Mike Huckabee’s petty ego gave us McCain in 08, now Akin in 12 if we let him
As someone reminded me of on a phone call last night, Huckabee stayed in long after he had any shot in 2008. When it came down to Romney versus McCain, the base wanted Romney. Huckabee didn’t. It may have resulted in Sarah Palin being selected as VP – but it didn’t get us the presidency, and now it’s resulted in Obamacare, along with a lot of other bad things. It’s time this nearly irrelevant hack and failing radio talk show host Mike Huckabee became totally irrelevant to GOP politics.
Social conservatives who still latch onto him better clue up. Huckabee is and always has been out for himself and most of the conservative base is sick of it. He’s been a consistent loser on the national stage, with liberal policies couched beneath a social conservative veneer. In short, he’s a phony as a conservative, or a false prophet, if you prefer. His propping up Akin is just the latest of his self-satisfied and treacherous acts to the conservative cause.
via Mike Huckabee rallies Southern Baptists for Todd Akin – POLITICO
Mike Huckabee rallied hundreds of Southern Baptists on a conference call Friday night in support of Todd Akin, offering advice about how they can help the embattled Missouri Senate candidate stay in the race — while acknowledging Akin still may have to bow out.
“This could be a Mount Carmel moment,” said the former Arkansas governor, referring to the holy battle between Elijah and the prophets of Baal in the book of Kings. “You know, you bring your gods. We’ll bring ours. We’ll see whose God answers the prayers and brings fire from heaven. That’s kind of where I’m praying: that there will be fire from heaven, and we’ll see it clearly, and everyone else will to.”
Dan, while I certainly agree that what Todd Akin said was, clumsey, and not science based, perhaps we should look at his meaning, not his words.
Todd Akin believes that under no circumstance, is abortion right. He holds a degree in Divinity, which lets us know that like Huckabee, he has the right to minister. I would think any religious man, any man of faith, would take the same stand.
What bothers me the most is how everyone on the right now ignores Todd Akin’s very solid conservative record and want to be the first to drive the nails into his hands. What bothers me is how the right now cowers in the corners afraid that the left wing media, well known to be in the pocket of the Democrats, will come after them if they don’t distance themselves fronm Todd Akin’s remarks, and the man himself. What bothers me is how the right, after 50 years, still continues to play by the Alinsky rule book adopted by the Democrats. This “eating our own” has to stop. A Democrat recruits young men on Craig’s List, meets then at roadside parks for the purpose of oral sex, but Todd Akin is the big story? Tell me, what is wrong with that picture?
Women all across America are raped everyday. Few of them, statistically, get pregnant. Yet women are physically abused all across American everyday in ways that may, or may not, involve rape. Women are beaten, humiliated, treated no better than Michael Vick’s dogs, yet those women get pregnant and bear those children to term, not giving them up for adoption or aborting them. Should we adovacte for abused women to abort their children, or give up for adoption their children already born, because of the abuse they have endured by a man that gives the women emotional pain to think about? Why do we have shelters that are for women, AND CHILDREN, of abuse situations?
Many, many women come out of an abusive relationship with children, and while they hate their abuser, they don’t hate their children, or want those children to be responsible for the sins of the father.
That is the point Todd Akin was trying to make, albeit poorly. In this nation, we don’t punish children for the sins of the father. There is no blood liability.
Mahalia Jackson, a woman who put gospel music on the map and made it popular, was the product of a rape. Certainly the nation was a better one for having Ms. Jackson in it.
“Drive the nail into his hands” … not his coffin. There is a dangerous cult-like mentality among those who still hold out the pathetic hope that Akin can resurrect his career. Because that’s all this is, the hostage situation brought about by a politician desperately holding onto power.
Todd Akin’s comments were not universally rebuked because they were ignorant or grammatically incorrect but because they were offensive to rape victims. It’s one thing to argue that abortion is wrong even in the small percentage of cases of rape and incest. Akin’s position was born of moral cowardice and misogyny; he argued that a pregnancy resulting in rape was not “legitimate rape.” That is not speaking truth to power. It is the ugly brand of cretinism that led to burnings at the stake. It is pseudoscience from the Dark Ages that reminds us all how that era earned its name.
we should look at his meaning, not his words
I’d rather look at outcomes…like cratered polls. Good intentions don’t mean squat if you can’t draw the votes anymore.
“That is the point Todd Akin was trying to make, albeit poorly.”
The point Todd Akin was trying to make is that abortion is unnecessary because women have the biological ability to shut off their reproductive organs during rape. And so any woman who gets pregnant from rape wasn’t actually raped and it must have been instead consensual to some degree.
Which is not just absurd, insulting, demeaning and quite frankly retarded.
That is my objection to Mr. Akins. You can dress it up in Christian revival but it doesn’t get any prettier. This is an adult man who was too idiotic to see that this is nonsense. Do you want someone either that naive or that stupid in office?
This man is a younger version of Joe Biden.
Nice try at trying to twist Todd Akin’s statement, but no cigar.
Akin believes that life begins at conception. So do many Americans.
If we were to tar and feather every politician who ever made a stupid statement, we would have NO politicians. Once again, why is Akin such a story when Democrats are having sex in roadside parks with underage boys?
Now, here’s a fact for you to consider: fertility doctors will tell a woman who is failing to conceive that stress is a contributing factor in her failure. Do you think that rape doe not create stress in a woman who has been a victim of rape? Also, women who are raped are/should be, treated immediately by medical personel who are trained in not only the physical damage a woman sustains after a rape, but the prevention of having a spem implanted egg develope the zygote that becomes a fetus.
Akin should apologize for a stupid statement when Bill Clinton apologizes for raping a woman.
If Todd Akin had been caught having sex with a boy, the entire Republican party would have likewise asked him to step aside and let a viable candidate run against the most beatable Democrat in the country, who incidentally was his biggest donor during the primary. The other two top contenders in a crowded field were also pro-life and got nearly as many votes as Akin did. If he had withdrawn, those candidates would have likewise voted to protect the unborn. But this is not about a cause greater than Todd Akin. It’s all about his pride, just like it was with Huck in 2008.
Building on Virginia’s point that the other two candidates got nearly as many votes as Akin, everyone claiming that Akin is the Republican Party’s clear choice; that he has a mandate; that no one on the right should complain, because Akin won the primary — you would do well to remember that 64% of Republican primary voters voted AGAINST him.
“If we were to tar and feather every politician who ever made a stupid statement, we would have NO politicians.”
One says that as though it would be a _bad_ thing….
Even if stress is accepted as something which can reduce the chance of conception, no method of contraception is 100% effective. In the highly unlikely chance that “stress contraception” might be even 50% effective, how does that change the issue he was discussing ? Rather than lay out a moral argument based in his faith, which is what he was really advancing, he chose to adopt a pseudoscience argument that he knew was inherently dishonest and dodged the ultimate question. If you oppose abortion with no exception for rape, say so – and admit it is based on your belief that any abortion is murder. The Al Gore-esque hiding behind science does no one a service. It’s dishonest and misrepresents what both supporters and opponents are really ddebating.
zane, it’s people like you that kept me out of the Republican party for twenty years. You are disgusting.
Ok, I get Todd Akin spoke poorly, and has apologized.
But don’t actions speak louder than words?
Where is the Republican condemnation of Democrat miscreants (Clinton, Kennedy, Edwards, et al.)?
Or how about establishment Republicans who DO dumb things? Where is the condemnation of Don Young(R-AL) for endorsing in an ad Democratic Rep. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii? How about Sen. Coburn donating $250 to Sen. Manchin of WV? Or condemning Sens. McCain, Graham, and Brown and Reps. Boehner, Cantor, McCartney,and Rogers for siding with the Muslim Brotherhood over Michele Bachmann?
The Rep. Leadership was threatening to remove Bachmann from the intelligence committee unless she apologized. Or why does the Republican leadership protect the corrupt-o-crat Spencer Bachus?
I wanted Akin to withdraw. But he hasn’t and complaining about it won’t change the facts on the ground. It is his sole decision. I think that, in part, he looked at how others are treated for their improper actions and said, “Pffffttt!!!”. It just shows what a piper tiger the Republican Establishment is. Maybe they should try to attack Democrats for their immoral and unconstitutional (Pres. Obama appointments and amnesty?) actions. At this point, I don’t see any advantage of continuing to bash Akin. Huck should put up or shut-up, if he and his followers want Akin, they should be raising money for him.
In this case, Akin’s actions speak volumes. He is throwing the race to McCaskill. Maybe he is is in the bargaining phase of grief, but keep the pressure on him. Huckabee will not be speaking at the convention. His influence is diminishing as many conservatives see him hurting their cause. That means no ground game or money for Akin. The polls will consistently reflect that every time this old fool opens his mouth, voters will just hear, “Rape rape rape.” The national party is focusing on more winnable races now.
Huckabee and his supporters should be sending Akin money. Probably McCaskill is sending him money too. I would rather he withdraw, but he didn’t. So, I agree with you–let’s focus on other races. But I would stop trashing Akin at this point because its counter-productive.
You have to keep the pressure on him, because every day he stays in this race, he hurts the entire GOP from the top down. His race is a lost cause, and he maybe thinks Romney can drag him across the finish line. But he has cut away at Romney’s sizable lead in MO moving it from a solid win to a leaner. Akin is in the news every day, because he is a gift to the Democrats. They want to keep him in the limelight.
Politico has a piece today: Why Todd Akin Hurts Mitt Romney. In a nutshell, he makes Romney look like a figurehead. Akin’s comment, “Why couldn’t he run his race and I’ll run mine?” shows more ignorance on his part. Romney’s not running for US senate but to be the leader of the free world. He can’t even talk down some lunatic that believes in some crackpot magic uterus theory. It gives fodder to the Democrat charge that the GOP has been hijacked by extremists. Romney has denounced Akin’s offensive comment, but he cannot talk reason into this guy. That’s why Republicans need to drum this guy out of the race.
Amazing.
Every Akin post brings out kooks yammering that Akin is factually correct.
Every mention of Akin on talk radio brings out kooks yammering that Akin is factually correct.
Theory: these “Akin supporters” are really part of Great Leader’s leftist astroturf mob. You guys WANT Akin in there, because you know he’s a huge liability!
For me it is very simple. It is one thing for a politician to misspeak or jumble words. It is another for one to openly, meaning in public, utter some gibberish that has never been upheld at all by science. An apology goes a long way to fixing the damage with women and those who have been raped. But it does nothing to indicate Akin wouldn’t adopt another ‘green men’ kind of position to support a policy or political opinion. He has never explained why he even thought such nonsense. How can he be trusted if we don’t know whether he believed what he was saying at the time? And if he didn’t believe it, why was it even on his mind?
Huckabee is just a career politician in my view. He most likely decided to champion Akin because the opposite action would do more harm to the religiously motivated caused. I think he balances each decision he makes. Which is politically most beneficial?
And where are the Democrats demand that ther idiot who was worried that too many American troops on Guam would tip that tiny island over or Sheila Jackson Lee who thinks we planted a tiny flag on Mars be forced to resign or suspend their campaigns?
So your preferred version of politics is, “we won’t do it if you don’t”..? That doesn’t make sense for me.
I detest all of the nonsense and illogical hyperbole that comes from many mouths on the left. I detest it from the right as well. Too many times voters have regretted their votes for not being cautious enough. As the comedian Ron White says, “here’s your sign…”. For me, here’s my sign that Akin is either willing to accept silly ideas (that he might not even agree with) to support his politics – meaning he isn’t a very critical thinker – or he is simply willing to use code words or phrases to satisfy a constituency. Either is the same old career politician crap.
He perhaps believes that every life is precious and sacred. He didn’t say that and stop. He quickly made a fully idiotic statement as if it were fact (scientific fact), proving he had it ‘stored’ somewhere, if you will. I’m hoping MO voters will cut their loses and support any other candidate but the two currently on the ticket.
It’s amazing. Can’t you apologize for saying something stupid? Some wanted Akin out, but he is not budging. Can’t we move on? On the other hand, we have politicians who DO corrupt and lawless actions, and they get a pass. No one complains and there is simply no perspective in weighing stupid words versus corrupt actions.
We have truly become a stupid society.
ROTFLMAO, Ron White said “Here’s your sign?” Ummm, no, it was not Ron White who incorporated that into his comedy routine, it was Bill Engval. But no surprise that someone from MA would make a mistake. After all, you gave us Devel Patrick.
No, my perferred political standards don’t include “We won’t do it if you won’t do it” but my standards also do not include eating our own when there is so much at stake. Again, Akin broke no law. He just made a stupid statement. It wasn’t a “I did not have sex with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky” kind of stupid remark.
Now, until you can prove to us that you have never made a dumb statement for which you had to issue an apology for, much like Rush Limbaugh did with his “slut” remark, then I suggest you cut us other human beings some slack.
You just lost all credibility in the discussion here. You don’t know how to be objective so you resort to criticizing me, who simply is posing a position different from yours.
Are you sure you aren’t really a progressive who just visits blogs to disrupt and annoy?
@zane: If you keep clinging to the naive inability to understand that the media will now try to associate the entire Rethuglican party with this religious zealot that apparently harbors retarded, anti-science beliefs, then there is no hope for conservatives. This isn’t about right vs. wrong, it is an existential battle for control of the White House and Congress. It’s a popularity contest, and with the full array of progtard media forces arrayed against us (I use “us” in a general sense, because idiots like Akin, Huckabee, Santorum, Graham and McCain, et al, don’t represent my secular, highly conservative ideology).
Akin acting like a petulant retard hurts every Republican election on the ballot. Why is your litmus test dictated by what the Democrats do when they have idiots say/do retarded things? They have the media on their side…they don’t need to do anything at all. We, however, can’t prevail unless we offer candidates acceptable to normal people. This fundamentalist religious blather doesn’t help with independents, moderates, and for a vast number of conservatives. Take Santorum, Akin, Huckabee, and any other zealot, and we lose.
Doesn’t it hurt us when Spencer Bachus does insider trading? Or we just wait till the Democrats release that ticking time bomb in October? How about Don Young cutting an ad for the Democrat Senatorial candidate in HI–does that hurt? Or having the leadership support the Muslim Brotherhood over Michele Bachmann? Does it make sense to side with a terrorist organization over someone who is associated with your base?
I will not deny that the Democrats will
try to hang Akin’s comments around the GOP
neck. But you would think that after 60
years of Alinsky tactics, Republicans
would know better how to react to them
instead of getting all in a twit and
going on the defensive, not the offensive.
I am a hard core conservative but anyone who is honest will admit that the GOP gets a big, fat F in getting their message across.
This is about ONE race, in Missouri. Will
it affect the national election? I seriously doubt it after having looked at Missorui elections for the last 6 years.
McCaskill took 51% of women, while Talent only got 45%. McCaskill took St. Louis,
Kansas City and Jefferson City along with a few counties surrounding St. Louis and to the south of the city. Talent took almost the entire state, except for the two
major metropolitan areas.
If you think that Romney is going to carry
St. Louis or even Kansas City, even if Akin drops out, you know nothing about Missouri elections or Missouri politics. Yes, John McCain carried Missouri, by 3,632 votes. 1/10th of 1% difference from Obama.
And if it is jobs, jobs, jobs, Missouri has a 7.2% unemployment rate, one full percent below the national average.
So here is the choice Missourians have: they can throw a snit fit and let McCaskill win, even though she has her head squarely up Obama’s rear end, or they can vote for the Republican on the ticket, even if it is a dead possum.
I dunno. Go ask ‘em.
The “base” wanted Romney? That is late breaking news!
@zane and @Scoob – you don’t have to break laws to be a bad politician. The problem with the elected class is most speak in words that sound as if they are committed to principle but act to save their skin or to go along. At least total opposites like Allen West and Dennis Kucinich, for example, are credible when they open their mouths. They both are lambasted by the opposing parties, but we all know where they stand and why. Contrast Kucinich with Pelosi who will say anything and do anything to win her point. Akin’s blunder proves to me he will say anything to win his point, even if it is totally unfounded and he doesn’t believe it (so it is argued here).
Again, Akin made a stupid, dumb comment that he has apologized for. Meanwhile, Spencer Bachus of AL was excused by the Rep. leadership for conducting insider trades during the height of the financial crises. Which is worse? Or does it take an October ad by the Democrats to illustrate the problem?
No, you don’t have to break laws to be a
bad politican, but you do seem to have to
belong to the good ol’ boys club if you
make a mistake that is verbal, not illegal
And even Allen West makes mistakes, that
he apologize for. West voted to give more
money to the Pigford farmers, a scam if
there ever was one. Why, he admitted he
didn’t read the bill. Oooops.
You want perfection in a candidate. Sorry
but the only man that was perfect was
crucified almost 2,000 years ago.
But did you bother to look at Akin’s solid
conservative record of 0 with NARAL, and in the 90′s with the NRA? Or that he votes
consistantly conservative?
No, you just want him gone for one stupid
statement and that will give the election
back to McCaskill. But perhaps that is
what you want.
Oh, and to the person that said Akin lost
over 60% of the primary vote, true. But
that is Missouri rules, the one with the
most votes win, and if they want to avoid
this again, they should change the rules
to requiring a candidate garner 50% or
there should be a run-off.
It is what it is. Take your pick:
Akin or McCaskill.
Akin needs to get groomed because he is going to lose a winnable race and cost America six years of Claire McCaskill.
That he is an ignorant doofus is a secondary issue. There are plenty of ignorant doofuses in government. Most are Democrats, but they’re there.
The reason Democrats don’t call on their own retards to exit politics is because Democrat voters are retards, by and large, and there’s little chance of a Democrat saying something so stupid, she disqualifies herself.
The exception that proves this rule is Elizabeth Warren in good ol MA, who is on her way to choking away a sure win here in the Commonwealth.
Yes, even Democrats can say things so stupid, they disqualify themselves. The difference is, their craven and insulated leadership is also stupid, and therefore have not the sense to ask their own stupid creations to step aside.
Yeah, but the Republican leadership excuses our idiots and crooks–like Don Young and Spencer Bachus.
I’m not so much worried about Huckabee splitting the vote as I am about Ron Paul.
[...] Dan Riehl shares his latest thoughts on Huckabee: Social conservatives who still latch onto him better clue up. Huckabee is and always [...]
[...] Dan Riehl shares his latest thoughts on Huckabee: Social conservatives who still latch onto him better clue up. Huckabee is and always [...]