(Drew Sheneman via GoComics.com)
__
My personal hero Charles P. Pierce points out yet another facet of Rep. Akins’ retrograde worldview:
And then there’s United States Congressman Todd Akin, of whom a majority of the Republicans voting in their party’s recent primary clearly stated that they wanted him to represent them in the United States Senate, who thinks everything went wrong with that whole Civil Rights Movement back in the 1960’s that so inconvenienced folks at the Woolworth’s, and who takes a dim view of those agitators who mussed up billy clubs with their heads on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Rep. Todd Akin, the GOP’s candidate for U.S. Senate in Missouri, suggested in an interview that it was time to “look at or overturn” the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Asked directly if seminal federal civil rights legislation that prohibits discriminatory voting proceedures needed to be modified or scrapped, Akin said that states — not the federal government — should set voting rules. According to Akin, elections “have historically always been a state thing” and that’s a “good principle.”
This is what is happening now. This is the way the Republican party plans to win this election and, having done so, this is the way it plans to roll back American politics. But Joe Biden said “chains” to the Blah’s, so incivility is all square and even-steven…
(… How did anyone put this clown in Congress in the first place? Claire McCaskill remains the luckiest woman alive, and she still may lose.)
I’d say this was an excellent question, but then I’ve been told by a native that “Misery exists so that Kansas will have something to feel superior about.”
**********
Apart from the usual gang of retrogressive GOP idiots, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
Baud
I don’t know, it worked for Harry Reid. Could tea party lightening strike twice for the Democrats?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Romney is releasing a third ad on the “taking the work out of welfare” lie. And the Boston Globe has called on Biden to apologize.
lamh35
Bwhahahaha.
Now I hope Akin stays in just to spite Sean KKKlannity.
Sean Hannity Calls On Akin To Leave Senate Race
Corner Stone
Drones. Just Drones.
US ‘should hand over footage of drone strikes or face UN inquiry’
Kane
Republicans have had more their share of controversial politicians over the years, but when was the last time there was a chorus of republicans calling for a candidate to drop out? It’s not their modus operandi. They don’t do calls for dropping out, they do calls of rallying around and donating to their candidate surrounded in controversy.
The difference in this situation is quite obvious. The republican chorus for him to drop out has less to do with his statements and more to do with the problem that his beliefs mirror those of their presidential ticket.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Romney is releasing a third ad on the “taking the work out of welfare” lie. And the Boston Globe has called on Biden to apologize.
also, too, this, because sometimes their heads are so far up their racist asses they don’t feel like they need the code.
Corner Stone
Claire is toast. She has been from the beginning. This won’t matter enough to change even 1% of the game day voters.
jl
I think it is a very sad day for our Republic that Biden’s lunacy, mental incapacity, and general unfitness for dogcatcher in Podunkville has been knocked off the political radar by a silly political correctness issue, unfairly forced on the GOP by those fiendish Democrats.
Biden is a heart beat away from the presidency you know.
/snark
BruceFromOhio
Hung up the phone, realized my oldest kid is gone on Thursday for a freshman college experience that will defy all expectations. Smashing Pumpkins and some craft brew are easing the transition.
UofAZGrad
“elections ‘have historically always been a state thing’ and that’s a ‘good principle.'”
Hmm, would someone mind asking Akin, why this beautiful state rights principle was upset in those hippie yippie 60s? What did the states subject to the voting rights act “historically” do with their monopoly on voting rules?
Ben Franklin
Missouri is the ‘Show Me” State, right.
Akin; Show us the Grand Kleagle.
lamh35
Bwhahahaha.
Now I hope Akin stays in just to spite Sean KKKlannity.
Sean Hannity Calls On Akin To Leave Senate Race
HucKKKabee (stay) vs KKKlanity (go)…how’s a RWNJ to chose which path to take?
Baud
Does anyone think Akin is the last shoe to drop for the GOP before the election?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@lamh35: what’s funny is, if Hannity had been conducting the interview, he probably would have agreed with Aiken enthusiastically, and now the two of them would be digging in together
lamh35
DAMN YOU WORDPRESS!
JPL
@Baud: nope.. he could still win.. Fortunately though his and Ryan’s forcible rape bill will be mentioned a lot.
JPL
Every one understands that this jerk could win… right…
dmsilev
Can someone hit the blog on the side; I think it’s stuck.
jl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
“I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban — read African-American — voter-turnout machine. Let’s be fair and reasonable.”
Disgusting quote. I hope that kind of thing can provide some arguments in court cases, assuming we have honest judges.
Isn’t there a list of ‘special states’, mostly Southern, with a history of voter suppression for African Americans and other minorities? OH and PA and a couple of other states need to be added too such a list.
Corner Stone
There’s some serious Borkin’ going on. Which, to me, just proves it’s always the Democrats fault to begin with.
Baud
@JPL:
I always assume anyone can win any election. Never take anything for granted.
jl
@dmsilev: Maybe Tunch swallowed the blog again. He’ll burp it back up soon enough. Patience.
MikeJ
@dmsilev:
In my first IT job I had a chicken’s foot that I got from Marie Laveau’s. Used to wave it over “broken” computers and watch them miraculously work.
rikyrah
lamh35
you crack me up
danimal
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Every so often, conservatives I know stroke their chins and quizzically wonder why liberals think conservatives are racist. They aren’t overtly racist themselves and they wonder why such a terrible assumption is made about them.
The welfare lie is a perfect answer to these conservatives. First of all, I work in social services and have a deep knowledge of the relevant laws governing welfare. The Romney campaign is lying about the welfare to work exemptions, there is no equivocating their position. That they are lying is a fact, and not open to interpretation. Believe the fact-checkers on this one.
But why are they lying? Obviously, they have a reason, and the reason is that they are appealing to racial resentment. They seem to think that by associating Obama with welfare and especially welfare without responsibility, that they can appeal to racists without resorting to overt racial clues. But they aren’t all that clever. They say welfare in the same way a third-grader might say “igger-nay” expecting that we can’t crack the Pig Latin code. Conservatives–we know the fucking code. You’re not that clever.
Romney is insulting our intelligence, reaching out to racists, and blatantly lying in ways that are easily documented. He must not be allowed to get away with it. This is the third week in a row of outrageously lying. I know the outrage du jour is about Akin’s idiotic rape comments, but I’m still steamed about this one. Thanks for letting me rant…
Spaghetti Lee
From TPM: The GOP has managed very quickly to close to asphyxiate Akin’s campaign. The NRSC, the RNC and Karl Rove’s Crossroads SuperPAC have all cut him loose, which means he’d be completely cut off from all the GOP big money.
First, I wonder if they’ll keep cutting Akin off should he stay in the race (and it looks like Akin, at least, is determined to stay). I mean, I know that Republicans are usually good at avoiding civil wars, but when basically every big-name Republican is telling you to go away, how do you patch that over? The Romney campaign said they “can’t support” him (didn’t go so far as to say he was wrong, obviously). So how does Akin stir up support? Who the hell from the Republican apparatus is coming to speak at his rallies and saying they’re behind him all the way? And where the hell is the money coming from? It’s not just his horrible retrograde ideas scaring away voters-how does the guy freakin’ run a campaign after this?
wonkie
@Baud: Not if the Republicans pressure him into dropping out.
JPL
As much as we laugh at Akin, if he wins we are on a downward spiral. In GA the more the tea party won and cut taxes, the more they were proven right that schools and roads suck. Some folks can’t add and it becomes a descent which no return. IMO.
dmsilev
Looks like we’ll still have Akin to beat up on, for a while anyway. Gotta love TPM’s headline though: “Todd Akin Launches ‘I’m Not Quitting’ Ad Campaign”. It doesn’t quite have the same ring as ‘I am not a crook’, but it’s not bad.
kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The early voting process had bipartisan support when it was put in after 2004.
Republicans suffered losses in 2006 and again in 2008 and now early voting is “contoring the process”
Two nice things. Unions are all-in against voter suppression this time out. That has not been my experience with them before, here locally, AND, OFA are hitting their new voter registration targets in Ohio.
JustAnotherBob
@efgoldman:
Blame the tool or blame the workman?
rikyrah
Rachel Maddow is opening her show with the Akin thing, but, of course, Maddow has been talking about the GOP dismissing the exceptions for rape and incest for quite awhile.
Anne Laurie
@dmsilev:
I’m deleting the extra FYWP-stutters when I can (and here for a minute I actually felt popular). For what schadenfreude’s worth, things are borked on both ends — I’m having trouble getting in to check the moderation cache, just in case anyone’s waiting.
No point sending Cole an email, cuz he doesn’t read mine:).
Ben Franklin
@Corner Stone:
There’s some serious Borkin’ going on
That ‘Golden Rain’ ain’t precipitation, unless it waters the ‘DAISY”.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/40606
dance around in your bones
Also, too – Rachel Maddow has a pretty freakin’ great graphic on her show just now – talking about Akin and those ‘rape – secretion – can’t get PG people”:
“Men Who Stare At Zygotes”
JPL
@Anne Laurie: Don’t feel bad.. he doesn’t read mine either.
Violet
Aww…Akin cancelled on Piers. Boo… On the bright side, Piers is showing Akin’s empty chair. Bwahahaha.
James E. Powell
I don’t know who the GOP big shots think they are fooling. Since when is there such a thing as a GOP infrastructure?
Does anyone seriously believe that if Akin stays in place that they won’t give him enough money to win? They’d lose their shot at the senate just for spite? Please.
raven
The staff of the Red and Black reached an agreement with the owners and are going back to work on the paper.
Linda Featheringill
@Kane:
So Akin got into trouble because he was too honest about his position?
And now the Dems will try to tie up Akin and Ryan like Siamese twins?
danimal
@Spaghetti Lee: If you think the GOP will stay away from Akin, I have a few words for you…
Senator David Vitter reelected.
They’ll let Akin back in the fold if he stays in the race and the race appears winnable. And, somehow, he’ll scrape some scratch together to put ads on the teevee. They want control of the Senate more than they want to purge a politician with views that many of them quietly support.
ETA: IOW, what James E. Powell said.
1badbaba3
@Corner Stone: Pshaaaaw.
dmsilev
@Violet: Been a pretty bad day for Mr. Akin, hasn’t it? I think my favorite part so far is him going on Hannity followed shortly by Hannity calling for him to step aside.
jl
@efgoldman:
thanks for info. I did not know that. Too bad. Some non Sourthern states have more than earned a place on that list.
Violet
@dmsilev: Piers showing the empty chair is hilarious.
JPL
@dmsilev: I still think that Mitt is telling him to shut his trap and he will be rewarded with Health and Human Services or Education..
AA+ Bonds
We won’t know the difference this week makes until the jobs reports come out covering this week
dmsilev
@JPL: I thought Santorum was in line for HHS.
Mike E
@BruceFromOhio: My one and only is starting her last year in HS next week. She went from being 16 to getting her first job to passing her drivers test to getting her 2nd job to being 17 in like a week. Actually, it took something like 5 weeks, but you know what I mean.
raven
@dmsilev: Surgeon General.
Linda Featheringill
@efgoldman: #52
Wow. Plum Line is actually using the word “lie.” That’s interesting.
I love the picture from Emily’s. I guess it’s a poster. If not, it should be. Even folks who are not Obots can understand that message.
El Cid
@efgoldman: Then who would give all the gubmit monies to their Republican friends and colleagues with various private education and software scams?
AliceBlue
If Akin stays in, I have no doubt he’ll win–all the morans will vote for him. And some of them will be women.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@danimal: Like Lily Tomlin said, no m atter how cyncial you get, you can’t keep up. Even after the Bush/Cheney years, I can’t believe the pass Romney is getting on this deliberate race-baiting. Our Establishment Media is morally and intellectually bankrupt. EvenTheLiberalMSNBC is barely talking about it.
Baud
@AliceBlue:
And don’t forget the Dems who won’t vote because McCaskill isn’t a good enough Democrat.
raven
@efgoldman: My nephew went away to college at 19 1/2 and turned around a came home. You know what I was doing at that age.
Baud
@AliceBlue:
And don’t forget the Dems who won’t vote because McCaskill isn’t a good enough Democrat.
kd bart
Anyone see the poll out of Florida today showing Romney with a 15 point lead in Florida? Could be the single worse poll you’ll ever see. 63.54% of respondents are 65 and older. 91% are 51 and older. Very much doubt that will be the makeup of the Florida electorate. Throw out as pure garbage.
Mike E
@raven: Mine is going into her 4th year of JROTC. Ya never know…
1badbaba3
Kindly Doc Maddow just said the rats are leaving the good ship Akin. All the PAC $ from Rove amongst others is being pulled. Plus, its not just Hannity calling for him to, ahem, pull out. It’s Senate leadership ( I know, I know, too godsdamn easy) as well, including Yertle and Corny.
Jeez Louise, it’s always something with these fuckin’ guys
raven
@Mike E: Ha, I have a great buddy that introduced me to my first wife in an anti-war demonstration in March of 70. He got his teeth knocked out by a state cop in the Kent State aftermath and was an all around rabble rouser. His son graduated from Minnesota joined as an EM and went infantry. Did his tour of Iraq and is now in law school.
Sophia
I assume that was a Kansas native. Difficult to believe a native Missourian would call it “Misery” in a discussion involving Kansas. NYC, Boston, San Francisco, sure. Kansas, no. We kind of hate Kansas. Across the political spectrum, we all have reasons to hate Kansas. Unless it was someone reflecting on the superiority of Kansas at avoiding the influence of minorities and Democrats, in which case it makes perfect sense.
Mike E
@1badbaba3:
fix’d for greater accuracy
Patricia Kayden
The one thing great about Repubs is that they can be counted on to make unforced errors. Hopefully, they’ll be gaffe-ing it up right up to November.
Poor Ronmneybot 2.0 thought that he could just yammer on about the economy and have nothing else to offer. So sad.
dmsilev
@kd bart: Nate Silver has a post up discussing it. Needless to say, the demographic distribution is implausible at best.
xian
@efgoldman: although even the Teapers favored a different troglodyte in the MO Sen primary
AA+ Bonds
Also, the economy is terrible right now for everyone including the Chinese
AA+ Bonds
We have pretty much given up making federal policy
The only people left within the State who can act have to do so by turning dials and hoping things happen
Spaghetti Lee
@kd bart:
Yeah, the state that’s been decided by 6 points or less in the last 5 elections is going to go 58-42 for Romney. Sure. If these guys are trying to put their finger on the scale, they could at least be more subtle about it.
(Interesting tidbit I found when looking that up, though: In 1972, Florida went 72-28 for Nixon. For comparison’s sake, McCain won Utah in 2008 62-34. Wowzers.)
PeakVT
@efgoldman: Say it like this. Also, too: parody version.
xian
@Baud: every once in a while I get an ’06 vibe from this election. republicans are barely keeping their rancid shit together.
AA+ Bonds
Our hideously long Presidential campaign season has placed us in a holding pattern, doing nothing during one of the largest crises in the history of the world.
Everyone else is suffering because of this dumb game of ours
Shawn in ShowMe
Mature women are going to decide the election in Missouri. Before Akin opened his yap, he had a considerable advantage over McCaskill with woman over 35, who preferred Akin 53 to 39. At some point conservative Missouri women have to start holding so-called conservative men accountable for their misogynist worldview.
I think a daily grilling from the ladies on The View and The Talk will have more influence on the Missouri Senate election than any blog outrage will. Will be interesting what Whoopi has to say considering her own “rape, rape” snafu during the Polanski saga.
Baud
@Shawn in ShowMe:
From your lips to God’s uterus.
@xian:
I hope so. I think it will turn on how many Dems actually turn out. Our side self-suppresses far more votes than the GOP’s voter suppression tactics do.
lamh35
This was kinda buried in a previous thread, but it is a pretty powerful statement from American Congress of OBGYN.
American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Issues Statement
Hill Dweller
@Violet:
There is already a twitter account for “Akin’s Empty Chair”.
aretino
Has Alan Keyes flown in to rescue the Missouri GOP’s senate campaign yet? I don’t want to miss that part.
Corner Stone
@Baud:
This is beyond moronic.
Peter
@Shawn in ShowMe: God, the Roman Polanski fiasco. Never before had I lost all respect for so many people so quickly.
Corner Stone
@Shawn in ShowMe:
Hmmm…
Corner Stone
@Baud:
How is it anyone’s fault but Claire’s when she’s deliberately fucked every one who would have potentially voted for her?
Fuck you and your purity patrol bullshit. Purity police garbage.
Baud
@Corner Stone:
What are you talking about? I’m a purity troll because I want Missouri Dems to vote for an imperfect Democrat over Akin? You’re using Romneyesque logic there.
Kathy in St. Louis
@JPL: Oh, I do understand. I live in the great state of Missourah. In fact, the illustriously stupid Todd is my rep. To paraphrase H.L. Mencken, “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of Missouri voters.” Our last new Senator was and is Roy Blunt, and a more dishonest man is not in the Senate. That’s really saying something. Todd Akin talks like a large number of Missourians from St.Charles Missouri and outstate think. They all go to church, read the Bible and long for the good old days when blacks knew their place and a kid would cut your lawn for a buck. There is a very good chance this disgrace will win, but not as good a chance as there was Saturday. The Democratic Senate Committee needs to really pour the cash in here. I may not love Claire as I once did, but I’m going to work for her and send cash. These guys is crazy and mean, and Todd is big into both.
Corner Stone
@Baud: No, the pre-emptive blame you’re assigning to people in this regard. It’s just garbage and a purity check.
Violet
@Shawn in ShowMe: Unfortunately, I think The View is on vacation and showing repeats.
Baud
@Corner Stone:
I hope McCaskill wins so there is no need to assign blame to anyone. But if she loses, I hope it’s because the Dems were outvoted, not because they
didn’t show up in sufficient numbersstayed home.John PM
Never has Grandpa Simpson been more accurate:
Lisa: Grandpa, that flag has only 49 stars.
Grandpa: I’ll be damned if I’ll recognize Missouri!
BTW, as an Illinois resident, I am still trying to figure out what has happened to all the states bordering us.
askew
@xian:
That would be a dream come true. I remember the 2006 races broke late in the fall. So, there is still time for their to be a Democratic wave.
Kevin
I’m going nuts trying to remember which brilliant sportswriter came up with the quip when Mike Tyson dropped Don King, “this is the first time I can remember a sinking ship leaving the rat”. Seems apropos for this thread…:)
Dr. Squid
Switched briefly to the preseason NFL game: Andy Reid’s grown out his stache so much he looks ready to sell diabeetus supplies.
Corner Stone
@Baud: McCaskill is going to lose her re-election bid. Please tell me how she strengthened the D brand on the way down the flush.
We laugh at the R’s for their failures to get R’s elected to the senate, because they were “too pure”. Virginia is going R, Tester is in trouble and Claire is done. At least Hatch is scared shitless and moved so far right he might as well be a Tea Party candidate. Manchin will flip to R or be so irrelevant he may as well be R.
Spaghetti Lee
@Corner Stone:
Yes, I’m sure that’s how it went down. McCaskill woke up one day and said “I’m going to fuck over everyone who voted for me! All part of my master plan of getting elected for one term and then losing! Ha HA!” Or maybe she knows that if you want to win any statewide anything in Missouri, you can’t be as far left as, say, Bernie Sanders.
Either McCaskill or Akin will win the seat this fall. Personally I’d rather see McCaskill win it.
Peter
@Corner Stone: You are utterly incoherent tonight. In what way is Claire ‘too pure’ of a Democrat? Of all the negative traits you can ascribe to her, that’s really not one of them.
Brachiator
Got home early after a visit to the dentist and took a break for all political news. Watched the movie “Mean Girls” via Amazon Instant Video. I had never seen it before. Very well done comedy with a deft screenplay by Tina Fey. Fey does well as a math teacher and there are a number of other SNL folks doing nice turns in supporting roles.
It was also interesting to see the work of a number of actresses when they were younger and starting out (or in the case of Lacey Chabert, interesting to see her in her post “Party of Five” years). And Lohan, of course, is excellent as the odd girl out, which makes her subsequent waste of her talent just plain sad.
The best thing about the movie is that it makes its satiric points without itself being easily and pointlessly mean.
And yes, the Village is much like the world of Mean Girls. With more dicks.
Kathy in St. Louis
@Corner Stone: So, you live in Missouri and understand what’s going on here? Really? I am very disappointed in Claire for a number of reasons. However, this state is getting redder by the minute and were she to be much more than a blue dog, she’d get beat like a drum. It’s not that she’s not smart enough to get this. John Danforth couldn’t get elected here anymore because he was too much of a centrist GOPer. I don’t know it it’s because our education system has gone down the crapper, or, more likely, that we’ve become a hotbed of fundies who think that dems equal Satan, but she’s done what she had to do, whether a progressive would like it or not. Mostly not. But she is certainly much better than this crazy bastard, who has been my rep for way too long.
Corner Stone
@Spaghetti Lee: As far left as?
Shit.
Corner Stone
@Peter: Too pure for your stupid fucking ass. Fuck you, clown.
Corner Stone
@Kathy in St. Louis: Thanks for playing.
Fuck off.
pattonbt
Still think Akin is a shoo-in. Have long since lived in STL (my mom still does and this nutbag is her Rep) but once Akin survives through tomorrow (and he will), then all this will get wiped away because either “shut up thats why” or “both sides do it”.
The thing I find funny (well not funny, but depressingly sad) is that Akin is catching heat from the right for actually being honest about R policies. That really says a lot about how fucked up the R party is.
pattonbt
Still think Akin is a shoo-in. Have long since lived in STL (my mom still does and this nutbag is her Rep) but once Akin survives through tomorrow (and he will), then all this will get wiped away because either “shut up thats why” or “both sides do it”.
The thing I find funny (well not funny, but depressingly sad) is that Akin is catching heat from the right for actually being honest about R policies. That really says a lot about how fucked up the R party is.
1badbaba3
For corn’s sake, it’s not 1952. Take heart. Stranger things have been known to happen.
Fundies ain’t the baby jeebus.
raven
Geeze, I gotta wake up to another pet bleg! There you dawgs go, I’m in.
Original Lee
I think the mushy middle Midwestern Goopers might be nerving themselves up to pull the lever for Obama. The full metal wingnuts are beyond hope, of course, but after another weekend in Michigan, I’m on a hopey-changey rollercoaster.
One Eisenhower Republican aunt is terrified Rmoney will be elected President. She can’t stand him and has gotten to the point where she turns the TV off for a few minutes every time there’s a pro-Rmoney commercial or a political piece about him on the “news”. This means the TV is off more than it is on, which is a good thing, IMO. She is convinced that enough people will vote for the R-R ticket for them to win, and when I explained about the Diebold voting machines, the next morning she yelled at me because she had been too upset to sleep. There are quite a few like her out there.
An uncle by marriage is, literally, a former Nazi, and he likes R-R just fine. We have always cut him some slack because he claimed to have joined the Hitler Youth and at the very end of the war, the Nazi Party, to protect his family, but now everyone’s looking at him sideways and starting to re-think their attitude because almost everything out of his mouth is pure IGMFU. His Breitbartian commentary is starting to scare his family, which actually has the benefit of them coming to the conclusion that maybe Obama is the sane one (a huge concession).
So sometimes I’m all giddy because I think the fam is starting to come to their senses, and sometimes I’m depressed as hell (especially when I think about hacked voting machines.
Is there a way to get UN observers for this election?