Last week, Democratic Vice President Joe Biden uttered an
idiotic, offensive, race-baiting statement, telling a mostly black
audience that Mitt Romney wants to “put y’all back in
chains.”
This week, Republican Congressman and candidate for US Senate
Todd Akin uttered an idiotic, offensive, rape-baiting statement,
making the insane suggestion that a woman’s body can naturally
prevent pregnancy following a “legitimate
rape.”
For your perusal, an example of the different reactions from
members of each offender’s political party:
Democrats in respose to Biden:
- From Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephaine “Never Heard of
Joe Soptic”
Cutter, “The bottom line is that we have no problem with those
comments.”
- From rap music mogul Russell
Simmons: “Joe Biden’s truthful comment that Mitt Romney and
Paul Ryan would put “y’all back in chains” sat fine with me.”
- From Al Sharpton:
Republicans “don’t have the moral standing” to criticize Biden
because they call Barack Obama “the food stamp president.”
- Georgetown University Professor Michael Eric
Dyson, on the Ed Schultz radio show: Biden’s statements can’t
be criticized by the GOP because we have “a Republican Party that
has played dog whistle politics and whose expertise is in racial
codes calling President Obama a monkey, an ape, an un-American, a
Kenyon, somebody who was not born in America, a communist, and on
and on and on.”
- And from President
Obama himself: “His phrasing is a distraction from what is at
stake….We don’t spend a lot of time worrying about the chatter
and the noise and this and that… It doesn’t mean anything, just
fills up a lot of airtime.”
Republicans in response to Akin:
- From presidential candidate Mitt
Romney: “Congressman’s Akin comments on rape are insulting,
inexcusable, and, frankly, wrong…What he said is entirely without
merit and he should correct it.”
- From Senator John
Cornyn (R-TX), head of the Republican Senatorial Campaign
Committee, “Congressman Akin’s statements were wrong, offensive and
indefensible. I recognize that this is a difficult time for
him, but over the next twenty-four hours, Congressman Akin should
carefully consider what is best for him, his family, the
Republican Party…” (In other words, Cornyn is calling on Akin to
drop out of the race.)
- From American Spectator columnist Quin
Hillyer, “Todd Akin’s statement on rape, etcetera, are wrong on
at least three fronts at once — and so wrong as to be politically
disqualifying…Akin should step aside and let the Missouri
Republican Party replace him on the ballot.”
- From the editors of National Review: “Step
Aside, Todd Akin.” They note that Democratic Senator Claire
McCaskill, perhaps the most vulnerable Democrat incumbent in the
2012 Senate elections, spent her own campaign funds to try to help
Akin win the GOP primary because “she knew that she is the weakest
Senate incumbent on the ballot this year…”
- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) along with at
least two other Republican senators, Ron Johnson (WI) and Scott
Brown (MA), and Republican candidate for senate, Heather Wilson
(NM), have called for Akin to get out of the race (though
McConnell’s suggestion was slightly more gentle than the
others.)
The difference between Democrats and Republicans in these two
back-to-back examples of foot-in-mouth disease simply serves to
highlight what readers of these pages already know: While
Republicans sometimes deviate from their stated principles, at
least they have some principles; and when they do deviate, they
tend to be punished by their own as much as by the media, who offer
no such scolding to Democrats in similar situations.
I am skeptical that Akin is smart or humble enough to drop out
of the race, particularly in the next 24 hours which is what would
be necessary (specifically by 5 PM Tuesday, local time) for the
Missouri GOP to replace him on the ballot. As Quin Hillyer has
suggested,
I hope that every Republican “big gun” calls Rick Akin personally
and urges him to drop out, including telling him that he will
receive no support from the party, even if that means McCaskill
getting re-elected. (Can you imagine any such pressure by Democrats
on a Democrat?)
