Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Democrats seek to tie Akin to House candidates
Associated Press
POSTED: 03:57 a.m. HST, Aug 22, 2012
LAST UPDATED: 05:21 a.m. HST, Aug 22, 2012
DENVER >> Meet the newest campaign issue for House Democrats: Todd Akin.
From Colorado to New Hampshire to Illinois, Democrats already are using the incendiary comments about rape made by the Missouri congressman and Republican Senate candidate as a political bludgeon. In interviews, news releases and tweets, they've blasted Akin for saying victims of "legitimate rape" are able to naturally prevent pregnancy and tried to tie their opponents to legislation he's supported.
Those moves might only be the beginning, as Akin has so far refused to drop out of the race despite pleas from top Republicans, including GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and the widespread condemnation of his remarks.
"People are disgusted and appalled," said Joe Miklosi, a Democratic congressional candidate in suburban Denver, who began tying his opponent, GOP Rep. Mike Coffman, to Akin within hours of learning about his comments this past Sunday.
Miklosi sent a tweet that read, "Mike Coffman and Todd Akin have been fighting side by side against women in Congress," and posted a video online included footage of Akin praising Coffman on the House floor.
Coffman responded by calling for Akin to leave the race and decrying his rape comments as "wrong, inappropriate and hurtful to women across the country."
It's a scene repeated in House races nationwide, as Akin's comments on rape are playing a role in more than dozen House races in battleground states — particularly those in which the incumbents joined Akin last year in co-sponsoring a resolution that would have redefined rape as "forcible rape."
Most Democrats and women's groups objected to such language, because it suggested there are different severities of rape.
In New Hampshire, Annie Kuster rapped one of the Democrats' top targets, GOP Rep. Charlie Bass, saying she was "disappointed" Bass hadn't yet called for Akin to leave the Senate race. Bass quickly did so. In Illinois, another Democratic challenger, Cheri Bustos, called on her opponent, GOP Rep. Bobby Schilling, to return a $2,000 donation from Akin. Schilling did so and issued a statement expressing his disgust with Akin's remarks.
"As a father, a husband and a close friend to people who have been scarred by the evils of rape, I could never stand with someone who said something so contrary to our basic human values," he said.
In Wisconsin, Democrat Pat Kreitlow had made an issue of GOP Rep. Sean Duffy's support for legislation defining "forcible rape" even before Akin's comments. That criticism now has new life, Kreitlow said.
"People are simply amazed there are elected officials who would take these positions, to redefine rape," he said. "We were hearing about it in Wisconsin before Akin said this, and of course we're hearing a lot more about it now."
Duffy, meanwhile, followed the path of other Republicans in calling for Akin to drop his Missouri Senate bid and repudiating his comments.
Do you really think it is the Democrats who keep driving the discussion back to social issues? When the wave of Tea Party candidates ran for office, they promised to make "jobs" the central issue. Instead, they started introducing bills, not just in Congress, but all across the country, restricting abortion rights.
Social issues are "red meat" to the conservative base of the Republican Party. Frankly, the Republicans do better arousing the voters on those issues than on the economy. True, the economy is stagnant and job creation has been lagging, but the GOP cannot shake its image as caring more about the rich than the working stiff. And Mittens Romney does not help you with that image problem. So YOUR politicians, like Akin, are more comfortable warning about immigrants, about the "sacredness of the innocent unborn" and the sanctity of marriage, than about the economy. How many years do a large swath of your GOP base waste on Obama's birth certificate? But wasn't that fun?
For Republicans to win elections, you have to move beyond your core group of angry, aging white men and business-owners. That's why YOUR people use the social issues to rally support from the middle and working class voters.
Akin is an embarrassment because he didn't censor himself well enough, not because he votes any different from the other Republicans. And there is nothing gimmicky about the Democrats driving the point home.
What I find "gimmicky," was the orchestrated rapid response network which sprung into action and provided all GOP senate candidates with boilerplate language for distancing themselves, on cue, from Akin. Boy, did they want to dump him quickly. Akin called their bluff and I expect to see that GOP money flow back into the election if it continues to be a close race. When it does, can Democrats point THAT out as well? Or will that be too gimmicky?
If you believe Obama's proposals can be boiled down to the mantra you are chanting, you are not qualified to talk in polite society about either politics or economic policy.
I am not a "rocket scientist." But my father actually was and we were all raised to place a high value on reason, evidence and the scientific method to arrive at our understanding of the world. We had the naive hope that well-educated citizens could come together in the town square and reason together, through point and counter-point and collectively arrive at a better understanding of the challenges facing us.
Then Fox News happened and the Republcian base went insane, overthrowing the more reaasonable, moderate leaders among them and requiring all theri presidential candidates to deny science when discussing climate change, embrace Creationism over evolution as the underlying logic behind biology, and to claim that cutting taxes on the rich will balance the budget and grow the economy.
So here we are on a technologically sophisticated platform for having such a discussion and the liberal minded people are compelled to defend the values of the Enlightenment against the forces of reaction, superstition and greed. My, what progress we have made since my father first embraced the potential of science.
Yes, the Democrats are pointing out the connections. But those connections are there. You cannot expect to profit from mobilizing anti-abortion sentiment on the one hand and run and hide when pro-choice voters object to your plans. The problems of the GOP in this area are not the result of a Democratic conspiracy.
‘Soul Sessions’ feat. RootHub
