What Akin Said

Missouri Senatorial Candidate Todd Akin may have only one person left who wants him to stay in the race: his opponent, Sen. Claire McCaskill. I haven't heard from his mother. I prefer to think about what someone actually says rather than merely react to the sound of it and I have learned not to depend on printed excerpts; so here is my transcription of Akin's entire offending remarks.

Charles Jaco: "If abortion can be considered in the case of a duct-tubal pregnancy or something like that, what about the case of rape, should it be legal or not?"

Todd Akin: "Well you know, people always wanta try and make that one of those things, well, how do ya, how do ya, how do you slice this particularly tough sort of ethical question. It seems to me 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 may that didn't work or something. I think there should be some punishment but the punishment ought to be in the rapist and not attacking the child."

What was Akin trying to say? First, that pregnancy as a result of "legitimate" rape is rare and doesn't tell us anything about the moral status of other abortions. That is what persons who are strongly pro-life mean when they make that distinction.

The most offensive phrase in the entire paragraph is "legitimate rape," but Akin clearly doesn't mean acceptable or justified. He intends the opposite meaning: violent, non-consensual sexual intercourse. Okay, as opposed to what? At any rate, it was an extremely unfortunate choice of words.

The second thing he argued is that the female body has mechanisms to prevent pregnancy in such cases. This is an empirical question and one that would be challenge to resolve. I am inclined to doubt the proposition and more doubtful that Akins has any idea what he was talking about. Supposing it were true, how would it help his point? All it accomplished was to make him look like an insensitive buffoon.

Third, Akins takes the pure pro-life position. In the case of a pregnancy due to rape, it is the rapist who is guilty and should be punished. The unborn child is innocent and deserves the same protection as all other moral persons. Most persons who are pro-life make exceptions for at three categories of pregnancy: threats to the life of the mother, severe birth defects, and rape. Akin has every right to his position but pushing it here saves no children. All it does is to divide his own camp.

Moreover, abortion is not what this election ought to be about. Anything that distracts from the economy and the fiscal solvency of the United States hurts any cause that Akin professes to care about.

All three points are obviously subject to debate but none is scandalous, even if the second one is stupid. In politics, however, how you say something and the context in which you say it matter as much as whatever you meant. Akin's clumsy comments managed simultaneously to damage the pro-life cause which he avows, put what looked like a winning Senate campaign in jeopardy, and embarrass the Republican Party nationally.

Just because a Republican candidate for a US Senate seat says something doesn't mean that that is the position of Republicans nationally or even in Missouri. The Democrats will argue that it does, which is what I would advise them to argue were I advising them. That doesn't mean that the Republican Party can escape some responsibility for their candidate.

Republicans have come down on Akin hard to resign. Mitt Romney denounced Akin. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has yanked funding, as has Crossroads GPS, a conservative political action committee. Akin should swiftly resign and let some other Republican try for the seat. When you blow this big a hole in the dike, it doesn't matter what you were trying to say.

Comments

[Donald Pay]

You obviously haven't spent any time hanging around the South Dakota Legislature or anyplace else where Republicans, especially of the troglodytic type, congregate. What's critical to understand is that Akin and every bit of his phraseology, while you may call it "unfortunate," is what passes for fairly standard Republican belief. What's unfortunate for you is that the mask has been stripped from the Republican Party, and they have been seen to be far more "Muslim" in their thought process on these issues than Obama could ever be accused of. Perhaps, "Muslim" isn't the right word, because it denegrates that religion. Let's just say that these Republicans would feel more at home in the fifth century in some backwater district of a crumbled civilization that subjects women and children to sexual deviance of an all-powerful male elite.

At any rate, Akin's position, however "unfortunate" you claim it to be, is about to be adopted by the Republican Party at its convention. It may not include Akin's "legitimate rape" exception, however, because that would be far, far too liberal for the base of the Republican Party. After all, why exclude rape and the most bestial types of incest (after former Rep. Bill Napoli), when the Republican Party thinks a depraved sexual monster's spawn takes precedence over the little girl who was raped.

[Jon S.]

Donald,

Question: Is that "spawn" a human being?

[Jennifer]

The comment was completely unintelligent for an elected official. Get him out! There is a cause to remove him spreading across the Web - http://www.youstand.com/cause/82112/remove-todd-akin-from-the-house-science-committee

[Donald Pay]

Jon S.,

Answer: The woman will decide what she believes and what she wants to do about it. It isn't up to you or me, It is up to you or me to provide that woman with the support she needs no matter what decision she makes. That doesn't include taking away her health care that she may need for whatever decision she makes.

[A.I.]

'The Onion' got what he said closer to correct: http://www.theonion.com/articles/i-misspokewhat-i-meant-to-say-is-i-am-dumb-as-dog,29256/

The only argument I have with 'The Onion' is I would replace "dumb as" with dumber than. At least dog crap is attractive to dogs.

[Jon S]

Donald, I have decided you are not a human being. Does that mean you are not a human being?

[larry kurtz]

Does a cloned embryo or an embryo conceived in vitro have the same human rights as an embryo conceived through traditional vaginal penetration, Prof. Schaff?

[Donald Pay]

Jon S.,

I could care less what you decide regarding me, because you are of no significance to me at all. If you insist on looking at every difficult issue from your pea-brained perspective, and insist that others slavish follow that perspective, you ought to be a proud member of the Republican Party, which is rapidly going down the fascist road.

[Medtary Berry]

@Donald. "fairly standard Republican belief"? Sweeping generalizations are just that: sweeping. How many Republicans do you actually know? I'm not only Republican but a member of the same church denomination that Akin goes to...I'm horrified at his words, as I'm sure most Republicans are. There is also the obvious contradiction inherent in your statement...If all Republicans think like Akin, why bother to ask him to step aside? If we all think like he does, wouldn't this help his chances, rather than hurt them? Your logic has a really big hole in it.

[Jon S.]

Donald, I admire your obvious liberal mindedness. "Spawn." "you are of no significance." "Pea-brained." "Fascist." You are so open to other opinions.

"Try it by some of Judge Douglas’s arguments. He says he “don’t care whether it is voted up or voted down” in the Territories. I do not care myself, in dealing with that expression, whether it is intended to be expressive of his individual sentiments on the subject, or only of the national policy he desires to have established. It is alike valuable for my purpose. Any man can say that who does not see anything wrong in slavery; but no man can logically say it who does see a wrong in it, because no man can logically say he don’t care whether a wrong is voted up or voted down. He may say he don’t care whether an indifferent thing is voted up or down, but he must logically have a choice between a right thing and a wrong thing. He contends that whatever community wants slaves has a right to have them. So they have, if it is not a wrong. But if it is a wrong, he cannot say people have a right to do wrong. "

[Donald Pay]

I am not liberal minded on issues of a person's Constitutional rights, nor on their being brutalized by someone whose spawn you care about more than the woman who was brutalized. I am open to the opinion of the woman who was raped. Your opinion or mine shouldn't matter at all.

[Donald Pay]

Medtary,

I grew up in a Republican family, and my mother worked for the Republican Party. Since I lobbied in the SD Legislature, and worked on many issues with Republicans, I know quite a few Republicans. I must admit back in the 1980s Akins' comments would have been out of the mainstream of the Republican Party. Today, Akin has pretty much captured the well-established majority opinion on this matter within the Republican Party, and it certainly captures the Ryan-Akins position on the matter.

[Ken Blanchard]

For someone who thinks his opinions shouldn't matter at all, Donald is not shy about stating them. I think, however, he is being honest in admitting that everyone has a right to his opinions.