Todd Akin (R-Fuckingnutsburg), as of this writing, has about 30 minutes left to drop out of the race for Senate in Missouri without serious complications ensuing for the GOP in replacing him. The RNC and NRSC have pulled their funding, the Missouri GOP has thrown him under the bus, and Multiple Choice Mitt’s wheel of fortune has landed on “he should drop out immediately.”
More than one blogger has pointed out that the people who think his opinion is disqualifying for the Senate race aren’t calling for him to resign from Congress, where he has been sitting on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology for some time. Which is, in itself terrifying.
But it doesn’t look like he’s going to fold his tent. Which makes sense – this had to happen at some point. For the better part of forty years, the Holy Roller Right has been the reliable infantry of the GOP – but their wishes have mostly been honored in the breach. Despite 20 years of Republican presidency since 1980, despite GOP control of Congress from 1994-2006, despite having the opportunity to seat seven justices on the Supreme Court (including elevating the last two Chief Justices), Roe v Wade is still law. And if you really delve into the depths of the Christianist fever swamp, Griswold v Connecticut is still law and contraception is legal. For all the hue and cry, they haven’t gotten the one thing they wanted in all these decades of blind loyalty.
Todd Akin may finally be the chicken coming home to roost. He may honestly believe that he was right, and the outcry is the howl of the liberal feminist Satanic enemy, and that to drop out at this point would be to fail in his moral duty – he will stand and fight and carry on, and the true believers will stand with him. Onward Christian soldiers.
Where it gets interesting is that control of the Senate may pivot on the Missouri race. If that looks like the case in the last three weeks, several bloggers seem to think that the GOP will hold its nose and sink money (probably through a Super-PAC) into negative ads savaging his opponent, hoping that the waters can be muddied to the point that they can sweat it out, get their seat, get control of the Senate and then just hope the leadership will keep Akin in check.
But the Democrats are pinching themselves for their good fortune – just as the elevation of Paul Ryan to the VP spot is casting a bright light on his budget proposals (to which the GOP is publicly and repeatedly pledged), the sudden focus on Todd Akin is casting into sharp relief just how utterly paleozoic the party’s officially platform-stated position on abortion actually is. Not only are an awful lot of conservatives opposed to abortion even in the case of rape or incest, they don’t believe rape or incest can cause pregnancy.
Read that sentence again.
The truly scary thing is that Akin’s not wrong. He could stay on the ballot, recant nothing, and still get a solid turnout of the vote – many because they’ll pull the lever for their team no matter what, but many more because they genuinely agree with him, stem to stern. And for someone of his age and career path, he’s not about to bail out on the dream of a Senate seat just because the media and the feminazis are out to get him.
Balls out from the walls out. Ride or die.
Of which, as I keep saying, more later.