Sarah Steelman
Posted on 08/20/2012 1:48:44 PM PDT by Evil Slayer
Missouri Republican Todd Akin has begun moving toward ending his candidacy after his remarks on rape and abortion provoked a firestorm, a top Republican said.
"Akin is taking concrete steps to withdraw by tomorrow at 5:00 p.m.," a senior Republican told BuzzFeed, adding that Akin could still change his mind.
But a Republican close to Akin said his position hasn't changed: He's still in the race.
Tomorrow afternoon is an important deadline: If he files papers to end his candidacy in Jefferson City tomorrow he can end his candidacy unilaterally; after that, he would have to file an application in court.
Possible Republican replacements, the Republican source said, include three former senators: John Ashcroft, Jim Talent, and Kit Bond. Other names being mentioned include former Ambassador Ann Wagner, who is running for Akin's now-vacant seat; and Auditor Tom Schweich.
UPDATE: Former Missouri Sen. Jim Talent tells BuzzFeed that he is not running for Senate to replace Akin. He also declined to explicitly call for Akin to step aside, but backed NRSC Chair John Cornyn's cool statement that Akin make his decision quickly.
“He’s got a decision to make and he’s got to make it quickly,” Talent added. “He’s got to know the situation and he needs to sit down and make a personal decision.”
(Excerpt) Read more at buzzfeed.com ...
So not only will he lose his congressional seat to a possible dem but he’s giving McCrakel another term in the Senate. What a loser.
Sarah Steelman
"Yeah, I know I could cost Missouri a GOP Senate seat and maybe even lose Missouri for Romney thus swinging the election to Obama and destroy the country. But, hey, I can live with that. No problem."
She came in about 7 points back behind a guy named Brunner. That makes it hard to jump to her. The establishment hates Brunner just as bad as they hate Adkin. The cowering is beyond belief. Not a spine or “gravitas” to be out there saying, so what, “At least Adkin isn’t a baby killer funding Planned Parenthood”. It’s no wonder the Dems usually control government.
The bottom line of the interview was that he agreed with Hannity that he could lose the Senate seat and maybe even pull Missouri out of the Romney column, thus swinging the election to Obama and destroy the country as a result. But, hey, he can live with that. Why? Because he's "not a quitter." In the moral battle between the good of the country or satisfying his own ego, the ego won out...unless he does the RIGHT THING by tomorrow afternoon.
Maybe to the voices in his own head he did.
Its clear as day that this guy isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed and the more he tries to explain his weird rape definition, the worse this thing gets.
He’s been their congressman for going on 12 years and generally wins by close to a 2:1 margin. He could probably hang on to the seat.
He’s like those ultra-square Republican politicians from the Midwest in the 1950s who were ultra square and culturally clueless. If you can get so easily tripped up on trick questions, maybe you shouldn’t be running. And from what I heard today on Hannity, he STILL sounds clueless.
That's because this effort to get rid of him is being orchestrated by the Danforth establishment Republicans. A few months back they were repudiating Akin, Steelman, and Brunner wanting all three out of the race in favor of their own chosen candidate Tom Schweich.
GOPe-liteism
You bet.
Agree, but if he stays in the Senate race and loses, he forfeits his congressional seat.
His statement is TRUE!!!!!
I read about this years ago in Francis Shaeffer’s book HOW SHOULD WE THEN LIVE? - The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture.
As I recall, it quotes medical studies done on women who were raped in Nazi prison camps. The human body rejects impregnation in most cases. He’s being pilloried, for telling the truth and someone needs to come to his defense!
You’re in Missouri. What do you know about Akin? And if you’re his pastor, then you need to have a soul search talk with him tonight.
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Pull Todd Akin’s feeding tube now -
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True, but if the party wants him to resign and dangles the possibility that he can run for his current seat then he may go for that. And in order to do that they would need to move Ann Wagner to the senate race. By all indications she's a solid conservative, at least according to her congressional website. She's a woman, which would make it hard for McCaskill to user the DNC 'war on women' arguments. She's been head of the GOP in Missouri. And she's someone McCaskill isn't prepared to take on. We could do a lot worse.
Obama’s campaign also believes its intense swing-state focus on abortion and contraception issues has been given new and possibly crippling heft with Rep. Todd Akin’s comments about “legitimate rape” as he seeks to unseat Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in Missouri.
The Romney campaign swiftly distanced itself from Akin, but Romney’s running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, cosponsored legislation with Akin that unsuccessfully sought to redefine “forcible rape” in the federal code.
Tough commercials on this are in the works as are radio ads in swing states battering Romney and Ryan for domestic spending cuts in Ryan’s GOP budget blueprints.
I'm listening to a doctor right now from Washington University Medical Center on the local news confirming what Akin said -- that pregnancy from a rape is rare.
Missouri GOP ought to just toss a coin between Brunner and Steelman. Quick and easy. No hard feelings that way. They probably won’t do it, though, invariably making a mess of things instead.
Personally, I’d root for Steelman just because it would more likely help diffuse some of the Dem’s idiotic war-on-women nonsense.
I've made about a couple dozen posts on this subject today so far; you can check my postings in the forum. But in sum: Akin is my congressman. I have voted for him for the House. I voted for him in the Senate primary. I would vote for him in November. However, he fell for the libs' trap and gave them the golden soundbite. Now the race will be about rape, instead of about McCaskill, Obama, the economy, etc. So he may have to withdraw for the good of the party and the election. But it's a self-inflicted wound. He should have stayed on point, or gotten by the question quickly with a much better answer.
This issue is not whether he’s right, it’s whether he’s off message.
The debate is about abortion, and he should have stuck with it, rather than dragging all of us into a debate about a woman’s physiology and likelihood of getting pregnant through rape. Which is not the point.
Ask yourself this, if a woman is more likely to get pregnant through rape, would he then change his position? If so, then he’s not really pro-life. If not, then why the hell is he bringing up this irrelevant issue?
The guy is an idiot who clearly is not prepared for the big stage.
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