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The Spectacle Blog
I have been as guilty as anyone in the past two days — REALLY guilty — of piling on with harsh words for Todd Akin. I thought that under the circumstances, there was no time for subtlety or honey to work, so the only alternative was to speak the truth brutally, without niceties. I may have been wrong; there’s no way to know. That said, Bill Kristol, quoting Abe Lincoln to great effect, suggests a different approach, and I think he is probably right and certainly wise:
Now is the time for kind, unassuming—and private—persuasion by conservatives, by pro-life and pro-marriage advocates, by serious people who’ve worked with Akin and by his fellow Missourians. I have reason to believe that’s now beginning to happen behind the scenes.
That said, I am quite worried that any attempt to replace Akin on the ballot will fail. Here’s the deal: While Missouri state law makes it clear that a petition by Akin to withdraw should enjoy the strong, strong assumption of being granted, I do not trust Missouri’s judiciary to allow it. I know nothing about any individual Missouri judge, but I am told the Mizzou Supreme Court is majority Democratic. I can see any court order dropping Akin from the ballot being appealed by the Dems, and can see the high court majority ignoring the law and upholding the appeal, thus blocking the replacement of Akin. (This is the exact reverse situation from New Jersey several cycles back, where state law clearly barred the Dems from replacing Robert Torricelli on the ballot with Frank Lautenberg, but Democratic judges allowed it anyway.) Because this would involve an interpretation of state law, it almost certainly would not be reviewable by federal courts — leaning conservatives high and dry.
All of which is to say that some serious legal planning/gaming out of possible scenarios should be in order by state and national Republican leaders. Kristol’s wisdom, which puts my earlier fulminations to shame, is probably unassailable here — but even if it works, it won’t be the end of problems with that race.
View all comments (21) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Quin Hillyer
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/08/22/wisdom-from-bill-kristol-re-ak
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Martin| 8.22.12 @ 3:36PM
Quin, the problem is that you should not be trying to nullify primaries. Akin is what he was presented as to the Missouri Republicans and won fair and square. He will, if elected, be a perfectly OK Senator, much less to slide leftwards than some. And he stands a good chance of being elected, in Missouri. Romney may not want to do joint campaign events, but that's fine too.
And taken all in all, I'm more a less a libertarian, and would have had great difficulty with your favorite Santorum. But I suspect I'm closer overall to Akin than I am to Romney. As the winner of the primary, with no legal or moral transgressions, he deserves our support and can win. Gaffes shouldn't disqualify him.
Occam's Tool| 8.22.12 @ 7:35PM
By the way, the guy apologized for his words, and he's pro-American defense, pro-Israel, pro-spending cuts, anti-ObamaCare, anti-Roe, etc. I think he'd make a great Senator.
Crassus| 8.23.12 @ 9:32AM
Only one problem--Akin is a complete fool. Listen to him speak for 30 seconds about anything and you realize that. He wouldn't be any better in the Senate than Claire McCaskill. The people of Missouri deserve better than those two assclowns.
Interested Conservative| 8.22.12 @ 3:55PM
I don't know about the reviewability issues in federal court. Considering how different the NJ and Mo outcomes could be, and the 17th amendment implications, why should the feds allow differing standards to dictate how the states select their senators? Wasn't the point of the 17th amendment to overcome the perceived fraud and influence-peddling in various states? Why should state courts be held to a different standard than the executive or legislatures of the states?
Still - Martin has a point - Akin may well win in any event.
JD| 8.22.12 @ 4:34PM
Time heals all wounds, it's true. Akin may indeed still win. After all, Elizabeth Warren's still in her race!
Trinacria| 8.22.12 @ 3:57PM
With due respect to Mr. Kristol, the problem with kind and private persuasion is that it gives that appearance of tacit consent. If we do not publicly reject Mr. Akin's indefensible statements and make it absolutely clear that such views are inconsistent with GOP values and unacceptable for a candidate who claims to represent those values, we leave room for doubt about our own integrity.
It's true that the stakes are high, but there's nothing particularly noble about chosing to do the right thing when doing so has no down side. There's certainly nothing wrong with working diligently behind the scenes to persuade Mr. Akin to withdraw, but this should be done in addition to - not as a substitue for - public rebuke.
Martin| 8.22.12 @ 5:11PM
Akin's statements were not unacceptable, except to a bigoted left-wing Dem stetching them to look for nonsense. They were merely poorly phrased and most people including me disagreed with them. That's not a good reason to nullify a primary and deny him the chance he has earned at a Senate seat. There should be no moral or legal obloquy for airing an opinion which is out of the mainstream.
Trinacria| 8.22.12 @ 11:14PM
Dude,
The notion that the female body "has ways of shutting that whole thing down" in cases of rape is absurd on it's face and utterly devoid of any biologic plausibility. To make such a statement is emphatically NOT a matter of poorly chosen words; it's a matter of profound ignorance. THAT is unacceptable.
Dai Alanye | 8.23.12 @ 12:06AM
Akin might well be wrong, although the only studies with any claim to validity have to do with rape victims from the recent Balkan fighting, and I question the legitimacy of those conclusions. In fact, however, something like sixty percent of fertilized eggs fail to implant in the uterus under normal conditions. It is at least theoretically possible that the trauma associated with rape could affect this statistic in one way or another.
The lesson we should learn from this is that it is unwise to discuss such matters without some understanding of the biological process. This goes for Trinacria and all other commentators as well as Akin.
Trinacria| 8.23.12 @ 11:52AM
DA,
I rather suspect my medical school training and 20+ years of clinical practice have given me "some understanding of the biological process". You?
Mike W| 8.22.12 @ 5:33PM
I know of no previous words of wisdom from kristol's fat lying mouth. I don't expect any on the Akins. Issue.
Jake| 8.22.12 @ 7:26PM
The problem with Kristol's theory is the assumption that Akin is amenable to reason and common sense .
His behavior since Sunday's disastrous performance contradicts that assumption.
Akin still does not seem willing or capable of understanding the consequences of his breathtaking public stupidity.
He still pretends this is about one word , a word that he had every opportunity to immediately correct ,
on air , but, he chose not to.
He then compounded those two mistakes with a jaw dropping display of ignorance
about basic human biology .
A long held ignorance that he never questioned prior to Sunday .
A normal person would have been so mortified , they would have retreated in shame.
Akin has spent the past four days rebuffing every plea, entreaty and appeal made from the vast majority of conservatives and Republicans , both privately and publicly.
His televised orgy of narcissism, denial and selfish vanity has made a mockery of the conservative and pro life movement.
It's obvious that Akin cares only about Akin and no amount of honey and sweet talk behind the scenes will change that.
We know now that his financial patron during the primary was Claire McCaskill and he will continue to do her bidding.
Occam's Tool| 8.22.12 @ 7:34PM
Recall that Murkowski got elected Senator from AK. Write in campaigns can work in this instance.
Occam's Tool| 8.22.12 @ 7:36PM
By the way, if Akin wins, we will have 6 years of a guy who will owe the GOP nada. Fortunately, he's Conservative.
Patrick in Michigan | 8.22.12 @ 8:42PM
I could honest case less what that two-bit Neocon twit has to say.
Patrick in Michigan | 8.22.12 @ 8:43PM
Case less??!?!? Whoops! Typo. care less, not case less.
oops. :oops:
CJW| 8.22.12 @ 9:39PM
This is the difference between Dems and Reps. The Dems all rallied to Bubba's defense even though he was a serial sexual harrasser, using his position of authority, and was accused by Juanita Braderick of rape.
Teddy drowned a young woman and the Dems regard his as their Lion of the Senate, and was almost nominated to run for the Presidency.
Jesse Jackson can call NYC "Hymietown" and he is regarded as the civil rights leader of the Dems, and also ran for the Dem nomination for president.
Joey Biden, well I don't have time to list all the stupid things he said.
Akin said something dumb and he has to go.
Oldefarte| 8.22.12 @ 9:44PM
I have mildly observed the give and take of this situation for several days now, and I've been shaking my head in disbelief over same. Okay so the guy said something stupid and politically explosive. So WTF cares? To my knowledge he has profusely apologized for his instant stupidity. LET HE WHO IS WITHOUT SIN, CAST THE FIRST STONE! Republicans as usual are excrementing all over themselves over this momentary gaffe. Lets see, anyone here ever heard of Joe Biden singing %%%%%UNCHAIN MY HEART%%%% and/or %%%%AND YOU KNOW A '''CHAINS'''''WILL DO YOU GOOD%%%%? Ever possibly head of A CAMELOT POTUS and his secretaries 'FIDDLE & FADDLE ' who together couldn;'t speel the word CAT w/o a dictionary?; an Arkansas AG who did something that rymes with CAPE in a hotel room in Arkansas?; a CAMELOT US SENATOR FROM MASSACHUSETTS who was inebriated and demonstrating his driving skills across a Chapaquiddick bridge one night to a twenty year old political intern?; an Arkansas US HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE who was drunkenly frolicking with a Spanish stripper in a DC hotel fountain?; a former US HOUSE MEMBER from NY who was video messaging nude images of himself to female acquaintences? etc. And you pansies want to turn tail and run for political cover over a DA statement for a elected Republican who prior to same was considered acceptable and capable of beathing McCaskill?????
Oldefarte| 8.22.12 @ 9:50PM
Oh and PS: The so called "wisdom of Bill Kristol" went out my window permanently when he attempted defamation of Haley Barbour with his 'T-PAW AND HE-HAW' asinine comment previously!!!!!!!
Dai Alanye | 8.23.12 @ 12:14AM
I spoke last night to a relative who lives in Missouri, a bright young woman who is active in Republican politics, and is not an ardent pro-lifer.
She has seen Akin speak, likes him and voted for him in the primary, and considers the present hurricane of indignation to be greatly out of place. She intends to continue backing the man.
For my own part, I'm disappointed that Quin has apparently lost his usual balanced judgment and so greatly over-reacted to a relatively minor gaffe. He has plenty of company, however, as practically every prominent Republican has failed to take advantage of the opportunity to simply shut up about the matter.
JohnInFlorida| 8.23.12 @ 8:35AM
The man said something stupid ...
The man apologized for his stupid statement ...
What I think the man MEANT to say was not an unreasonable position to hold ...
On MANY issues, I agree with the man ...
If the pundits and elites on the Republican side would just shut up and support their candidate, Claire McCaskill will go down based on her own political sins.
But, promoting write-in campaigns and/or 3rd party runs by one or more of those who Akin defeated in the primary will do what Republican elites seem to be best at doing ... splitting the vote and electing the Democrat.
I'm embarrassed by my party and sincerely hope that come January we see a split in the party and the demise of the GOP-e. The progressives in both parties need to become just an historical footnote.