Top Missouri Republicans Call for Akin to Quit Senate Race; He Says He’s Staying In

Posted on | August 21, 2012 | 33 Comments

Statement issued from the office of Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and endorsed by former Missouri Republican senators John Ashcroft, Kit Bond, John Danforth, and Jim Talent:

“We do not believe it serves the national interest for Congressman Todd Akin to stay in this race. The issues at stake are too big, and this election is simply too important. The right decision is to step aside.”

William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection reports that in an interview on Dana Loesch’s radio show today, Akin said he won’t quit.

Via Memeorandum, with further commentary by Ed Morrissey at Hot Air and Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit.

UPDATE: On Twitter, I was wondering whether this is a hostage standoff, a suicide watch, or quite possibly both. This is the only situation of its kind that I can remember. There have been somewhat similar situations before, but nothing exactly like this. Nearly everybody across the spectrum on the GOP side is telling Akin to quit, yet he’s still doing the Marvin K. Mooney act:

Akin told conservative talk radio host Mike Huckabee he’s staying in the race.
“We are going to continue with this race for the U.S. Senate,” he said Tuesday afternoon. . . .
The National Republican Senatorial Committee issued a strongly-worded statement after Akin’s radio interview, encouraging him to step aside.
“It should not be lost on anyone that some of the only voices not calling for Congressman Akin to do the right thing and step aside are Claire McCaskill and the leaders of the pro-abortion movement. Senator McCaskill knows that the only way she wins re-election is if Todd Akin is her opponent in November,” NRSC spokesman Brian Walsh said in a statement. “We continue to hope that Congressman Akin will do the right thing for the values he holds dear, but there should be no mistake — if he continues with this misguided campaign, it will be without the support and resources of the NRSC.”

How does Akin imagine he can possibly defeat McCaskill without any national basis of support, and with every Republican official of any rank or influence opposing him? What sort of madness — “legitimate” madness — has gotten hold of Akin’s mind?

Quem deus vult perdere, prius dementat.

UPDATE II: “There’s no fixing stupid.” Indeed, a candidate stupid enough to say what Akin said is a candidate stupid enough to think he can survive after saying it, so that error is stacked atop error. Sort of like the magic of compound interest, in a way.

PREVIOUSLY:

Aug. 21: Rove: Akin ‘Irreparably Damaged’; UPDATE: NRSC Turns Against Akin
Aug. 20: Objectively, Todd Akin Is Doomed
Aug. 20: Report: Republican Todd Akin Will Withdraw From Missouri Senate Race

Category: Election 2012, Missouri, Senate

Comments

33 Responses to “Top Missouri Republicans Call for Akin to Quit Senate Race; He Says He’s Staying In”

richard mcenroe
August 21st, 2012 @ 3:00 pm

At this point Akin is more interested in taking down his own party than McCaskill.
King Shamus
August 21st, 2012 @ 3:03 pm

Question: Does Akin jeopardize taking back the Senate? If it does, then he has to go. If it doesn’t, then he can tilt at windmills all he wants.

That’s where my head is with this one.
Adjoran
August 21st, 2012 @ 3:07 pm

Look at it this way: remember way back in the old days, last week, when we were winning the Medicare debate? Heard anything about that lately, or jobs, or the economy, or the deficit?

Yeah, well if Akin stays, it will be all Akin and rape, all the time.
Red
August 21st, 2012 @ 3:10 pm

What Shamus said.
Red
August 21st, 2012 @ 3:12 pm

Hey RSM: The Marvin K. Mooney link gets me a 404 message. Funky link or moved page?
Adjoran
August 21st, 2012 @ 3:16 pm

Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck have also called for him to step down. I think Ed Morrissey is going to win his bet.
crosspatch
August 21st, 2012 @ 3:16 pm

“How does Akin imagine he can possibly defeat McCaskill without any
national basis of support, and with every Republican official of any
rank or influence opposing him?”

Simple, narcissism. Politicians tend to be much higher than average on the narcissism scale. They are never “wrong”, just misunderstood. I understand what he was trying to say, but that isn’t the point. The point for me is that he showed his incompetence by blathering on the issue without adequate information. Had he cited some statistics and biological research to back up his words, it would have come across different.

What really devastated him, though, was choosing to put the words “legitimate” and “rape” next to each other on a weekend when this was spread like wildfire through social media. I first learned about it on Facebook when a couple of my lefty friends posted about it. I saw it on FB before I even saw it on Twitter. By Sunday night, tshirt hell already had a shirt out on their website mocking Akin. By the time the grownups got to work on Monday, the damage was done.
Alborn
August 21st, 2012 @ 3:17 pm

This is why I can never be a Republican. They eat their own. It is so stupid the way they let others kill a candidate when someone makes a minor error in speaking. Bill Clinton is a rapist and no one drives him out of the public arena. If everyone would rally around this R in MO and help get the word out what he really meant by what he said then it can be overcome it is early. But no Rs jump on the band wagon of the left and destroy a good man unlike the trailer trash Clinton. I just get so disgusted with R like Karl Rove.
Dan Gillen
August 21st, 2012 @ 3:22 pm

This idiot has taken what should be a leans R race and made a real mess off it. Now he’s invoking providence as his reason to stay in. So God wants him to be in the US Senate but the almighty hasn’t bothered to gift Akin’s with the intellect or ability to communicate to get that job done? that’s sound logic. I didn’t realize that God was that short sighted. He’ll drop out in a few weeks when he can’t fundraise and his party’s presidential nominee won’t campaign within 3 counties of him. Then they’ll have to get the courts involved to remove him from the ballet.
willpeir
August 21st, 2012 @ 3:22 pm

The funny thing is, he doesn’t even have to own that he misspoke. Just announce that in this media climate, and with so much at stake, he think he can best serve by not making himself a distraction.

But… that’s just not the GOP lifers we all know and… know.
crosspatch
August 21st, 2012 @ 3:23 pm

I’m still waiting for the pundits to declare what a “disaster” the Kerry Gauthier incident is for Obama and to ask Obama something like “How does the Kerry Gauthier disaster reflect on your struggling campaign in context with all the gaffes from the Vice President”.
Adjoran
August 21st, 2012 @ 3:35 pm

“what he really meant”? Please get serious. He said exactly what he meant, repeating without question or qualification an old wives’ tale from the Middle Ages which has absolutely no basis in fact.

And again with the anti-Rove stuff. It’s a phobia with some of the conspiracy nuts, apparently. And there must be a tree around here, somewhere . . .
When it Comes to Todd Akin There’s No Fixing Stupid | The Lonely Conservative
August 21st, 2012 @ 3:35 pm

[…] Akin probably never would have won the nomination.Image via The Looking SpoonUpdate: Linked by The Other McCain – thanks!google_ad_client = "ca-pub-1395656889568144"; /* 300×250, created 8/11/08 */ […]
Adjoran
August 21st, 2012 @ 3:36 pm

As you know, if the world worked that way, we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in now.
Adjoran
August 21st, 2012 @ 3:38 pm

Not only has Akin become the centerpiece of the entire election year, but he is distracting from the really important news: http://po.st/veFn1Z
Evi L. Bloggerlady
August 21st, 2012 @ 3:39 pm

I was just listening to Rush an hour ago and he basically said Akin should drop out. We do not need another Biden. It is not about right or wrong, the system is rigged, but we expect more from our Republican candidates and the overall issues are bigger than any one man.

Akin says he is staying in.

So it is what it is (at least for now). We will see if Akin changes his mind, but I damn well hope there are no more GOP press conferences.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
August 21st, 2012 @ 3:43 pm

Of course Kerry Gauthier is a Minnesota state level politician, not a U.S. Senator. So the impact of him on Obama will be minimal. Even if Democrats are sympathetic about getting blow jobs on the down low.
Mortimer Snerd
August 21st, 2012 @ 3:52 pm

Hey, at least he’s not a witch. Can we say that about McCaskill?
Last Hope: Ann Wagner and Todd Akin Urged to Trade Places « Nice Deb
August 21st, 2012 @ 3:54 pm

[…] Top Missouri Republicans Call for Akin to Quit Senate Race; He Says He’s Staying In. […]
McGehee
August 21st, 2012 @ 4:00 pm

I don’t have anything to say about Akin. I’m content to keep talking about Medicare and ObamaCare and deficits and jobs.

I haven’t gone stampeding anywhere, but I’m wondering where everybody else went.
crosspatch
August 21st, 2012 @ 4:08 pm

True. But a US Senator has no jurisdiction over or input into state abortion laws. He was addressing a subject that is actually irrelevant for his job at the federal level. And this is the trap constantly set by left wing journalists when interviewing a Republican, particularly a male Republican. Any time one answers that question he is providing the left with an opportunity to turn him into a caricature. I would LOVE to see a Republican candidate for a federal office when asked their position on abortion to say “none of your damned business, next question”.
Adjoran
August 21st, 2012 @ 5:01 pm

If you were in charge of network news programming, I’m sure there would be more balance. You aren’t, and as long as this clown stays in the race, the coverage will be all Akin, all the time, right through November.

And don’t think for a minute they can’t find a way to work a rape question into the Foreign Policy debate, even.
McGehee
August 21st, 2012 @ 5:06 pm

I don’t give a pile of steaming watery shit what the networks cover.
Red
August 21st, 2012 @ 5:24 pm

Hot soup!
Red
August 21st, 2012 @ 5:25 pm

Why the hell are my comments not here? I leave them and then they disappear? Did I cross the line?
Evi L. Bloggerlady
August 21st, 2012 @ 5:34 pm

If he is in he is in. Good luck to Akin. He will need it.

Seems like this was a battle that could have been avoided. It sucks to be Akin, but he could have gracefully bowed out. But he is not doing that. Obviously proving he was right is more important than the risk of losing the seat and possibly losing the Senate.

If I am stampeding off with Rush and Levin…I do not see that as a bad thing.
Quartermaster
August 21st, 2012 @ 5:59 pm

There’s a lot of truth in the Rove stuff, alas. One does not have to be a conspiracy wack job to understand that Rove has not really been our friend in many cases.

What’s with the “flagging” of nonabusive comments as abusive?
Charles
August 21st, 2012 @ 6:02 pm

Here’s the deal: Akin does his penance by running as an outcast. That’s the only way to rehabilitate his image, and his honor. The national Republican Party can’t help him, because trying to help him would hurt both him and them.

Right to life groups can help Akin. And it seems to me they are honor bound to raise the money to ensure he wins or they go down with him.
Quartermaster
August 21st, 2012 @ 6:05 pm

There seem to be screwy things going on with the new software. I’m irritated that my data is not being saved anymore.
Quartermaster
August 21st, 2012 @ 6:13 pm

I don’t know what the bet was, but Akin didn’t step aside. I’m not surprised.
Red
August 21st, 2012 @ 7:38 pm

I hate that I can’t see who likes a comment anymore.

“Spend your days doing what you enjoy in the company of people you really like.”—TQoA
Red
August 21st, 2012 @ 7:41 pm

I know right? Disqus is tripping.
Nikki
August 22nd, 2012 @ 9:16 am

With out public support he can’t win the election… He have to talk with people to solve what problem they have with him.

Medicare Missouri