(Newser) – Rapes are "horrible," but sometimes they produce "extraordinary" people, one-time GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee told Missouri Rep. Todd Akin during his radio show yesterday. “Ethel Waters, for example, was the result of a forcible rape,” Huckabee said of the late singer. “I used to work for James Robison back in the 1970s. He leads a large Christian organization. He was the result of a forcible rape," Huckabee pointed out to Akin.

He added: "I know it happens, and yet even from those horrible, horrible tragedies of rape, which are inexcusable and indefensible, life has come and sometimes, those people are able to do extraordinary things.” Huckabee, who will be a speaker at the GOP National Convention, was attempting to provide the "softest possible landing" for Akin following the congressman's "foolish comments" about "legitimate rape" not resulting in pregnancy, notes the Los Angeles Times. Asked if his comments could destroy his Senate bid against incumbent Claire McCaskill, Akin shrugged off the question, saying he was not the first politician to suffer from "foot-in-mouth disease." (Read more Todd Akin stories.)

