Rep. Todd Akin's wife compared efforts by the Republican establishment to get the Republican out of the Missouri Senate race to Revolutionary War-era "tyranny."

Akin has vowed to continue in his bid to unseat Democrat Claire McCaskill, after he caused a furor over remarks about "legitimate rape." Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other GOP officials have called on Akin to step aside, and the party's Senate campaign committee has withdrawn its financial support of his race.

"Party bosses dictating who is allowed to advance through the party and make all the decisions -- it's just like 1776 in that way," Lulli Akin told the National Journal.

She explained in the magazine story that Colonists "rose up and said, 'Not in my home, you don't come and rape my daughters and my ... wife.' But that is where we are again."

The congressman has apologized repeatedly for his remarks suggesting that women can prevent pregnancy in cases of "legitimate rape." He has said Republicans are trying to overturn the wishes of Missouri voters, who chose him as the GOP nominee to face McCaskill over two other candidates. Lulli Akin echoed that sentiment in the National Journal story:

"There has been a freedom of elections, not tyranny of selections, since way back," she is quoted as saying. "Why are we going to roll over and let them steamroll us, be it Democrats or Republicans or whomever?"