Posted on 08/19/2012 8:01:18 PM PDT by Arthurio
No wonder Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill wanted to run against Rep. Todd Akin, even investing in his GOP primary victory two weeks ago by spending $2 million on ads that described him as “too conservative.’’ Missouri Republicans saw that as a plus, just as she’d hoped. But after his Sunday comment that “legitimate rape” rarely leads to pregnancy, even some in the GOP are calling for him to step aside.
The Republican lawmaker was trying to explain why he opposes abortion in cases of rape, but instead marched straight into the tar pits, where he will hopefully serve as a warning to future candidates that the reproductive info gleaned at summer camp may not hold up that well in TV interviews half a century hence.
Rape as a result of sex by force “is really rare,” Akin told KTVI-TV. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
After reading more about how Akin's comments are being interpreted (and seeing how effectively they can be misinterpreted), I changed my mind. It would be best for the party if he steps down.
Ok. Let's assume that being raped automatically results in pregnancy. That would be a surprise to the few, intrepid medical researchers in the field (ethical experiments in the field being hard to devise).
But, nevertheless, let us assume. What then? What effect, Herr Prosecutor, does the greater frequency of pregnant rape victims have on the answer to the question as to whether their offspring should be executed?
legitimate:
being exactly as purposed : neither spurious nor false
I think the liberal media is doing what it always does and is running a smear campaign against a guy for telling a truth it does not like. Sad to see so many helping our enemies out here at FR. Maybe it is true that pregnancy from forcible rape is in fact rare. Just a thought.
Correct.
The leftards seized upon the juxtaposition of that word to the word 'rape' to gin up a Twitter storm. It will shortly blow over. Not to worry.
The Donks want the election to be about social issues, because they know they lose if it's on anything else!
Actually the issue of rape and incest is HUGE in the abortion debate. The pro-abortionists always bring up rape and incest so one has to be prepared to address those issues. All this guy did is suggest that the numbers are small in the case of forcible rape. I really do not see why he should be tarred and feathered for that.
Unfortunately,in such imperfect world, unless we repudiate Akin, we might run a risk of the whole elections turns into women issue. The least we see is the issue will be dragged to the convention. Every Republican candidate will be asked whether s/he agrees with Akin, the Republican candidate for US Senate from MO. It will be a distraction to economic issues.
Oh goody! The liberal media gives “conservatives” another chance to throw a guy with a solid record under the bus!!
Have at it, whiney handwringing “conservatives”! Obey the media!
You two are being way over dramatic on the effects of this.
Yes he’s an idiot/poor politician for opening his mouth like this on this topic, and I even agree that replacing him would be a wise move. But the national effect on other races from this will be small, if at all. The big thing is, NOBODY knows who Todd Akin is. Some random politician in Missouri said something stupid and that’s going to change voters minds in Ohio or Wisconsin? Please. The left tried to bash the entire party over the head with dumb things Sharon Angle and Christine O’Donnell said in 2010 and although those two buried themselves, the GOP still swept to huge wins all over the country.
This might carry some news for a week, but it’ll be buried under the conventions. This is a loser topic to try to be scoring points on when the economy is in shambles, entitlement programs are bankrupt, energy costs are soaring, and a nuclear standoff is looming. Hopefully they can convince him to step down to save Missouri, but this “omg, the damage from this will be enormous and sink the GOP for years” stuff is absurd.
what happenes if he drops out, does Steelman get the nom, automatically?
He MUST go !
I think you would. I'll bet you vote for them a lot.
Wow, are we more interested in winning popularity contests with our enemies than we are in defeating them?
A man not only holds his ground in defense of defenseless babies, but presses the battle deep into enemy territory. And we? We not only retreat from supporting him, but even fire on his advance position.
What cowards we have in our ranks here at FreeRepublic.
That`s why I was relieved to see Tommy Thompson go forward in WI. He`s not the most conservative one out there, but he`s experienced enough not to throw the political equivalent of a 95-yard pick-six in the 4th quarter.
“Only Joe Biden gets a pass for gaffes then?”
That goes for ANY democrat. Any GOPer going into a campaign should know by now the “media” will NEVER give a break to them. On the contrary, the “media” go to extensive lengths to find — and failing that, manufacture — controversial acts or statements to derail Republicans.
Akin just saved them many hours of oppo research time by serving up this politically fatal freebie on a silver platter.
I’m reading about this whole debacle and I can’t believe it. Most Republicans reject what Akin said and want him out. Why didn’t Missourians listen to Palin and go with Sarah Steeleman?
It looks like the media will have a lot of fun this week. Apparently, Ryan co-authored legislation with Akin. This legislation caused a firestorm and narrowed the definition of cases where Medicaid could be used to fund abortions. Ryan and Akin came up with a new term “forcible rape” and the legislation specified that only cases of “forcible rape” would be allowed abortions that were Medicaid funded.
I remember this debate. It did not go well. Ryan co-sponsored this bill with Akin. Am I having a nightmare? The corrupt media will spend weeks on this. The answers aren’t always easy, but they take more than a soundbyte. The media will be lobbing soundbyte grendades at Republicans all week and connecting Ryan with Akin, because of this legislation.
Here goes the media, giving Obama exactly what he wants, more distractions that help him avoid talking about the economy.
You should know that ‘rightwardho’ is very much ‘leftwardho’, he/she just pretends otherwise...
Indefensible.
Why hasn’t he resigned yet?
If you’re going to foolishly write in her name, you’d at least better spell her name right!
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