No question that Republican Senate Candidate Todd Akin misspoke when he said “legitimate” rape instead of “actual” rape. And yet the fact is that such misstatements happen weekly with Vice President Joe Biden. They pass. And Akin’s position on abortion is exactly the same as the GOP platform as stated in Tampa.

So why the vicious attacks on Akin from the GOP establishment? Why would the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, break Ronald Reagan’s famous Eleventh Commandment, “Thou shall say no ill of thy fellow Republican” and openly attack Akin, his party’s chosen senate nominee? If Romney can pick and chose which Republicans to support, how can he purge Ron Paul delegates at the RNC who refused to endorse him?

Why would Karl Rove tell a room full of fat cat, GOP insiders, “We should sink Todd Akin. If he’s found mysteriously murdered, don’t look for my whereabouts!” ? And if Akin’s comment demanded censure, why wouldn’t Romney condemn Karl Rove’s murderous comment?

Why is Rob Jesmer leading the charge to dump Akin?

For Romney, this may be about settling scores with the evangelical wing of his party. (See Romney’s Revenge.) For Karl Rove, like everything he does, it is only about money. For Jesmer this is about undoing a primary election that his man, Brunner, lost fair and square. (Jesmer was the one who famously pushed for Charlie Crist to defeat Marco Rubio this year. Oops.)

Akin is a marine who doesn’t back down easily. Notwithstanding the carpet bombing he has experienced at the hands of the national media, Obama and his own GOP brothers, he has now pulled even in the polls with his liberal Democrat opponent.

In the Reagan years, where Republicans supported Republicans and insider pettiness was given no quarter, he would get support from the establishment and he would be a shoe-in for the U.S. Senate. In this new, myopic, brownshirted, GOP, run by a Romney led oligarchy, who knows what will happen?