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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Can you name that "more reliable" candidate???
If he does not withdraw, I will support a write-in candidate.
Ohh my apologies, you just did: Claire McCaskill.
You sure are reliable.
Excellent point. After we defeat Obama, our next target should be the Republican establishment.
It is my choice to make. The seat is probably lost anyway if Akin does not withdraw.
Akin was NOT my choice of candidates in the first place. He was the choice of the Democrats that crossed party lines to vote for him. I do not owe him anything, let alone an apology.
>>I live in MO and I will not accept Akin when I know it will cost us the senate seat. He should withdraw so that a more reliable candidate can run on the Republican ticket.
If he does not withdraw, I will support a write-in candidate.<<
You’ll write in a more reliable candidate? Reliable for what? Pro-life views? Conservative?
Why is he going to lose? Are Republicans going to vote for the Democrat? Then Republicans deserve a Democrat. Just like in Nevada. RINOS backed Reid. Screwed the whole country, every darned day since, because Angel was too radical for them.
I think he could just say he got some incorrect medical information from some doctor(s) but he still supports the child’s right to live. He should acknowledge that a pregnancy as a result of rape is a very traumatic experience for a woman, but killing the child is not the answer.
Then, if the dems continue to dwell on the issue, he should focus and constantly talk about improving jobs and the economy in MO, and ask why the dems don’t seem to care about the middle class.
Once in the Senate can we be assured he won’t do a Jeffers on us?
You can scream till your lungs are flailing in wind, that Akin is a smart pro-life conservative and how wrong it was for the "establishment" to come down so hard on him. Listen, have you never been embarrassed by, say a family member who while not knowing the facts, talks as though he does, but everybody else in the room knows what the facts truly are? They all and roll their eyes in disgust at the poser, pretender... and this guy is your brother.
You have one of two options: Option One; you scurry your brother out of the room, ask him to please go home, because frankly, he is embarrassing himself and you. If he leaves, he honors you and may acquire some wisdom from that experience to learn that he must know his facts and how to properly discuss what the facts are. Of course if he refuses to leave, he dishonors you and continues to look foolish, and embarrass all the more.
Option Two; you decide its more important to your brother to show you're on his side, though you know his faulty mental capabilities, hence you ask everyone else to leave. You tell your guests that they are only welcome back if they are willing to ignore your brother's short circuited thinking. But what's more, you demand that your guests must be willing to admit they were too harsh, that they must welcome him back and go on listening to him speak inanities.
Hillbilly Huckabee has decide on option two... no sense of political imagery...
As a 12 term congressman he has a 97% ACU rating as of 2011. The highest in Congress I think.
Yes, We have Ann Wagner, David Limbaugh, Kit Bond to name a few.
Your point is?
Self-image first, family second?
>>It is my choice to make. The seat is probably lost anyway if Akin does not withdraw.<<
Never said it wasn’t your choice to make. I note, though, your use of the word “probably” in the next sentence. Your vote might be the reason McCaskill remains a U.S. Senator, and the reason the GOP doesn’t control the Senate under a Romney/Ryan administrations, so there could be a lot riding on your decision.
>>I do not owe him anything, let alone an apology.<<
I don’t recall stating that you did. The author of the article did state, however, that the GOP establishment owes him one, and it does, for their insane over-reaction to the situation. As I said, there was some serious lemonade to be made over this lemon, but instead we picked the circular firing squad.
Mason-Dixon MO poll: Romney up 50/43 over Obama
Um no, the only credibility going up in flames are those clueless “conservatives” who are desperately trying to keep this story alive.
6-term Congressman....12 years
Before this “episode” I had never heard of Akin. From what I’ve learned he seems like a decent enough guy, a good Conservative as far as his beliefs go.
Should he withdraw his candidacy? Absolutely.
He never “misspoke”, he was asked a fair question, and gave one of the most idiotic answers to a question since Clintons “is” response.
What bothers me most about Akin and his response, is just how STUPID it was!!! A normal person knows better than to respond as he did, and a national politician has NO EXCUSE for it. It’s been a while since a politician literally made my jaw drop, but Akin did.
He also made me like him even less when he refused to step aside. If it had been another politician that screwed up as he did, he would be the first one calling on him/her to quit.
We have far to much at stake this election, and giving away a Senate seat just can’t happen, period.
You mean the same Danforth that tried to talk a fourth candidate into entering into the already crowded Senate primary back in March because he didn't like Steelman, Akin, or Brunner???
There is no sense dredging up the old Senators -- they won't fly. The viable names that have been brought up just won't run -- at this point particularly. And why would they??? They see a party that will abandon them in a minute if they say something wrong.
Now is not the time to hash out definitions, should have happened long, long ago... besides, it wasn’t just a single word that set off the firestorm. In context what Akin said seems to diminishes the gravity of rape... and a politician, unless he is a doctor and researcher has no business trying to sound like one. if he fudges up in a debate he will be totally and forever branded, the worst that Mo has ever had to offer.
Exactly. That's his only hope. He's got to turn the conversation to McCaskill and Obama and their records, and how he, Akin, will vote differently than McCaskill. And he needs to sound smart doing so. And he needs to deal with specifics, like ObamaCare, and not just mumble boring platitudes like he did at the presser Friday. But I don't know if he has all that in him. He hasn't shown it up to now.
The GOP is held to a different standard. It is just a fact. An undeniable one. The best example is George Allen in Virginia who was a top potential candidate for presidential nomination if he got reelected. He called out an opposition researcher with a made up word and got booted out of office. It was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen in politics.
Akin’’s complete lack of message discipline is more than a mistake that can be appologized for. The entire attack about the ‘war on women’ had been completely nullified. The lefts attacks from the spring had ended up with zero impact on public opinion. Akin reignited the whole issue, and it may well impact a lot of races all over the country. I don’t know how widespread, but it definitely will impact his race and the presidential race in Missouri. Both that seat and the electoral votes were a complete lock 10 days ago. Now, both are in jeopardy. I suspect Romney will still win it, but akin is unlikely to, unless mccaskel does some of her own dumb things on the trail. There is no doubt this was a huge error.
Be careful, if you vote your conscience many here will hold you personally responsible if the GOP loses the seat in MO, even if it’s by 50k votes. :)
Voting for the lesser of two evils, is still evil.
Military overseas ballots start shipping Sept.22. Absentee ballots on 25th. Again, it's Akin vs. McCaskill.
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