Free Republic

Newt Gingrich on Thursday came to Todd Akin’s defense, calling the embattled Missouri Senate candidate “honorable” and “sincere.” Speaking to POLITICO’s Mike Allen at the Playbook Afternoon Snack event here, the former House speaker said the controversy surrounding Akin’s recent “legitimate rape” comments was a “good example of why the power structure in Washington sometimes ought to take a deep breath.” “Todd Akin made a mistake. He’s an honorable guy, he’s a sincere guy. He said something stupid. There was a firestorm,” Gingrich said.

The Family Research Council poll was conducted by Wenzel Strategies from Aug. 27 to Aug. 28, testing 829 voters for a margin of error of plus or minus 3.38 percent. The sample was 32.7 percent Democrats, 34.1 percent Republicans and 33.2 percent independents. I don’t remotely believe that Akin is winning right now, but I also don’t believe that McCaskill’s double-digit margin will survive September. Hence Reince Priebus’s conundrum. Roy Blunt also said this morning that he still thinks Akin will quit, but I’m not sure he himself quite believes it. Supposedly people are leaning on Huckabee too to get...

A new poll shows that support for Rep. Todd Akin’s (R-Mo.) Senate candidacy has sharply declined since he remarked in an interview broadcast Sunday that “legitimate rape” rarely causes pregnancy. Akin now trails Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) 50 percent to 41 percent in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch/News 4 poll, which showed him leading the Democrat by 5 points in late July...

The most remarkable stat in the poll may be this from the crosstabs: even voters who say they are supporting Akin think he should withdraw by a 16-point margin, 50 percent to 34 percent. That suggests there's a floor for a Republican Senate candidate in Missouri, but that conservatives in the state would rather have a different option in the race

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...

Embattled Senate candidate Todd Akin just told reporters in Chesterfield that he is staying in the Senate race against Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill. Akin repeated the kinds of statements he'd made previously to national media, asserting that he's never had the support of the Republican party establishment anyway. [...]

While Missouri is always a tough state for both parties in presidential elections, until recently Mitt Romney didn’t have much to worry about. Rasmussen’s series of polls gave him a significant-if-not-quite-comfortable six-point margin in the Show Me State … at least until Todd Akin shared his views on the legitimacy of rape claims from pregnant victims. In today’s Rasmussen poll, Romney now slightly trails Obama, 47/46: As the controversy over Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin’s “legitimate rape” comment continues, Mitt Romney’s lead in Missouri has vanished. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Missouri Voters finds President Obama with...

ST CHARLES, Missouri (Reuters) - Missouri conservatives say they are rallying around U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin despite his controversial comments about rape because they are outraged that "establishment" Republican Party leaders tried to railroad him out of the race. A backlash has set in here in Akin's suburban St. Louis congressional district, where supporters said the national party had no right to attempt to force out a duly-elected candidate. Backers described Akin as the "real deal," a politician fiercely committed to their social causes such as opposition to abortion, and to the Tea Party drive to downsize government.

ST. ROBERT, Mo.—Claire McCaskill began a sparsely attended campaign event here Thursday with this quip: "I don't know if you noticed, but my campaign has been really boring lately." The ironic line was one of the few references the Democratic senator made to the political firestorm that erupted after her opponent, U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, used the term "legitimate rape" during a TV interview Sunday. Rather than beat Mr. Akin over the head, Ms. McCaskill appears to have decided to let the wrecking ball he set in motion swing all by itself. And unlike the Republican establishment, which has called...

Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) raised over $100,000 in a fundraising push started this week after members of the GOP establishment withdrew funds from the Missouri Senate race. He announced the accomplishment in a tweet. "Thousands of people stepped up and helped us raise over $100,000! The message is clear ... voters should pick candidates, not party bosses," he tweeted

After days of ignoring Republican pleas to abandon his U.S. Senate campaign in Missouri, Rep. Todd Akin today received an even more damning message: A new Rasmussen poll shows that Akin, who held a tidy lead before making his controversial comments about rape and pregnancy, is now down 10 percentage points (48-38 percent) to incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill. Never fazed, the Akin campaign shot back with an unlikely proposal. “The fact that Claire McCaskill is only polling at 48 percent after 72 hours of constant negative attacks on Todd Akin shows just how weak she is,” Akin spokesman Perry...

Todd Akin hasn't had many high-profile supporters with him in the trenches this week, but Mike Huckabee became an important and emphatic exception Thursday afternoon, sending a message to his own supporters accusing Republican elites of trying to drum a good man out of a winnable Senate race. Here's what Huckabee said in an email to his list this afternoon: Party’s leaders have for reasons that aren't rational, left [Akin] behind on the political battlefield, wounded and bleeding, a casualty of his self-inflicted, but not intentional wound.

Rep Steve King (R-Iowa) jumped into the "legitimate rape" fray Tuesday by telling a local reporter that he doesn't personally know of any victims of statutory rape or incest who became pregnant from the attacks. The reporter asked King about a bill he put forward last year that would have barred federal Medicaid funds from going towards abortions except when the life of the mother is in danger or in the case of "forcible rape." (The current law just makes an exception for "rape," without the forcible part.) The new terminology would most likely prevent people who become pregnant from...

What a difference one TV interview can make. Embattled Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill has now jumped to a 10-point lead over her Republican challenger, Congressman Todd Akin, in Missouri’s U.S. Senate race. Most Missouri Republicans want Akin to quit the race while most Missouri Democrats want him to stay. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the Show Me State finds McCaskill earning 48% support to Akin’s 38%. Nine percent (9%) like some other candidate in the race, and five percent (5%) are undecided.

Rasmussen will be releasing a poll this morning showing Akin costing us dearly in Missouri: McCaskill 48% Akin 38%. Time to pack it up and stop screwing us, big guy.

Around the clock, Democratic candidates, spokesmen, commercials, and the party’s foot soldiers in the news media will labor sedulously to transform the party of Lincoln and Reagan into the party of Akin. By Election Day, Akin will be more famous, ubiquitous, and inescapable than Kim Kardashian. His twisted comments on rape will be played again and again, with spooky music, scary edits, and every instrument in the campaign consultant’s tool box applied to amplify this message. By November 6, the only woman who will vote for Mitt Romney will be Ann Romney — maybe. With women (and many men) terrified...

They phoned. They wrote. They rebuked him publicly from coast to coast. They cut off funding and support. Yet Republican U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin didn’t cave. He refused to withdraw by the initial 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline, sticking with his November race against Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill. His choice means women’s health and abortion remain top issues, causing a debate the GOP had hoped to avoid. Akin, who says he misspoke when he said “legitimate rape” victims can prevent pregnancy, has a long voting record against abortion in any circumstance. Akin also is in line with U.S. Rep. Paul...

The deadline for Representative Todd Akin (R-MO) to withdraw from the Missouri Senate has passed. This has led to much wailing and gnashing of teeth amongst conservatives, myself included. Despite seemingly every prominent Republican and conservative in the country condemning his comments on rape or calling for him to exit the race, he ultimately refused. Could he still do so? Yes, through petitioning a Missouri court in what appears to be a fairly simple process. Some have suggested that the left would try to impede this process, but I'm not sure how they could. If that's the case, will he...

A physician and former president of the National Right to Life Committee, Willke was an “important surrogate” for Romney’s 2008 presidential bid. Willke is the oft-cited source of the theory that rape-related pregnancies are “rare.” The theory is sometimes used by antiabortion advocates to argue that abortion laws should not contain exceptions for pregnancies that result from rape or incest. Willke believes that trauma caused by violent rape causes a woman’s reproductive system to shut down. He presents this belief as fact in educational materials, including a book about abortion and a website called abortionfacts.com. Willke’s views – and his...

Live on Greta. "We cannot quash this opportunity in Missouri!" She's more fired up than I've seen her in awhile, looks like she's ready to get up and start throwing stuff around the studio.