Todd Akin: Spokesman for the freak show that is the Republican Party

Todd Akin: Spokesman for the freak show that is the Republican Party

Yes, Rep. Todd Akin is the latest Republican to explain how rape just ain't no thang, but he's not the first. In fact, he joins a long and proud tradition of the Republican Party explaining why women who are raped are probably lying, are making much ado about nothing, and should learn to enjoy and appreciate the plus side of being raped.

Rick Santorum:



As horrible as the way that that son or daughter and son was created, it still is her child. [...] I believe and I think the right approach is to accept this horribly created -- in the sense of rape -- but nevertheless a gift in a very broken way, the gift of human life, and accept what God has given to you. As you know, we have to, in lots of different aspects of our life. We have horrible things happen. I can't think of anything more horrible. But, nevertheless, we have to make the best out of a bad situation.

If it's an honest rape, that individual should go immediately to the emergency room.

Kansas lawmakers are currently considering a law that would bar insurance providers from covering elective abortions — unless a woman pays extra for a special plan...The bill "wouldn’t apply to abortions performed to save the life of a woman, or to pregnancies resulting from rape or incest." However, in the latter case, women would first be forced to file a police report.

"You’d have to have a report that someone stole your car," said Rep. Steve Brunk, a Bel Aire Republican. "This is kind of the same thing."

Clayton Williams stirred controversy during his 1990 campaign for governor of Texas with a botched attempt at humor in which he compared rape to weather. Within earshot of a reporter, Williams said: "As long as it's inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it."

A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life.

"First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare,” Akin told KTVI-TV in an interview posted Sunday. "If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."

In reviewing my off-the-cuff remarks, it's clear that I misspoke in this interview and it does not reflect the deep empathy I hold for the thousands of women who are raped and abused every year. Those who perpetrate these crimes are the lowest of the low in our society and their victims will have no stronger advocate in the Senate to help ensure they have the justice they deserve. "I recognize that abortion, and particularly in the case of rape, is a very emotionally charged issue. But I believe deeply in the protection of all life and I do not believe that harming another innocent victim is the right course of action.

Clayton Williams , and almost-fundraiser for John McCain in 2008, until this past comment got him in trouble: South Dakota state Sen. Bill Napoli explaining the one and only time abortion might be acceptable for a woman who has been raped:While Todd Akin has long been a member of this club, he definitely gets a shiny new badge for his latest contribution And his "clarification" doesn't help:Yeah, it was hard to pick up on his "deep empathy" for women who are raped every year in the midst of his "off-the-cuff" claim (I'll just paraphrase here) that bitches be lying, so most of those rapes aren't "legitimate" after all, and besides, they have magic ladyparts to protect them in such cases.

And wanting to force women who've been raped to carry their rapists' baby to term in order to protect the "innocent victim" in all this? Yeah, not exactly screaming empathy. But then, a complete lack of empathy for rape victims is just par for the course for the "we have to close all those loopholes fake rape victims are always exploiting" Republican Party.