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.
I am not 'joking' when I make these demands... We have what we have and money is the life's blood of politics. Now the Akin supporters got their way, it is time to quit itching about the mean ole GOP and put up or shut up. There is an election to be won, in-spite of what I consider an incompetent messenger.
I like Pat, but I would note that he had trouble winning elections. Akin will, too.
Patrick J Buchanan was fighting the good fight long before this forum came to be. Pat took on that former head spook in the Ford-Rockefeller administration when that incumbent president had betrayed EVERY Reagan conservative in America by getting elected on the slogan, "Read my lips, no new taxes," when come to find out he was lying through his teeth.
This is what Buchanan had to say for himself in 1992 when he had the audacity to challenge a sitting incumbent President in the primaries.
If the country wants to go in a liberal direction, if the country wants to go in the direction of [Democrats] George Mitchell and Tom Foley, it doesn't bother me as long as I've made the best case I can. What I can't stand are the back-room deals. They're all in on it, the insider game, the establishment game—this is what we're running against
He was fighting the Pubbie Elite long before most conservatives understood there was such a thing.
It was precisely such disgust with status quo GOP party types that motivated my leaving the party back in 2010. They are so afraid of their own shadow.... They react to "social issues" the same way Count Dracula reacts to the sight of the Holy Cross.
They are totally deaf to the Tea Party....
Pusillanimous S.O.Bs! If anything, by their actions, they only work to reelect Claire McCaskill....
Whatta bunch of jerks! There wouldn't even be an "issue" here, if THEY had not made it into one.
Well, JMHO FWIW.
That's because the Left has used its control of the media to set up "killing fields" of interlocking fire to destroy any conservative who would dare to help.
Meanwhile, the media medics race onto the field of battle to swiftly carry the Teddy Kennedys to safety...
Some of us conservatives actually understand how the Left/media game works. You CANNOT win against multiple interlocking machine gun nests, when you're not able to destroy those machine gun nests.
It's best to shoot your wounded, so the enemy can't hang them up on a post alive in front of their trenches and torture them for the fun of it.
You used too many multi-syllabic words in there, Jedi. The little boys and girls of the PeePee & Cooter Party know ALL ABOUT how their private parts work, and they don't need any smart guys telling them stuff they already know, especially with big words.
Keep it simple. Pointing and mouthbreathing is even better.
Basically, the PeePee & Cooter Party managed to drag Akin into their wheelhouse - the only thing they REALLY like to talk about, and think they understand because they have boyparts and ladyparts.
The StuPublicans need to start cutting them off at the knees. "If you want to talk about your peepee or her ladyparts, go give a speech to a second-grade class somewhere, Mr. President. Don't forget your teleprompter."
Victory over ideological purity any day and twice on Sundays.
Call it pragmatism.
That SOB Akin has endangered that senate takeover.
I lose money.
Screw him and his supporters. Get in the way of me increasing net worth because of your “values”? Hell no.
More like Wrong-Way Corrigan
If Akin loses and we lose the senate, there IS no coming back.
Akincare will be here to stay.
One mistake?
I’m not in Missouri and never heard of this assclown before the other day.
Do a Google Search on “Akin gaffes” and see the long list that comes up. he has quite a history of running his mouth before his brain was engaged.
He’s almost as bad as Biden.
Pat Buchanan is a bitter old anti-semitic and bigoted drunk.
And he kills about a bottle of scotch a day.
If one of your heroes is Elmer Gantry, then I fear for your sanity.
I did donate!
Everyone here who is calling Akin an idiot is too stupid to use a dictionary or listen / read something IN CONTEXT. Akin was simply saying that when abortion is legal only in the case of rape then many who want an abortion will claim to have been raped whether they were or not. THEREFORE IN THE CASE of a REAL OR LEGITIMATE (LOOK IT UP DUMB PEOPLE) rape vs. a REPORTED FAKE RAPE BY SOMEONE who just wants an abortion and WAS NOT RAPED.
Akin is a solid conservative and believes in strong penalties FOR ALL RAPE including statuatory rape, forcible rape, etc..... ALL THOSE TYPES OF RAPES ARE LEGITIMATE OR REAL / ACTUAL RAPE.
This is the most disappointing thing I’ve ever witnessed in american politics. It is the character assasination - the scapegoating of a good man who did NOTHING wrong - SAID NOTHING wrong!
I didn’t vote for Akin in the primary - I voted for Steelman. I’m sorry I did - she condemned Akin for his comments like an IDIOT! Akin is my man now - he hasn’t backed down. I’m GLAD to see a pubbie with backbone for a change. Maybe the GOPe won’t be so quick to assasinate its nominee in the future.
I’ve seen so many words put in AKin’s mouth by you people on Free republic. I thought you all were smart - well I can see that most of you are FAKE conservatives - FAKE intellectuals. You’re all a bunch of phonies for trashing this man. SHAME ON ALL OF YOU who have called Akin DUMB. You’re dumb.
Idiot.....even Akin repudiated that and admitted he was wrong.
Unless there’s tons of peer-reviewed proof done with stringent controls and it appears in the NEJM or similar,
Its junk science and frankly even less credible than global warming.
So are his supporters.
You’re the one who’s deluded.
You see this as a local thing.
Its national.
Akin is derided and mocked by everyone now.
he’s a lame horse, and you shoot them.
I’ll take power.
You make more money and meet hotter girls with power.
If you want that moron in, mortgage your house and send him the proceeds.
Go ahead, take the risk bigmouth.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.