Posted on 08/25/2012 12:09:20 PM PDT by kreitzer
Prediction: If the GOP establishment doesn’t follow Republican Rep. Todd Akin’s example with a big, fat apology – to Akin – the whole party goes down in flames come November.
I don’t mean every Republican will lose, but there is great political peril in not sealing the hole in Republican armor that has opened in Missouri and instead permitting it to remain a Democratic pressure point. Further, “for the good of the country” (the mantra accompanying the party-wide chorus of pleas to Akin to drop out of his U.S. Senate race), Republicans must resume funding Akin’s viable campaign ASAP, after cutting it off in a mad fit of political pique. Finally, every one of them – the party standard-bearer, party bosses, congressional delegations, allied pundits – should come together for a group smack on the head, as in, “What were we thinking?”
I can’t recall anything in public life more widely craven and uncalled for than the open panic and bullying set off across the Republican Party by the first replay of Akin’s perplexingly ignorant interview comments on rape and pregnancy. The veteran conservative lawmaker, former engineer, former businessman and grandfather of eight recanted these remarks. He apologized for them.
But as the left began to bay for blood over a Republican and, by preposterous extension, Republican Party it hopes to smear as “anti-woman,” Republicans across the board, incredibly, joined in. Rather than jouncing Democrats back into some semblance of decent behavior with a firm, party-wide reality check – comparing a dumb comment about rape from one among their ranks with, say, accusations of actual rape against Democrats’ two-term hero, Bill Clinton – Republicans obligingly cut off their own noses and handed them to their political opponents.
The headline in the New York Times this week said it all: “GOP is pressing candidate to quit over rape remark.” Funny how we never, ever saw anything similar in the 1990s, when bombshells about Bill Clinton’s serial sexual harassment and assault of women were a common occurrence. Something like: “Dems pressing president to quit over rape.”
Didn’t happen. In fact, far from “pressuring” the former president into a quiet post-presidency retirement, the Democrats are spotlighting the overexposed sexual reprobate with a center-stage role at their upcoming convention. There, Clinton will officially re-nominate Barack Obama for president.
What else can we expect from the party that still lionizes Ted Kennedy, the late Massachusetts politician who notoriously left a young female campaign worker to drown in a sinking car rather than get help? Just as serial sexual improprieties perpetrated by Bill Clinton don’t count in Democrat-land as “anti-woman,” neither does Kennedy’s unconscionable behavior at Chappaquiddick. Both men not only remained in office, they remain the Democrats’ ideal.
A muddled, recanted remark about reproductive biology, however, puts a Republican one or two steps away from Hitler. He must be shunned by “decent” society, his whole career destroyed, the primary votes he won nullified, to expiate his “sin.”
Worst of all is the Republican Party’s unified acquiescence to this illogical, unjust and amoral equivalence. In fact, without the GOP’s lockstep, take-me-to-your-leader obedience to the Democrats’ rigged rules, the pitch of this controversy would have died down already. Without the Republicans’ vigorous enforcement of the left’s double standards, Akin would probably still be facing favorable odds of winning the Missouri Senate seat.
But no, which is what deeply concerns me. Indulging ginned-up, hack hysterics is not the behavior of a leader or a winner. Worse, accommodating unjust attacks on a solid citizen in the name of practicality or the “greater good” is a very dangerous precedent, as totalitarian history tells us. That’s why the GOP needs to rethink Missouri and make amends with Akin before “moving on.” Otherwise, I fear that in its vital quest to prevent Barack Obama from winning a second term, it won’t be moving anywhere.
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My judgement on who is solid has been reaffirmed hundreds of times as the zot cannon has roared.
Trolls are not real freepers, and the Anti-Akin gang are all trolls, and every one of them will have their electronic escargot moment. You don’t win elections by attacking your candidate.
The tagling will probably go when they are history.
>> “ Rape does NOT lead to lower fertility rates” <<
.
Specifically, all stress leads to lower fertility rates.
That fact is written up in loads of fertility clinic sylibi that are handed out to patients every day.
You’re so full of hatred for Christian conservatives that you’re happy to make a fool of yourself to diss them.
You’ll get your day.
>> “ Rape does NOT lead to lower fertility rates” <<
“Specifically, all stress..”
Specifically, this is about rape pregnancy statistics, not ‘stress’. Here they are:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8765248
The national rape-related pregnancy rate is 5.0% per rape among victims of reproductive age (aged 12 to 45). This is neither higher nor lower than the overall fertility rate.
Why do you insist on digging a hole in being wrong? Akin at least apologized and moved on. Why do you insist on arguing such a pointless non-fact? It only hurts Akin to dwell on this. Rape victims can get pregnant. At the same rate as in other cases of having sex. Period. Full stop.
“You’re so full of hatred ..”
Sad. You are 100% wrong. As a Christian and conservative, I neither hate myself nor my conservative friends who share political and world-views. I certainly dont hate you, even you are so rude here. It is sad that you attack people personally, but that always happens when people are losing the argument.
I prefer conservatives.
I prefer to have control of the Senate in GOP hands next year. Reelecting Scott Brown makes that more likely than electing Fauxcahontas Warren. So, RINO that he is, he'll have my vote. I vote for outcomes, not on principle. Voting on principle is for children.
The documented evidence proves you wrong (as usual).
And Ryan correct.
Your agenda is showing.
Well, I am 7 yrs old.
When can I plan on losing my principles? When did it happen for you?
Well then go to each of their last posts and push the abuse buttons on them.
Gonna stand by your convictions, and prove your statement correct?
If all you turn in get zotted I will admire you soooo much!
Down at your IQ level, that probably seems like a plan...
The documented evidence proves you wrong and you assert the opposite. You are using the ol’ “ignore the facts and declare victory” mode of argument. Hilarious.
“’And Ryan correct.”
WTF. Ryan and I agree, and Akin does as well, as per his apologies.
“Your agenda is showing.” Mine is common sense truth. You are trying to embarrass conservatives by insisting on claiming myth is fact. You believe what you myths you want, but dont smear conservatives by attaching it to our movement.
If you are not going to turn those in that you call trolls, then they are not trolls.
The term troll is misused a lot on this forum.
We all know what Joe Biden is capable of, so if Akin is as bad as Biden, why don't you give us a list of his gaffes from the past, since there must be many to choose from.
I will quote Barney Fife, "nip it in the bud", and IMO, Todd Akin is a conservative Joe Biden in the making.
Just as I thought. You can’t.
Not my job to “turn in” anybody, just to draw out their disloyalty for all to see.
I bet you were a hall monitor when you were a kid, with a whistle and a ticket pad.
232 posted on Mon Aug 27 2012 15:05:36 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by DallasBiff: “I will quote Barney Fife, ‘nip it in the bud,’ and IMO, Todd Akin is a conservative Joe Biden in the making.”
Yes, but look how many times Biden got re-elected. His constituents liked the way he voted and learned to tolerate his tongue.
I'm not happy at all with Akin’s idiotic comment. We can say a lot about him not being “ready for prime time.” While I voted for him in the primary and I share virtually all of his social conservative agenda, and even his core Calvinist theology (I'm a member of a considerably more conservative Reformed church than his PCA), I wish we had a better nominee now.
For better or for worse, we don't.
It looks like Akin is going to remain the nominee and there's probably nothing any of us can do about it. By now, pretty much every Republican who wants to distance himself or herself from Akin has had plenty of opportunity to do so.
I can see the point of Republicans trying to convince Akin to pull out — not saying I agree after the first deadline passed last week, but I see the point. If the Republican anti-Akin attack keeps up once it is clear that he won't pull out, it will help nobody but McCaskill.
To borrow a phrase from the moderate wing of the Republican Party: “Circular firing squads don't work.” Or are only RINOs allowed to say things like that? ;-)
I saw the recent poll by the FRC showing Akin up by 3 points, and the political demographics look legitimate, that said, The bunker mentality the Akin camp on FR turned off a lot of people. Attacking people knee jerkingly and being overly pious is not the way to go.
We can have a discussion about abortion and I'm paraphrasing Tony Snow when he subbed for Rush, "abortion is an icky subject" and it is, IMO.
The pro-life movement, IMO, does best when they talk about the positive aspects of the pro-life position, and not delve and pontificate into such issues as rape.
That is what Todd Akin did, and it turned a lot of people off.
Now the big test is if Todd Akin can focus on Claire McCaskill, and her failures, and not be bitter, about the firestorm he himself caused.
You mentioned the most recent poll data. That Family Research Council-commissioned poll is discussed here, for those who may be interested:
And the campaign's comments:
https://secure.piryx.com/donate/2uBcBkAC/Todd-Akin-for-U-S-Senate/in-the-lead
I am the first one to say that Todd Akin’s comments were really, really bad. The question is what do we do next.
The FRC polls, if they get backed up by subsequent polling data, shows this race is still winnable. I happen to think winning races is important, and this is one which shouldn't be abandoned yet.
Well said.
Then why has your camp been doing that to Akin non-stop since this started? There's not much more pious than being that hardline judgmental over one poorly worded remark about a scientific opinion which may or may not be mistaken.
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