As someone in the St. Louis area, I've known that Todd Akin is a right wing, Christo-fascist nut for a long time. Now the rest of America does. :-) And he is clearly harming the Republican brand. Gotta love it! Making Claire McCaskill a favorite and hurting Romney/Ryan. But why does he go on? Why not take a nice K-Street job and "take one for the team"? Here's the story of a man named Todd.
Kevin Horrigan, a columnist and editorial writer of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, has a very amusing column about Todd Akin that will give background and understanding about why the entire Republican Party could not move Akin out (Romney/Ryan/Karl Rove and in Missouri, Senator Blunt, former Senators Danforth, Ashcroft, Talent and Bond). Akin is quite weird, but he is a true believer.
Read the entire article. It's fun: St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Horrigan column: The world discovers the weirdness of Todd Akin. Darn it.
Here are some highlights and my comments:
For nearly a quarter of a century, we had him mostly to ourselves. He was that little barbecue joint that nobody else had discovered. He was a secret fishing hole we didn't have to share. We never knew what he would say next, but whatever it was, we knew that there was a good chance it would be ridiculous.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Horrigan column: The world discovers the weirdness of Todd Akin. Darn it.
True. We here knew Akin was nuts, but most ignored him. He was in a very red district (Gephardt and Clay were able to gerrymander the St. Louis region in 2000 to put many of the Rs in one district and keep two districts Dem).
Akin was a state rep in the 1990s, and he was pretty extreme then, but mostly ignored.
He was kept pretty well bottled-up during his 12 years in the Missouri House.
snip
Todd's views were so extreme that most mainstream Republicans rolled their eyes when he got up to talk.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Horrigan column: The world discovers the weirdness of Todd Akin. Darn it.
So how did this nut get into the United States Congress. It rained on primary day in 2000.
In 2000, when Republican Jim Talent decided to run for governor, people giggled when Akin filed for Talent's 2nd Congressional District seat. Four other Republicans wanted it, none of them wacky.
Then it rained. Some of Todd's supporters saw the hand of God at work.
More than three-quarters of an inch of rain fell on primary day, Aug. 8, 2000. Turnout was 17 percent; only 57,621 people voted in the GOP congressional primary. Akin got 26 percent of the vote, beating former St. Louis County Executive Gene McNary, the runner-up, by 56 votes.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Horrigan column: The world discovers the weirdness of Todd Akin. Darn it.
Akin had home-schooled his kids and he relied on the home-schoolers and other Chistian fundies to vote for him. A little rain did not stop them from "God's work."
Since this was a redder than red district, as nutty as Akin was, he kept getting re-elected. He was a Republican.
Then came last year and Akin ran for Senate. People laughed. He fell behind and was running third for a while. John Brunner, a self-funding businessman, spent more than $7,000,000 and Sarah Steelman had tea party and rural support. Akin had the fundies.
Then, like the rain that primary day in August 2000, something happened. McCaskill started advertising that Akin was "too conservative" for Missouri, catnip for Missouri Republicans. A Democratic Super-Pac dumped a bunch of money into ads attacking Brunner. Brunner was attacking Akin and Steelman with ads.
Then Huckabee did an ad for Akin and Palin did an ad for Steelman. Battle lines were drawn. Brunner kept bombarding the airways with ads attacking the other two and ads touting himself as a job creator.
On primary day, it was anybody's race to win:
Wealthy businessman John Brunner is the slight favorite heading into the closing days of the primary, but former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman and Rep. Todd Akin have maintained their bases of support, and polls show any of the three has a chance to pull off the victory.
snip
poll released by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling on Monday showed Brunner in the lead with 35 percent, followed by Akin at 30 and Steelman at 25. All three Republican campaigns told The Hill that Brunner has held a slight lead in their internal polling but that the race was a bit closer than PPP’s results and could easily be won by any of the candidates.
The Hill, 8/17/12: Mo. Senate primary is marquee matchup in busy day of contests
Akin won with about 36 percent defeating Brunner and Steelman, who had about 30 percent and 29 percent, respectively.
It was like another rainy day. No doubt, Akin sees God's hand at work. Romney, Ryan, Danforth, Bond, McConnell, Talent, Bond, Ashcroft, they weren't there that rainy day in August 2000. They weren't there during the primary for him. Believing he is doing God's work, win or lose, why should Akin "take one for the team?" He gave up his House seat for this run. This is it, all the chips are in on this, and he is pretty damn sure that he has "God on his side."
Is it any wonder that Akin refused to quit? He's hoping for another rainy day.
The chickens have come home to roost in the Republican Party. The inmates have taken over the asylum. In that, I see God's hand at work and the Republicans going down the road to defeat.
Karma and justice is at work. And that's the story of Todd Akin.