Some strategists believe that Rep. Todd Akin may have not only saved the most unpopular Democrat in the U.S. Senate but could well have kept the Senate in Democratic hands. It is too early to tell, but Akin yesterday let the deadline pass for withdrawal without a court order and refused to yield to demands from leading Republicans that he drop out. He appears hoping that the Republicans in the state would prefer to send a man viewed internationally as a dysfunctional moron rather than accept six more years with McCaskill. What is even more disturbing, however, is Akin’s view of his own conduct. In refusing to leave the race, Akin said that he simply mad a bad choice in using “one word in one sentence on one day.”
As now even herders in yurts in Mongolia can tell you, Akin become a global laughing stock when he went on the air and explained “First of all, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. . . But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something. You know I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child.”
That ridiculous statement appears to come down to just one stray word, according to Akin: “I misspoke one word in one sentence on one day, and all of a sudden, overnight, everybody decides, ‘Well, Akin can’t possibly win.'” It is not clear what single word Akin is referencing but I assume it is “legitimate.” He is of course ignoring his breathtaking claim that doctors (still unnamed) have told him that women possess a type of kill switch over pregnancies that they can use to not get pregnant after a rape. That any adult would utter such nonsense raises more questions of Akin’s intellect than his attitude toward women. Moreover, after bringing the unity of the GOP against him (including the national party withdrawing millions from the race against McCaskill), Akin is minimizing his own bizarre conduct and how outrageous his statement was for women, rape victims, doctors, humans, and possibly every mammal on the planet.
Moreover, it is not simply a view that “Akin can’t possibly win.” McCaskill is so unpopular that he could win but that would be even more embarrassing for both the GOP and the country.
Source: USA Today
The last I heard no woman gets pregnant all by herself. In all these discussions, no one ever talks about punishment for the father of an aborted fetus. Shouldn’t he be held equally culpable for any so-called crime. In my lifetime, the women I knew who had abortions made that decision because the father of the baby told them that it was her problem not his. These fathers flat out refused to support the woman/women they made pregnant is any way whatsoever. The woman was told get along best you can. Why is the role of the man who made a woman pregnant NEVER discussed??!!! If abortion were made totally illegal as the anti-choicers want any punishment that may occur as a result of an abortion should also be exacted upon the father of the fetus. And, today it is easy to prove who the father is with DNA.
Malisha
You know, we’ve got one injustice after another on this blog, but Malisha’s story is just about the worst. God help us if anyone can top it.
This story seems to grow as the day and night goes on. The Ries Morgan show was just on and it is pointed out that his position on rape is just that of the Platform just adopted. I believe my friend from MO who says that the voters knew where he stands and that they who nominated him do not want him to quit. The hypocrites in his own party who want him off the stage need to be called on the carpet for their own views on abortion and womens rights. I dont think that this issue is going away even if Todd gets removed from the ticket by the big shots.
Custody rights are not dependent upon HOW someone gets to be a father; in about 1988 I saw a custody case in Vermont where a date-rape father who did not either marry the mother OR support the child then went back when the child was 9 years old and sued for custody because he had recently married and his wife did not (reportedly) want to have stretch marks — he won custody because he had a much larger income than the mom, she had no husband and was considered a deficient parent (small, inadequate apartment in a poor section of town) and she kept objecting that the father was a rapist, which the judge saw as “poisoning the child’s mind against her own father.” He then did not allow visitation because he said each time the child visited her mother, she returned “sullen and disobedient” and the judge never forced him to provide visitation. Shortly thereafter, the mother was charged with failure to pay child support and ultimately was jailed for 6 months as a “child support offender.”
She COULD have had an abortion but chose not to, and she raised her daughter as well as she could without any help. She couldn’t afford a lawyer, either, and they didn’t give her a lawyer because custody cases are civil, not criminal.
When she originally tried to charge the man with rape, they wouldn’t bring charges because they said she dated him and nobody would believe it was a rape; they didn’t have resources in the prosecutor’s office to charge men with rape just because, after a date, there was some disagreement.
Bron,
Aiken just said what he really thinks. He–and others like him–all believe the same things about rape. He merely had a slip of the tongue and let the cat out of the bag. Now we know where Ryan and many other Republicans truly stand on the issue. They certainly don’t seem to respect women–or their rights.
Curious,
Thanks to shano I found that report.
ID
Here’s another disappointment… Pakistan and Afgahnistan force “kidnapped” girls to marry their abductor. I don’t know if it is a general rule throughout the Muslim world. I think it is mostly in rural areas and therefore may be described as more tribal.
But Elaine’s article that rapists have custody rights was a shocker. THAT piece of information would change a lot of suburban women’s minds about the advisability of bringing that pregnancy to term.
Bron, people can be that stupid.
Here’s how it happens: They say about 100 stupid things in a row and nobody humiliates them for it; they get elected to public office and then people are awed by them and suck up to them; they say 1,000 more stupid things in a row and nobody actually goes ballistic on them; then they say one great big all-too-stupid thing and it gets picked up at just the wrong (read “right”) minute and then, only THEN, are they considered “too stupid.”
It’s a long journey and not everybody makes it.
Every time they see a fork in the road, they have to take it.
Aiken has to be a paid democratic operative. He must be getting a big payoff from Soros, no one can be that stupid.
I kind of like Zarathustra’s one word for Todd. But I see something happening in Missouri that may drift over to other states. Romney and Ryan threw Todd off the bus. The Republican voters knew who he was on primary day and resent this. Ron Paul will get some votes and Romney will lose out to Obama in Missouri. Someone above said that the pronounciation of Missouri into Missura or Mizzou are from the past. I ask you to look up the University of Missouri football jersey on Yahoo Images. These guys go play football with the word spelled “Mizzou”. The school just left the Big 12 and went South to the South Eastern Conference this year.
Whether its Mizzou or Moozoo, it looks pretty dorky. I would not send my kid there for math or science. After reading all this stuff on Todd Akin I am of a mind that he is not so narrow minded as some people say. He may be dark ages but narrow minded implies that he is rather alone. The Republican Platform has everything in it that Todd says except the word “legitimate”. Ryan co-sponsored the Bill to outlaw abortion for rape and incest. Voters in Missouri are not going to throw their candidate off the bus just because Ryan and Romney have. Ron Paul is looking better for a lot of reasaons.
juris
I have taken my lead from the voice, soul and unchallenged conscience of the GOP for the past two decades, Rush Limbaugh, and the answer NO. Republicans deserve no better than all Americans’ disdain, contempt and disgust.
Akin: I Just Used One Word Incorrectly
rape
“I promise to love and respect you and do it anytime you wish……”
Was it that way? Don’t think so. Soee believe the OT crap. i don’t believe any of it. All written by idiots for idiots.
But that is my take and I don’t own others,
like some think they do.
Gyges, yep, obviously some people have not been keeping up with the ‘Right to Life’ movement.
when they approve the murdering of doctors, in cold blood while they are attending church, anything is possible with them…..even allowing husbands to brutally rape their wives any time they wish.
Shano
Shockingly, Washington University decided to give Schlafley an honoray degree a few years back. It caused quite a stir with the faculty and students there. While I was not in attendance at the commencement, it has been reported that the majority of students turned their backs in silent protest.
http://feministing.com/2008/05/16/hundreds_thousands_turn_their/
“Could you clarify some of the statements that you made in Maine last year about martial rape?
I think that when you get married you have consented to sex. That’s what marriage is all about, I don’t know if maybe these girls missed sex ed. ”
Holy crap, people actually think like that?
I hope this guy stays in the Missouri Senate race, not only because he presents a crystal clear choice for voters, but the results of that race will tell the rest of us about the status of critical thinking in the Show Me State.
Reverend, The provincial pronounciation of “Mizzura” is more rural than urban and more likely to be used amongst “Mizzurans”. I’ve noticed a decline in that vernacular the last 20 years or so.
I went back over to the marina and met up with Chas again. He says that he is still a registered voter in Missouri (he does not pronounce it Mizzou or Mizzura like some folks out there) and that he voted absentee. He says that only 17 per cent of the registered voters exercised their right to vote on the primary day. Romney was on TV over at the marina while we talked and Romney was ranting about Todd. So Chas says that he will vote for Todd and will vote for Ron Paul as a write in because Romney is a gypsie and a mormon and a turncoat to Todd who used to be an ideological pal. So, Todd might win in Missouri and Romney might lose.
Schlafly backed Akin early on in the race and her endorsement is prominently displayed on Akin’s website, but he may consider finding other defenders since Schlafly herself refuses to recognize the existence of marital rape: “By getting married, the woman has consented to sex, and I don’t think you can call it rape,” Schlafly said back in 2007. In fact, she doubled down on those remarks in an interview the year later:
Could you clarify some of the statements that you made in Maine last year about martial rape?
I think that when you get married you have consented to sex. That’s what marriage is all about, I don’t know if maybe these girls missed sex ed. That doesn’t mean the husband can beat you up, we have plenty of laws against assault and battery. If there is any violence or mistreatment that can be dealt with by criminal prosecution, by divorce or in various ways. When it gets down to calling it rape though, it isn’t rape, it’s a he said-she said where it’s just too easy to lie about it.
Was the way in which your statement was portrayed correct?
Yes. Feminists, if they get tired of a husband or if they want to fight over child custody, they can make an accusation of marital rape and they want that to be there, available to them.
So you see this as more of a tool used by people to get out of marriages than as legitimate-
Yes, I certainly do.”
Like Schlafly, Akin once voiced his disapproval of marital rape laws by warning that they could be used as “a legal weapon to beat up on the husband” in a divorce proceeding.
rightwingwatch. org