not as “ladylike” as it was when she faced off with Republican Jim Talent in 2006.
“I think we have a very clear path to victory, and apparently Claire McCaskill thinks we do, too, because she was very aggressive at the debate, which was quite different than it was when she ran against Jim Talent,” Akin said. “She had a confidence and was much more ladylike (in 2006), but in the debate on Friday she came out swinging, and I think that’s because she feels threatened.”
I wonder what McCaskill did at the debates that made Todd Akin’s balls retreat into his ball cavity.
Perhaps she was wearing a pants suit.
[cross-posted at ABLC]
The prophet Nostradumbass
When will Akin start acting “gentlemanly”?
Violet
Did you see the update?
Wildcat. Rawwr.
TS
Akin is missing a brain – why would it be a “surprise” that your opponent would be in attack mode – even his so called friends in the GOP have been in attack mode against him.
MikeJ
@Violet:
I am a wildcat, you are a worm
We are chasing each other and taking turns
Anatoliĭ Lъudьvigovich Bzyp (Mumphrey, et al.)
Not only is Todd Akin a dickwad, he also has a weirdly-shaped head. Not that that has anything to do with his dickwaddishness; I just thought I’d throw that out there.
Violet
@TS: I find it hilarious that Akin is surprised that his opponent is attacking him “from all directions” in a debate. What did he think was going to happen? A polite fund-raising event where he talks and church ladies try not to nod off?
And wildcat? I doubt he meant it, because I don’t think he’d even know what it meant, but it’s one short step away from cougar.
Amusing Alias
From write-ups elsewhere apparently the problem with McCaskill was that she not being properly deferential. In Akin’s experience with his wife and daughters this is being a “wildcat”.
Violet
@Anatoliĭ Lъudьvigovich Bzyp (Mumphrey, et al.): Akin looks like the fanatic he is. Looks like he walked out of a 1930’s Baptist revival. He’d be one of the guys up front, making sure no one was sneaking out the back of the tent to commit some sin. Moral police.
Cacti
Don’t ever stop being you, Todd.
Just keep talking.
Geoduck
@Violet:
Actually, I’ve gotten the impression that his wife is the really crazy and driven one in the relationship.
Violet
@Geoduck: I wasn’t the one who said what you are quoting, but agree with your assessment. She’s the crazy behind the throne.
Mechwarrior Online
Well Todd Akin is no gentleman, is that sexist?
Dennis SGMM
According to Nate Silver, Clair McCaskill has a 67.4% chance of winning.
Redshift
@Anatoliĭ Lъudьvigovich Bzyp (Mumphrey, et al.):
Lots of people in politics have funny-shaped heads. I wonder if it helps make them distinctive or something.
I remarked to Ms. Redshift years ago about how you apparently need to have a funny-shaped head to win statewide in Virginia, at least as a Democrat — look at Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, Jim Webb.
Maybe it’s not just Virginia.
MattR
@Violet:
It’s not like he’s said something controversial recently that might have inflamed passions.
Triassic Sands
She refused to use the spittoon and repeatedly spat directly at Akin, once badly staining the needlepoint he was working on.
Spaghetti Lee
What’s Akin expecting, something out of Pride and Prejudice? I haven’t read that book in a while and never cared for it, but wasn’t there some creepy older guy who deflowered the heroine’s sister and then flew the coop? That’s who Akin would be.
Yutsano
@Spaghetti Lee: Brain bleach now please. Soooo did not need that mental image!
Shawn in ShowMe
McCaskill prefaced her comments with the words “Todd Akin loves America, and so do I.”
So poor Todd was understandably flummoxed by McCaskill’s characterization of Vouchercare and plans to abolish the minimize wage, the student loan program and aid to farmers as extreme. Stabbed him in the back, she did.
Dennis SGMM
If women were in charge and they denigrated men and attempted to exert control over men’s bodies to the extent that Akin and his party have done to women you would be able to hear the bellows of rage from the top of Mount Everest.
Akin likes to dish it out and, like every other Republican, he whines when he has to take it. Being ladylike is not the way to deal with sociopaths like Akin.
piratedan
Well what do you expect, McCaskill showed up for the debate showing off the lewdness of her ankles for cryin’ out loud and her bonnet was nowhere to be seen. She refused to address Congressman Akin as “master” and even made eye contact with male members of the audience. Crass defiance indeed.
Dennis SGMM
@piratedan:
She didn’t even offer to wash his feet.
piratedan
@Dennis SGMM: just more evidence that she’s a shameless harlot that is unfit to represent the good people of Missouri
Carl Nyberg
Complaining about his opponent not being ladylike makes the guy seem like the kinda wimp who got his ass kicked and is now trying to turn losing into some weird Pyrrhic victory.
If Akin isn’t careful, people might draw the conclusion he’s not just pandering on abortion, the dude has issues around female sexuality.
SpaceSquid
@Redshift
True that. Eric Cantor looks like someone’s painted a sneer onto a shoe-box.
Clearly what Akin meant to say those few weeks ago is that pregnancy is rare in cases where the victim is a legitimate lady. Otherwise, you’re just a slutty-slut and your preternaturally fecund uterus is none of his gentlemanly concern.
Joey Maloney
“Ball cavity”? Really?
@Redshift: I have noticed that many television and movie stars have very large heads in proportion to their body size. Since politics has been described as “show business for ugly people” there’s some kind of weird parallel there.
WereBear
I understand the camera distorts actual proportions, so that “puppet people” with large heads and diminished bodies look good.
Michael Bersin
Todd Akin [r] had a not so good, very bad day.
Later in the day, at an open candidate forum in Clinton, Missouri he spoke for three minutes and then had two minutes for questions from the audience. He called on two individuals from the audience of mostly older people. This is small town outstate Missouri. He probably thought he was in safe territory.
The first question came from an older man who asked him why he voted against the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (I kid you not). And after he segued in keeping government out of our lives he recognized an older woman at the back who said: “Yes, I find it interesting that, that you don’t want the government deciding what to do for you, but you do want the government deciding what women can do and can’t do with their bodies.”
His answers were less than gracious. Stick a fork in him. He’s done.
hep kitty
I saw some of that debate and I thought McCaskill went overboard to be “ladylike” – wtf is he talking about?? Same old projecting your weakness onto your opponent.
YAWN
hep kitty
@Triassic Sands:
That’s priceless
hep kitty
@Violet:
I totally would have thought that was snipped out of an Onion piece. It is no longer possible to distinguish b/w satire & reality
kay
@Michael Bersin:
He should be done.
I hadn’t seen him in action before yesterday. He has a real problem with women. He doesn’t belong in a modern private sector workplace, let alone Congress. I think it’s absolutely amazing he got as far as he has, and it’s a reflection of how bankrupt the GOP is that he DID get this far. He should have been weeded out of contention years ago. He’s unemployable.
Michael Bersin
@kay:
Democrats who served in the Missouri General Assembly at the same time as Akin (before he was elected to Congress) considered him the wingnuttiest of the wingnutty. When he ran for Congress he won the primary and from then on it was clear sailing.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us? (formerly MarkJ)
She can’t be a lady. Todd Akin could never be verbally beat up by a lady, because it’s simply too emasculating.
Randy P
How does that bumper sticker go? “Well-behaved women seldom make history”?
El Cid
Well, if it’s a legitimate election, the electorate has a way of shuttin’ that whole Akin thing down, at least that’s what the doctors tell me.
Kathy in St. Louis
My congresscritter. God, I hate this guy. I really, really, really do. He wants to eliminate the school lunch program, student loans, thinks social security is unconstitutional, eliminate Medicare, and any and all of women’s rights, as far as I can tell. He was an inept state legislator in a place where no one would notice, an awful U.S. rep, who hid out until the Tea Party came into real power in 2010, then slid out of his hole. Now he’s all brave, brave warrior of the right. So, if he’s lucky he can join Roy(the lobbyists’ friend,father and husband) Blunt to represent Missouri. Where we once had the likes of Stuart Symington, Tom Eagleton, and John Danforth, we are now in danger of having two of the worst senators in the country.