Posted on 08/24/2012 2:33:43 PM PDT by Da Bilge Troll
Whittaker Chambers said that "the great failing of American conservatives is they do not retrieve their wounded."
He had it right, as Todd Akin can testify.
In an interview that aired last Sunday, Akin, the Republican candidate for Senate in Missouri, was asked whether he opposed abortions for women who had been raped. Akin's reply:
"From what I understand from doctors, that's really rare. ... If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down ... .
"But let's assume that maybe that didn't work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child."
As no rape is "legitimate," this was a colossal gaffe.
Yet anyone reading his statement knows what Akin meant. He was saying that in an actual rape – from what doctors have told him – the likelihood of pregnancy is rare. But if a pregnancy did occur, the punishment should be imposed on the rapist not the unborn child.
This was the moral position of those extremists John Paul II and Ronald Reagan. Of more interest, then, was the Republican reaction.
Howls for Akin to get out of the race came from pundits, talk show hosts, members of the Senate and the GOP's monied elite that is raising hundreds of millions in hope of a sweep of both houses of Congress and the White House in November. Akin is henceforth not to get a dime.
Even Paul Ryan, whose position on abortion appears identical to that of Akin, called and urged him to drop out.
Who came to Akin's defense? The Family Research Council. As President Nixon once told me, "Count your friends when you're down."
What does this hysteria over one egregious gaffe reveal?
A deep-seated fear, a gnawing anxiety among Republicans that the positions they have held and hold on social and moral issues, and even on economics and foreign policy, no longer command the support of a majority of their countrymen.
Consider. While the three amigos – John McCain, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham – are all for intervention in Syria, the Republican Party has fallen largely silent.
Where are the Republican and neocon hawks of yesteryear now that Barack Obama is pulling out of Afghanistan, when the expected result of a U.S. withdrawal is a Taliban takeover and massacre of many of those Afghans foolish enough to have cast their lot with the Americans?
Any Republicans demanding we stay the course in Afghanistan?
Rather than hearing the old paeans to free trade we used to get from Bush I and II, Republicans now talk about getting tough with China and fighting the "unfair" trade practices of foreign regimes.
Milton Friedman, whose writings Republicans once read as gospel, said we should throw America's markets open to the world, no matter the protectionist policies of others, because cheaper imports benefit all of America's consumers.
No Republican talks like that anymore. Yet none seems to have a solution to these endless trade deficits debilitating our economy other than to ignore them or accuse the Chinese of "currency manipulation."
With homosexual marriage gaining converts among the young, the party of the Moral Majority declines to stand with Chick-fil-A.
On right-to-life, see the Republicans flee from Todd Akin, who committed a gaffe while restating his support for what has been a plank of the Republican platform since 1980.
Bewailing deficits, Republicans demand a balanced budget. And the Ryan budget does that – in 28 years.
Why so long? Because real budget cuts entail real pain.
Where is Mitt Romney going to slash a budget that consumes a fourth of the U.S. economy?
Not defense. Mitt promises to increase that. He cannot cut interest on the debt, which must rise as interest rates climb from today's near-zero levels. He says he will not cut Medicare.
Is he going to cut Social Security? How about taking an ax to Medicaid, food stamps, student loans, school lunches, Head Start, aid to education, Pell Grants, EPA, the FBI and the earned income tax credit?
What the reactions to Akin's gaffe and the congressional skinny-dipper in the Sea of Galilee expose is a fear in the soul of the GOP that history is passing it by and the end may be near.
For decades, the GOP has been the party that cuts marginal tax rates, opposes abortion, defends traditional marriage, sends troops to fight for our values abroad and slashes government spending.
Today's GOP establishment is queasy even talking about social issues and recognizes that the new America has had it with the Afghanistans and Iraqs, wants to raise taxes on the wealthiest 1 percent and contains scores of millions who will punish any politician who threatens their benefits.
The GOP's insoluble problem is that the multicultural, multiethnic and multilingual country they created with their open borders appears not to like the brand of dog food the party sells.
Beating up on Todd Akin is not going to change that.
Now all of a sudden it seems we have a playbook. All our hacks are aboard on attacking Akin, including Rush, Coulter,and Malkin. Who would have thunk it.
Rush is not as independent as he claims.
My heroes of the week are the Huckster, Shaftly and Buchanan.
Obviously Buchanan has not swallowed the Republican koolaid with the favorable comparison with the Pope and Reagan.
Not a bad analogy.....Custer was defeated, which brought I believe Nelson Miles into the fight. The Indians called Miles something like “The Punisher”, and the Indians never came back. If Akin loses, but it causes the conservatives to bring on a “Nelson Miles” who wipes out the Democrats, then bring it on!
It would be great to collect a list of campaign season liberal outrages against republican candidates.
Here in Michigan the liberals have their panties in a wad over the fact that Pete Hoekstra said he would like to see the 17th amendment overturned. (I agree)
Kerry Bentivolio is being accused of abusing students when he taught high school.
Anybody else?
Bad analogy. Akin is not a wounded comrade. He’s a lame horse and the right thing to do with a lame horse is to put him down. The GOP/Conservative attacks on Akin are not coming from people who are against the pro-life movement, against fundamentalist Christians or against the Tea Party. They are coming from people who are against stupid. Any MO Republican , no matter how stridently pro-life, right wing or Christian will beat McCaskill unless he is Todd Akin.
Should I see a doctor? Or an exorcist?
By “Liberal wing” I suppose you mean anyone who disagrees with you.
No. Anyone who is not a conservative and not supporting conservative candidates
You would throw under the rug the man who said “trees cause more pollution than factories”.....
Who would've thought that anyone could mention Akin and Milton Friedman in the same column? (While misrepresenting Friedman at the same time).
Thanks, Pat. Morons like you don't come along vwery often.
Yep, this would have blown over.
Were I a Missourian, I’d vote for Akin as opposed to McCaskill. But I wouldn’t confuse Todd Akin with John Paul Jones. More like a George Armstrong Custer...
Akin made one mistake....GA Custer was a complete and total buffoon. Akin is more like Jones, by far
Are you kidding me? Don’t make me long for the days when True Conservatives(tm) whined about Bush not responding to his critics.
“Yet anyone reading his statement knows what Akin meant. He was saying that in an actual rape – from what doctors have told him – the likelihood of pregnancy is rare.”
I thought he meant that, in a “legitimate” rape, pregnancy is rare because the body magically determines whether a woman has consented in a sexual encounter and shuts down her monthly cycle down when it knows that the woman has been violated.
But that would have been stupid psuedo-scientific garbage, not something PAT BUCHANAN would ever make apologies for, so obviously I got it wrong.
Pat misses the point.
This is not about Akin’s position on abortion. Had Akin simply restated his position without implying victims of rape can magically stop getting pregnant, we’d be talking about Missouri being a pickup and not a loss for our side.
This is not about Akin’s position but his comments relating to rape, which were idiotic and are 10X more damaging than the ‘macaca’ comment that hurt Allen in 2006. Pat would have been on-target to compare with Allen, and Sharron Angle, and Christine ODonnell, and not that WORDS HAVE IMPACT and gaffe-prone GOP politicians hurt themselves and others.
he calls it “hysteria over one egregious gaffe” ... there is no hysteria. There is the simple logical consequence that unfortunately for Republicans, unlike Democrats, foot-in-mouth disease is fatal. Akin’s comment was so ignorant and insensitive, he is now at a point where he is going to certainly lose to Claire McCaskill.
It’s not hysteria buy cold-blooded calculation that the best thing is to get Akin out of there. He’s like a quarterback who is throwing interceptions. ... for the sake of the team, bench him and get a better player.
McCaskill knows this too so she is begging to have him stay. Akin granted her wish and the Democrats are thrilled.
Great article! Full of good common sense from a true independent conservative analyst who isn’t a sycophantic Republican party hack like Romney and his merry marching band of RINObots.
Who would’ve thought that anyone could mention Akin and Milton Friedman in the same column? (While misrepresenting Friedman at the same time).
Although Pat was correct in his analysis of the whole Akin whine-fest...I did notice he mentioned Friedman as an unabashed supporter of free trade...when Friedman actually opposed NAFTA (he told Dick Armey back in 1992 “what you have here (with NAFTA) is ‘managed trade’”).
Friedman opposed NAFTA? Got a link?
Get on the web sites of Mike Gallagher and Steve Deace. They're also backing Akin on their radio shows.
Check this out. What does it indicate about the pathology of Pat Buchanan that he can mention the trade deficit and Akin in the same piece?
No, he meant that, as he understood it from doctors, the stress of a forcible rape makes a conception less likely to occur than in a consensual encounter. Could be wrong, but it's a reasonable and plausible theory.
It’s Friday. I’ve dealt with enough stupidity this week. Don’t make me read PJB. Let me at least drink a 6 pack first.
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