AUGUSTA, Maine — Candidates for Maine’s open U.S. Senate seat rushed Monday to decry Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., for his statements Sunday that pregnancy rarely results from “legitimate rape.”
Charlie Summers, the Republican candidate in Maine’s six-person race to succeed Sen. Olympia Snowe, issued the strongest condemnation of Akin. While some Republicans embroiled in close U.S. Senate races, including Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., called for Akin to quit the Missouri Senate race, Summers went a step further.
“As a husband and a father, I found Rep. Akin’s comments shockingly offensive, reprehensible and indefensible,” Summers said in a statement released by his campaign. “They are beneath the dignity of the U.S. Congress and he should resign effective immediately.”
Andrew Ian Dodge, a Harpswell resident who dropped out of the Republican Party earlier this year to run as an independent, expressed a similar sentiment, while also taking the opportunity to fire a shot at his former party.
“The fact that the man is able to run for U.S. Senate as a Republican is quite disturbing and should disgust everyone involved in American politics,” Dodge wrote in a release. “The 21st century Senate does not need ignorant buffoons like Akin in it. He needs to drop out of the race and return to whatever putrid hole he crawled out from.”
Democratic Party candidate Cynthia Dill issued a lengthy statement. In it, she dismissed Akin’s assertion that he had simply misspoken.
“These aren’t gaffes,” she said. “This is a pattern of thinking about women and their status in 21st century America. … We don’t want this man, who is a sitting member of the U.S. House, anywhere near any laws affecting women in the United States. We don’t want him anywhere near any health care concerns regarding women.”
Dill also called Akin’s remarks the “latest GOP far-right attack on women in this country” and linked it to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s stance on women’s health.
“A Romney-Ryan administration will mean the deconstruction of Medicare, more tax cuts for the wealthy, an assault on women’s rights and higher taxes for the middle class and for working Americans,” she said.
The campaign of former Gov. Angus King, generally considered the frontrunner in Maine’s U.S. Senate contest, characterized Akin’s remarks as a “ridiculous and offensive statement to everyone.”
“Rep. Akin’s comment is a painful reminder of the critical need to choose our political leaders with great and deliberate care,” independent candidate Steve Woods wrote in an email to the Bangor Daily News. “Such a dangerous brand of hateful ignorance has no place in Congress, in America or anywhere in the world.”
Independent candidate Danny Dalton wrote, “Rape is rape and it’s a horrible crime,” and referred questions on his stance on abortions to his website, which states, “It is irrefutable that human life begins at conception, and abortion at any stage is the killing of a human life.”
Dalton adds: “That being said, as your next senator I will take an oath to support and defend the constitution and I will uphold the laws as they stand. I think it is hypocritical for an elected representative to undermine laws in place. … I pray that someday we will have a majority of people in each state who believe as I do, and decide to vote to outlaw abortions, but until that day comes the matter is legally settled.”
“Congressman Akin’s comments are not only outrageous and bizarre, they are also without any factual basis,” Sen. Susan Collins said in a statement. “His comments are deeply offensive and hurtful to all women, especially survivors of rape and sexual assault.”
Akin recently won the Republican nomination to oppose Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill in a closely watched U.S. Senate contest. After narrowly defeating sitting Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Talent in 2006, McCaskill was seen as one of the most vulnerable Senate incumbents, and national political observers considered Missouri a likely gain for Republicans hoping to gain control of the U.S. Senate.
Before Sunday’s television interview in which he defended his position against abortion in all circumstances by saying that pregnancy rarely results from sexual assault because “if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” polls showed Akin slightly ahead.
Now, Democrats, Republicans and independents from as far away as Maine are calling for his withdrawal. If Akin withdraws from the U.S. Senate race in Missouri by 5 p.m. Tuesday, the state’s Republican party would be able to replace him on the ballot.
Don’t believe them ….. they’re all in this, just look at their voting record, it doesn’t lie even though they do. Ryan is the leader of the lot, the R’s thought they had this issue put to bed but it ain’t goin’ away.
A truly moronic statement. Say goodnight, Mr. Akin.
“A truly moronic statement. Say goodnight, Mr. Akin.”
That is the fondest hope of the netherworld that created people like him.
Remember him in the polling booth and vote against the ilk that spawned him.
Moronic in the extreme. Vote democrat!
Women are doormats in the GOP, vote republican. Drink the tea.
Paul Ryan and Todd Akin cosponsored a bill that forced women to undergo ultrasound exams – against their will – before they consent to an abortion.
And a fetal personhood bill that would ban hormonal birth control.
And a bill that would allow hospitals to refuse to perform abortions on dying pregnant women.
They are misogynist radicals and peas in the anti-woman GOP pod.
Yessah
Notice how the Romney camp isn’t trumpeting the fact that Ryan and Akin co-sponsored that draconian bill.
While Ryan may not have ever said what Akin said, he has a history of trying to end abortions, for any reason.
Which isn’t anything to be proud of.
They want to win the election so they must play down their war on women, just as the do their war on the middle class.
His sin is not misrepresenting the GOTea position, but doing so too soon.
Remember, my beautiful bearded ladies, what the GOTea Party really thinks of you
and your concerns
Like how is making all employer insurance coverage cover the cost for birth control for working woman against religious freedom, and not good for both working women and their employers, too, for one example of the right’s wing war on woman … and their employers, too ?
They will make him quit, not run, retire from the race, not because he does not represent the GOTea Party’s values, but only because he spoke of what they really are, too soon.
I say, remember him when YOU vote.
Yes, Romney does have a history of supporting legalized abortion on demand. To his credit however he has changed his position while Obama remains proud of it and even promotes it, I mean death in the womb and, in some cases, death outside the womb as well.
http://www.humanevents.com/2008/10/29/obamas-abortion-record-radical/
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I think the Mississippi US. Rep. may have sounded off a truth, that is, pregnancy rarely results from legitimate rape cases. Why are some people so seemingly defensive about this statement that may indeed be factual, or is it just those who dismiss the humanity of life in the womb who react this way?
“misogynist radicals and peas in the anti-woman GOP pod”?? munebaght, have you forgotten your origins? And what makes the living embryo resulting from rape less human than you or any one else? Yes, women do suffer when raped. And yes, rapes are very frequent in this sexualised society. But do these women suffer any less when the trauma of rape is supposedly “undone” by abortion that supposedly “merely wipes out extra tissue”? No, abortion only adds to their pain and agony.
“May indeed be factual”….wow. No, its complete crap. And the fact that you chose to use the term “legitimate rape” speaks volumes. Nobody is getting fooled on this one.
Thanks for bringing the stupid to this thread.
The stupid were already here. Whawell just increased the level of stupidity.
Please explain what you mean by “stupidity”. I’m just a simple man who uses simple words, not an Ivy League graduate.
Please define “legitimate” rape. Then define “illegitimate” rape. Please explain to all of us how you would know that “abortion only adds to their pain and agony” … If you think there’s a difference between legitimate and illegitimate rape then I don’t think you have the foggiest clue about what a woman feels and thinks about much of anything, much less on the subjects of rape and abortion.
Let’s see…. According to Akin the difference is that if a woman gets pregnant, then it is an illegitimate rape because (again according to Akin) when there is a ‘legitimate’ rape, the woman’s body does not produce an egg and she will NOT become pregnant. (me thinks Mr Akin needs to take some biology courses).
Look, you know darn well what I am talking about. By “legitimate rape” I meant rape that actually occurred, not some fabricated story.
Yes, I do know what a woman feels! Tell me, how do you suppose I don’t know?
There is absolutely no truth, zip, zero, zilch about what Rep Akin’s said and what a lot of GOP members believe in this regard.
Anyone who tries to defend this is at best mistaken and at worst a misogynist.
Are you a woman? Have you ever been raped? Have you ever been pregnant?
Maybe I’m a woman. Maybe I’ve been raped and maybe I’ve been pregnant. So what’s the point? That I’m clueless? Don’t be so personal.
What do you think happens after a “legitimate rape”? Do you think the victims va-jay-jay vomits the rapist’s sperm and no pregnancy results? You and Rep. Akin are ignorant to basic reproductive science.
Are you insane? Are you seriously saying that the women who are impregnated by a rapist will suffer less if they carry the child to term? Such ignorance is breathtaking.
Yes, you’ve got it!!
Most women who have aborted regret their abortion. The situation is not any different with female victims of rape. Incidentally most women pregnant as a result of rape choose to give birth to their child. I know I am ignorant of certain things but not on this score. Check out the link below for starts:
http://www.lifenews.com/2006/09/12/nat-2579/
Having read the above link, check out the last half of the next article beginning with the paragraph that opens with this comment: “The welfare of the mother and child are never at odds, even in sexual assault cases.”
http://www.boundless.org/regulars/kaufman/a0000848.html
86d
There are a couple things that pop into mind when thinking about the totality of the position you defend.
As we know from a long history of incestuous relationships their results prove to weaken the gene pool.
Men, especially those of the cloth have throughout history sought to control the one thing the male order of the church could never possess, the bringing of life into the world.
Continuing the extrapolation of your logic makes one wonder if the end result will be to outlaw masturbation?
It’s still a mystery to me why the same people who wail about wanting small government are the ones who want government in our lives at a cellular level. Go figure?
As to your last comment, there’s no denying conservatives want smaller government, a state that stays out of people’s lives as much as possible. This doesn’t mean it should never intervene. For one, it has a constitutional duty to protect ALL its subjects. Protecting the right to life to all people is its most solemn duty. For without that right all other rights are meaningless.
Your prior disjointed comments concerning incestuous relationships, the church, and masturbation don’t seem to relate to the current discussion concerning Congressman Akin. I don’t know why you would even bother to bring them up because they don’t even remotely relate to what I stand for.
I guess this tops the Congressman from Georgia (Democrat) who thought that if they put too many Marines on one side of Guam that the island would tilt and they would fall into the ocean.
This one sort of reminds me of Bob Dole who had the opinion that cigarettes didn’t have anything to do with lung cancer.
I think you are way too liberal about the notion of any “legitimate” rape,
if those examples are are typical of how relative to concept. sir.
I think he’s just pointing out a trend in the intelligence of our elected officials. A noticeably negative trend.
Some speech is so vile that neither political party can support it. Akins should resign effective immediately. So sayeth the GOP leadership.
No the vile should held to account, and he should be, so that the vile lose the election.
I’m glad they’re condemning his remarks, however, Akin and Paul Ryan aren’t incredibly dissimilar in terms of legislative action. They co-sponsored an abortion bill together that would redefine rape and give states to the power to ban all abortion in all instances. Akin isn’t alone in his rape comments/beliefs.
Word.
The bill you are referring to I believe concerns restricting government funding of abortions except in case of forceful rape, incest, and when the mother’s life is in danger. I don’t think there was any attempt here to re-define “rape”. Maybe you can tell me otherwise with more specific information.
You are redefining rape if suddenly you’re parsing through rape and make distinctions. What is legitimate rape anyway? What is illegitimate rape? What is forceful rape? Is there even an unforceful rape? If you’re tacking these things on, yes, that’s redefining rape.
What’s a legitimate question or a legitimate excuse? In that context “legitimate” means according to my dictionary, “capable of being defended with logic or justification”. A legitimate rape therefore is one that is not contrived. Maybe you haven’t heard about false accusations of rape, but they do occur, in case you are not aware.
Congressman Akin did not use the wording “forceful rape”, so I don’t why you asked me about it.
If you falsely accuse someone of rape, then you haven’t been raped. No need to go into legitimate and illegitimate. I don’t care have a discussion with you on that though because you’re the kind of person who believes it’s fine and not in the least bit offensive to flippantly invoke the holocaust, so moving on…
Those words (forceful and legitimate) are in the legislation they co-sponsored together. The issue isn’t what kind of stupidity Akin and Ryan want to push, the issue is whether or not they wanted to redefine rape. We have a definition now. So if you’re parsing through the word and creating new boundaries for what it means – that’s redefining. Period.
Man, you know you’ve said something truly, epically imbecilic when Charlie Summers calls you out for it.
ROTFFLOL
Please, somebody ask our governor to comment on Akin’s statement.
Show this man the door. Even Fred Flintstone would disavow this bogus theory.
That reminds me, has The Blaine House weighed in yet?
I bet Bennett is still trying to explain to his exhaultedness why this is not something to go and repeat as a GOP talking point.
Unbelievable.
Gov. LePlump is still trying to determine what his options are. He is confused by the “legitimate rape” term. He is having Ms. Bennett make sure that the term is not part of next weeks Republican National Platform before he makes a comment and turns off his loyal tea bagger followers.
”
That reminds me, has The Blaine House weighed in yet?”
No, because the chubby little bully is too busy thinking about what “legitimate rape” really means and how to get away with it.
I don’t care for Governor Flintstone at all but that’s a little harsh.
A numbhead is a numbhead – send him packing.
I agree..Whether it is a moon bat that’s in favor of 12 and 13 year olds getting abortions or this fool…
what’s even crazier is someone who thinks a 12 or 13 year old should give birth.
I hope he refuses to step down. Make it easier for Claire McCaskill to win – and retain the Senate. The most important thing to know, as others here have stated, that he and Ryan are buds and co-sponsored horrible legislation against women – and more than once.
The American Taliban.
Even if does step down, remember him when you vote.
Ryan’s bill would make criminals of Romney’s kids. Two used in vitro fertilization which would be made illegal by Ryan, one used a surrogate mother with in vitro, another criminal. Ryan grew up and was educated using SS survivor benefits. I may not be in congress but I can spell hypocrite.
So then they either don’t have have their social agenda together at all,
or it just the really about the Wall St. money with them both, then ?
Whenever a politician is involved, it’s about the money.
There are some in the Maine House and Senate who would agree with Sen. Akins. Remember that pic in the BDN of Gov. LePage, hand on heart, pictured with a handful of congress men standing on the stairs, hands on hearts, swearing that they would stand up for prayer (and by implication motherhood and apple pie)? I’ve spoken with at least one in that group that holds such ideas as Akins. It’s really an uneducated, misinformed conservative thing to hold medieval concepts about women in particular and sexuality in general. It ain’t at all that rare in the republican party. How many republican men are threatened by Hillary Clinton? It’s because she’s knowledgeable and articulate. How many are not threatened by Sarah Palin? It’s because she looks like a porn star and isn’t so smart.
How frightening is it that the home schooled are now old enough to run for the Senate ?
This story is the story of the Republican Party from top to bottom. While they want us to believe they’ve been actually doing something that will fix the terrible issues that face us they’ve been putting into place a series of draconian legislation. This legislation is totally implacable right wing ideological trash that serve little other than to turn back the hands of time. These horrible bills are the net result of what our tax payer dollars have wrought and what they have to show for the past several years serving in office. This story is just the tip of the iceberg, couple this with the voter suppression, gerrymandering, tax credits for the wealthiest, privatizing of schools, prisons, health care you begin to see the choice they present for this coming election, it’s pretty grim. But that is the Republican Party of 2012.
You deserve more likes than I can give you, because of instead of being as outraged,
so just as snarky back to the wing nuts as they are and as I have been, here, you said how what he said works on every level for the right wing extremists who do NOT represent my American values.
Well, done, Swamp Donkie !
The Republican Party of 2012 will go down in flames come November. I can’t wait.
How stupid is this guy? Wow…and how stupid are the American people that the election is now about abortion again and gay rights …..lol….instead of the tanking economy
Doh !
But, the people that tanked the economy, and have no plan but more of the same, need us us worry about wedge issues like abortion, which even when they controlled the whole government they did nothing about about, because the they need wedge issues in election years, so we not do really talk about THEIR policies failures.
You make sense to me….id have to agree
It’s the Republican party, not just this one guy. The Republicans have introduced 1100 pieces of anti-women legislation in 2011 to 900 just this year. From items that would force us to have a vaginal ultra sound (pft…state sanctioned rape, imho – nothing like having something forced into your vagina against your will) to birth control…to 33 times to try to repeal the ACA – to voter suppression. How many times have they introduced some form of a jobs bill or anything to do with our economy?
Why are Republicans so obsessed with controlling women? And why the heck are we voting on civil rights? Time for republicans to get out of American’s bedrooms and personal lives. So much for “smaller government”.
I agree so much for smaller goverment thank you obaba for federal health care telling doctors what they can charge and I could go on and on and as far as your silly ,omments on womans rights being taken by the republicans I can only laugh as a voting independent ….and if a woman wants to kill her fetus or baby whatever you call it its her choice not mine
Yes the economy is tanking. The media tend not to report it. As for Akin, he has no business telling a woman who has been raped, what she can and cannot do with her body. Women have rights and any woman who becomes pregnant from being raped, should have the right to make her decision about her body.
Something like this was the only thing that
would save Macaskel…an Obama rubberstamp.
He should step aside and let someone else
beat her. Can I say that without the nutcases
screaming I hate women?
Yes you can say that, you don’t hate women. In fact I believe you, but the GOP is bad for women, yes I believe that.
Good for women who want to own and operate a small business effectively.
Bad for women who want to kill their babies.
Some women do want to kill their babies whenever they feel like it for whatever reason.
Others don’t.
Such a perfect case study in media bias. Liberal politicians say and do things ten times worse than this guy, and the media yawns. Crickets chirp.
Too funny.
You wish!
Okay just name one worse than this.
Ted Kennedy killed a girl. John Edwards. Barney Frank. Charlie Rangel. Obama – 57 states.
I don’t even understand what the problem is? All of a sudden everyone expressed outrage at a anti baby killing position.
Or is there some denial that women falsely claim rape? Or is it the science about the “ways to try to shut that whole thing down”. I don’t know if he’s right about releasing stress hormones, or chemicals which could effect pregnancy. But if there were those chemicals that did that or stress hormones that could do that, it wouldn’t surprise me at all. There are all sorts of biochemical reactions in the human body. And under stress, the body does act differently. Perhaps pregnancy occurs more frequently when relaxed and not under stress. Is that an odd or unrealistic statement?
http://parentingsquad.com/relaxing-won-t-get-you-pregnant-or-will-it – wow, it took no time at all to find a link to a story saying that it’s better to be relaxed and not stressed if you want to get pregnant. Here’s a sample. “Stress has an impact on just about every area of the body, including the reproductive area. Therefore it is easy to conclude that if stress is present, reproductive issues will be also.”
I believe you when you say you don’t understand what the problem is.
Is what he said fine or not? It’s factually untrue what he said, but is that fine with you?
That’s ridiculous. Point out one example where this has happened.
Maybe you should start seeing the world in a non-Fox News, non “liberal versus conservative” mindset. Then again, that’s probably expecting too much of you.
Examples, please?
You are wrong. I know the bias thing is every conservatives mindless copout, but seriously, stop whining.
Take note of how those who promote extremism so quickly throw their own members under the bus for reminding us how unpalatable Republican legislation and ideas are.
And last night Akin said he will not withdraw. Everyone in his state needs to wake up and smell that their very lives are at stake here. If they have a daughter who is raped, this JERK will not care about her (unless she is a nun whose rape occurred in a convent while on her knees at prayer). Men like this are not the kinds of men we need in ANY area where decisions about human beings are made. He is reprehensible on every front.
As the old refrain might have gone, “Akin’s party buds, see how they run….”
Good grief, the ignoramus may have “made an error,” as he says. But what he said reveals what he thinks about the subject, for goodness sake! How does one apologize for that?That is bothersome, but what is more so is the result of a poll showing more Missourians to vote for Akin than McCaskill, no matter what. To avoid the stink on their own images, fellow repubs will have to dump him.
Many Republicans have no balls. I’d want to know if there actually were those natural defenses to pregnancy in rape cases.
Democrats sure like killing babies. (wink or smiley face here)
These Republicans may be openly critical of Akin’s knowledge of a woman’s reproductive health, but make no mistake about it, they agree with him that abortions, even to rape victims, should be illegal.
Akin and Ryan co-sponsored a bill that initially tried to redefine rape to forceful rape. That is the true GOP stance on women.
Just more evidence of the GOP’s War Against Women
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They can’t run away fast enough. When the organic fertilizer hits the fan, everyone nearby gets splashed. This includes his buddy Ryan, co-sponsor of bills outlawing abortion even in the case of rape.
Ryan and Akin declared the War on Women many years ago by sponsoring a bill that declares a fertilized egg as a living person. Now Romney has joined the War on Woman, Romney said he would sign it. The use of most contraceptives would kill this egg therefore making the woman into a murderer. This bill is so radical even the Bible Thumpers in Mississippi voted it down. Yet here you have Ryan and Akin sponsoring the same bill NATIONWIDE. Time to vote Ryan, Akin and Romney down and back into the TEA Religious Perversion they came from.
None of Ryan, Akin or Romney are Tea Party. Tea Party is for smaller government – let the states decide. You’re talking about social conservatives. Social conservatives voted for big government under Bush, no child left behind, things like that. They’re really no different from Democrats except the things they want to make people do are different.
what deference is there between the comments made by this jerk of legitimate rape, or the statement made by obahma at his press meeting of forceable rape? RAPE is RAPE period, but you people just have follow like sheep along party lines, lets end the bull crap and pass some laws against this kind of thing that means something, insteed of blaming the other party of starting a war on women, on gays,on mexicans or who ever can be used to get votes , Wake up and think for yourselves Both parties are using you…..
No, there are plenty of cases where the woman regrets having sex and then cries rape for whatever reason. A lot of feminists think that it’s rape if the woman is drunk, even if she’s totally into it at the time. So, no, rape isn’t rape.
Sorry GOP, you have become TeaRadical in general in every way imaginable. You OWN this. And come November, we are going to send you packing. So enjoy your TeaRadical party while it lasts. Because on November 6th, the TeaParty is OVER.
The tea party is in favor of limited constitutional government. Their position would be “let the states decide”. You’re confusing the tea party with the Christian Coaliton, Moral Majority, Religious Right, Social Conservatives. Basically Ron Paul = tea party, Rick Santorum = social conservative. They aren’t the same. However, many social conservatives also like the tea party, so there is some blurring. In Maine 2010, LePage was tea party, Beardsley was social conservative.
There is no such thing as a ‘legitimate rape’ and Akin knows this. So does anyone that has, or knows of, anyone that’s been a victim of sexual assault and abuse. Akin’s statement’s almost make the arguement for a re-defiintion of just what’s murder. If the GOP has any backbone at all, and right now it’s looking shaky at best, they had better drop this guy before he does anymore damage. He’s the literal poster child for why so many Moderate Republican’s, who want to work with Democrat’s, are leaving because the GOP has turned so right-wing simplisitc and fanatical. Add to this is the fact that both Akin and Ryan, and now Romney by association, have been sponsoring so many anti-women’s health care amendment’s to almost every piece of legislation that’s being proposed in either the House or the Senate and is it a wonder why the GOP’s so-called Super PAC’s are running from Akin at near Olympic sprinter speed ? The longer this nonsense, and simplistic backwoods fanaticism, keeps going on the worse it’s gonna get. But one thing did come out of it for Mainer’s. We now know where all of the Candidate’s stand. And that, for a change, is a welcome sight.
By the way, where’s Paulie in all of this ?
Perhaps it would have better if he had a got a woman, other than his wife, drunk and drowned her in the backseat of his car. That is apparently the Democrat standard for electing, and being re-elected over and over again to the US Senate.
As much as I loathe the statements Congressman Akin, I also despise the fact the GOP is party that turns on it own so quickly. Did the Democrats do that to Kennedy after he drowned a young lady? I don’t think so!