The Republican Party’s worst nightmare is coming back to haunt it just as it hopes to win the Senate this fall. Former Missouri Rep. Todd Akin’s memoir is due out this month — and Politico reports that he does not apologize for his comments on “legitimate rape” or how the remarks brought victory to Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill or how they hurt the GOP’s effort to retake the upper chamber in 2012…. Akin’s book — “Firing Back: Taking on the Party Bosses and Media Elite to Protect Our Faith and Freedom” — was immediately slammed by Republicans.
It’s a rare day when I cite an article from Newsmax as a source. In fact, I think the last time I did it I was still posting nude photos of Ann Coulter (Ah, those were the days…if you’re a long-time reader, you’ll get the inside joke). Only slightly more reliable than a Hannibal Lecter biopic, Newsmax can be found on the bats—t crazy scale somewhere between S.E. Cupp and Andrea Tantaros on one end and Alex Jones and the late Andrew Breitbart on the other. Still, for sheer comic relief value, Newsmax can be useful, if only because it’s (incrementally) more lucid than InfoWars.
Todd Akin managed to achieve a fair degree of infamy during the 2012 election cycle…and most of us probably remember the reason why. In an election season in which Republicans focused on the issue of rape with disastrous results, Akin was the gold standard. After, he did introduce the term, “legitimate rape” into the public dialogue. Unfortunately, his mouth didn’t have “ways to shut that whole thing down.”
“Todd Akin is an embarrassment to the Republican Party and the sole reason Claire McCaskill is still part of Harry Reid’s majority,” Brian Walsh, communications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee during the 2012 election cycle, told Politico.
“It’s frankly pathetic that just like Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell in 2010, he refuses to take any responsibility for sticking his foot in his mouth, alienating voters and costing Republicans a critical Senate seat,” Walsh said. “Worse, he’s now trying to make money off his defeat. The sooner he leaves the stage again, the better.”
How badly did Akin torpedo any hope of victory (however slim) he might have had prior to his “legitimate rape” comment? Mitt Romney carried Missouri by 10 points. Akin lost it by 16. A six-term Congressman before he tried to step up to the Senate, Akin could have continued to be an anonymous legislative non-entity for the GOP in the House. Having seriously overestimated the capacity of Missourians to tolerate his hyper-religious anti-female lunacy, Akin has only himself to blame. I’m not certain he should be trusted to manage a Dairy Queen in Joplin, but he seems to think he still has something relevant to add to the public discourse. Now Republicans are trying “to shut that whole thing down.”
It’s been quite entertaining watching the Republican nomenklatura throw Akin under the bus. It’s fun to sit back and enjoy the spectacle of Republicans trying to kill and hide the body of one of their own…figuratively speaking, of course.
When you’re too filterless and bats—t crazy for today’s Republican Party…well, I’m sure the Libertarians would welcome him with open arms, right??
Todd Akin: The gift that keeps on giving….
