GOP Senate Candidate Akin: ‘Free Enterprise’ Means Being Allowed To Deny Equal Pay To Women

By Aviva Shen/Think Progress

Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) has struggled with a well-established woman problem in his Senate campaign, ever since he claimed women could not get pregnant from “legitimate rape.” After he said his opponent, incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), was not “ladylike,” her campaignreleased a video of Akin suggesting that businesses should be allowed to pay women less than men.

When a man asked him why he voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Akin said he didn’t support the idea that “government should be telling people what you pay and what you don’t pay.”

AUDIENCE MEMBER: You voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Why do you think it is okay for a woman to be paid less for doing the same work as a man?

AKIN: Well, first of all, the premise of your question is that I’m making that particular distinction. I believe in free enterprise. I don’t think the government should be telling people what you pay and what you don’t pay. I think it’s about freedom. If someone what’s to hire somebody and they agree on a salary, that’s fine, however it wants to work. So, the government sticking its nose into all kinds of things has gotten us into huge trouble.

Watch it:

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was the first bill President Obama signed into law and eases the burden on women to prove paycheck discrimination. Akin, along with all but three House Republicans, voted against the bill. Republicans blocked another pay equity bill, the Paycheck Fairness Act, earlier this summer; it would create larger penalties for employers who pay women less than men and strengthen protections for women who sue for equal pay.

Akin’s wife says pressure to quit over ‘legitimate rape’ comment is also like getting raped

By David Edwards/Raw Story

The wife of Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) is comparing Republicans who are trying to force her husband out of the Missouri Senate race over his “legitimate rape” comment to British soldiers who raped the daughters and wives of American colonists in 1776.

In a recently published profile, Lulli Akin told the National Journal that Republican party bosses had tried to replace free and fair elections with a “tyranny, a top-down approach” by pressuring her husband to step aside after he said that women could not get pregnant through “legitimate rape.”

“Party bosses dictating who is allowed to advance through the party and make all the decisions — it’s just like 1776 in that way,” she explained, recalling colonists who “rose up and said, ‘Not in my home, you don’t come and rape my daughters and my … wife.’ But that is where we are again. There has been a freedom of elections, not tyranny of selections since way back. Why are we going to roll over and let them steamroll us, be it Democrats or Republicans or whomever?”

Lulli Akin added both President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney “seem to be embodying” the traits of a British monarch “with all the tactics that they’ve been revealing” towards her husband.

Todd Akin said his wife’s remarks were “a little more grandiose than the way I would say it,” but there was “tremendous sense of uprising I feel among the people I talk to.”

According to the latest Real Clear Politics average of polls, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) is leading Akin by over 5 points.

Watch this video of Todd and Lulli Akin from The Associated Press, broadcast Aug. 21, 2012.

Huckabee Breaks With GOP, Throws Support Behind Akin

By Aviva Shen/Think Progress

As Republicans continue to pile on Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) for saying victims of “legitimate rape” can’t get pregnant, Mike Huckabee has strengthened his support for the embattled Senate candidate. Huckabee first gave Akin the opportunity to defend the remark on his radio show, which he did by explaining that women often lie about being raped. Huckabee also approvingly read a defense of Akin by junk scientist Dr. John Wilke, though he conceded that some “extraordinary” peoplewere born out of rape.

To make his support for Akin crystal clear, Huckabee sent a letter to his supporters Thursday accusing the GOP establishment of trying to bully Akin out of the race for an honest mistake:

The Party’s leaders have for reasons that aren’t rational, left [Akin] behind on the political battlefield, wounded and bleeding, a casualty of his self-inflicted, but not intentional wound. In a Party that supposedly stands for life, it was tragic to see the carefully orchestrated and systematic attack on a fellow Republican. Not for a moral failure or corruption or a criminal act, but for a misstatement which he contritely and utterly repudiated. I was shocked by GOP leaders and elected officials who rushed so quickly to end the political life of a candidate over a mistaken comment in an interview. This was a serious mistake, but it was blown out of proportion not by the left, but by Akin’s own Republican Party. Is this what the party really thinks of principled pro-life advocates? Do we forgive and forget the verbal gaffes of Republicans who are “conveniently pro-life” for political advantage, but crucify one who truly believes that every life is sacred?

Huckabee also claims the National Republican Senatorial Committee launched an organized crusade to get Akin out of the race, ordering political consultants to stay away and rallying clergy to encourage Akin to drop out. While Huckabee does not specify which “conveniently pro-life” Republicans he is referring to, he does astutely call out the political posturing of the many Republicans who have disavowed Akin even though they support his policy positions.

Akin, meanwhile, says he has raised more than $100,000 online after his comments. Though Huckabee is now putting himself at odds with the party establishment by defending Akin, he will be speaking at the Republican National Convention in Tampa on Monday.

CHART: Akin’s Views On Women’s Health Are In Line With GOP

By Igor Volsky and Adam Peck/Think Progress

Republicans have distanced themselves from Rep. Todd Akin’s (R-MO) “legitimate rape” comments, arguing that his insulting remarks are an embarrassment to the party. But peel away the outrageous rhetoric, and Akin’s policy positions on women’s health — his opposition to a woman’s right to choose and support for restricting access to contraception — are in line with GOP orthodoxy:

Akin has voted with a majority of his GOP colleagues 95.5 percent of the time in the 112th Congress, tied for the sixth-highest member who has voted in line with his party.

Fox Lets Rove Discuss Akin Rape Comments Without Disclosing His Conflict Of Interest

BEN DIMIERO/Media Matters for america

Fox News hosted Karl Rove this morning to discuss Rep. Todd Akin's (R-MO) comments that women have a biological mechanism to prevent them from getting pregnant if they are raped. Neither Rove nor Fox disclosed that Rove's political groups have invested more than $5 million in Akin's U.S. Senate race.*

Akin has come under fire for saying in an interview yesterday that it is "really rare" for women subjected to "legitimate rape" to become pregnant. In an appearance on America's Newsroom, Rove was asked by anchor Martha MacCallum about Akin's comments and a separate Politico story about GOP congressman Kevin Yoder skinny dipping in the Sea of Galilee. MacCallum -- who didn't play video of Akin's comments, instead choosing to vaguely describe them -- asked Rove whether the two scandals "deserve the attention they're getting."

Rove explained that "the Akin story will be important inside Missouri," but quickly pivoted to discussing the deficit and other economic issues. Rove's attempt to change the subject mirrors Akin's statement about the controversy last night, in which Akin, after claiming he "misspoke," attempted to refocus the story on "very important issues, starting with the economy."

Asked how badly Akin's comments will hurt him in his race against Sen. Claire McCaskill, Rove conceded that Akin has some "real explaining to do," then abruptly changed the subject to a story he said was "far more important," the Republican Party's fundraising advantage over the Democratic Party.

Between June and early August, Crossroads GPS, the 501(c)(4) offshoot to Rove's American Crossroads Super PAC, has spent more than $850,000 on the Missouri Senate race. According to The Washington Post, Crossroads GPS has spent more than $5.4 million dollars overall in Missouri.*

During the segment, Rove was identified as both a Fox News contributor and a former Bush adviser, but his connection to Crossroads was not disclosed. 

Fox News has previously promoted ads from Rove's political groups and hosted Rove to discuss races he is invested in without disclosing the conflict of interest.

UPDATE:

According to Politico, Crossroads has pulled its ads from the Missouri Senate race following the controversy over Akin's comments:

The group had originally booked a new round of ads to start Wednesday but began canceling them earlier today. The decision comes in the wake of comments by Missouri Rep. and GOP Senate nominee Todd Akin questioning how often women can get pregnant from "legitimate rape."

Contacted about the decision to withdraw its resources from Missouri, Crossroads spokesman Nate Hodson responded: "The act speaks for itself."

*This post originally understated the amount of money Crossroads had invested in the Missouri Senate race and has since been updated. 

Paul Ryan and Todd Akin Partnered On Radical ‘Personhood’ Bill Outlawing Abortion And Many Birth Control Pills

By Adam Peck and Ian Millhiser/Think Progress
Yesterday, ThinkProgress reported that Rep. Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin (R-MO) and GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan both cosponsored the bill that introduced America to the despicable term “forcible rape.” As it turns out, this may only be the second most sweeping attack on reproductive freedom that both men partnered on. Ryan and Akin also cosponsored a federal personhood bill, the Sanctity of Human Life Act of 2009, which declares that a fertilized egg is entitled to the exact same legal rights as a human being:

(1) the Congress declares that–

(A) the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution is vested in each human being, and is the paramount and most fundamental right of a person; and

(B) the life of each human being begins with fertilization, cloning, or its functional equivalent, irrespective of sex, health, function or disability, defect, stage of biological development, or condition of dependency, at which time every human being shall have all the legal and constitutional attributes and privileges of personhood; and

(2) the Congress affirms that the Congress, each State, the District of Columbia, and all United States territories have the authority to protect the lives of all human beings residing in its respective jurisdictions.

Lest there be any doubt, this bill is unconstitutional. Congress does not have the power to overrule Roe v. Wade by an ordinary statue, only a constitutional amendment could serve that purpose. Moreover, even if Roe were overruled by the Supreme Court, Ryan and Akin’s bill still attempts to redefine who “the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution” applies to. Again, changing the meaning of the Constitution can only be done through an amendment, not through an ordinary Act of Congress.

Should Ryan and Akin’s personhood agenda take effect, however, it would drastically reduce women’s reproductive choice. The bill declares that a human egg obtains “all the legal and constitutional attributes and privileges of personhood” the moment it merges with a human sperm. Thus, a Blastocyst-American would not only enjoy the same constitutional status as a fully grown adult, it would also enjoy any “legal” attributes enjoyed by adults. Because every states’ law makes it a crime to kill a human adult, the likely effect of Ryan and Akin’s personhood bill would be to treat killing a fertilized egg as the same thing as homicide.

Such an interpretation would not simply ban abortion, it could turn many forms of birth control into the legal equivalent of a murder weapon. Many forms of contraception, including many birth control pills, function in part by inhibiting a fertilized egg from implanting in a woman’s uterus. Thus, Ryan and Akin’s personhood bill could render the act of using many forms of oral contraception the equivalent of a homicide crime.

Influential Conservatives Defending Akin

By Zack Beauchamp/Think Progress

Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) has apologized for his suggestion that women who have suffered a “legitimate rape” cannot be impregnated, admitting his serious error in biology. Much of the pressure for this move has come from Republican figures who have called on him to resign, including Senator Ron Johnson, S.E. Cupp, former Rep. Heather Burns, Adam Hasner, Ramesh Ponnuru, and Ric Grennell. But several prominent Republicans and right-wing organizations have come out in support of the beleaguered Senate candidate. Here, in no particular order, is a list of five of them:

1. Erick Erickson. The RedState honcho and CNN contributor excused Akin’s scientifically illiterate remarks as simply “inarticulate” and then accused President Obama of being pro-infanticide, saying: “the people horrid by Todd Akin’s remarks are, I’m sure, thrilled to have a President who defended infanticide. I’ll take Todd Akin’s inarticulate remarks over an infanticide supporter any day of the week.” Somewhat ironically, Erickson is now claimingthat Akin will withdraw from the race.

2. Tony Perkins. The head of the Family Research Council said “we support [Akin] fully and completely” and that “I think that Todd Akin is getting a really bad break here.”

3. Chris and Dana Loesch. The conservative commentary power couple both lept to Akin’s defense. Chris claimed that “what [Akin] said was medically correct” while Dana wrote that Akin’s comments were less bad than his opponent Claire McCaskill’s record by “any real standard of measurement.”

4. Bryan Fischer. The American Family Association’s “director of issue analysis”straight-up defended Akin’s position, tweeting “Todd Akin is right: physical trauma of forcible rape can interfere w/ hormonal production, conception.”

5. Marjorie Dannenfelser. The head of the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony listsaid that “We are proud to support Congressman Akin,” but later backtracked, amending her statement to “Congressman Akin has been an excellent partner in the fight for the unborn.”

6. Glenn Reynolds. The popular pundit and law professor simply wrote “BY THE TIME I NOTICED THIS STORY, IT WAS OVER, but Todd Akin’s “legitimate rape” remarks pale in comparison with Whoopi Goldberg’s.”

A seventh example, a bizarre foray into pseudoscience by the The Daily Caller’s Matt Lewis, wasdefinitively debunked earlier today.

Missouri’s GOP Senate Candidate Says Federal Govt Should Stop Funding School Lunches

By Igor Volsky/Think Progress

Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) — who is running for Sen. Claire McCaskill’s (D-MO) Senate seat — told reporters on Thursday that the federal government should “end its support for school lunch programs,” suggesting that states should fund the effort:

“There’s another good question of who should be doing that,” Akin said during the discussion with reporters. “Is that something the federal government should be doing? I answer it no — why not do it at the state level?” [...]

“I am not against school lunches, but I have a question of whether or not the federal government should be doing many things it is doing, and that would be one I would take a look at.”

In 2011, “more than 31.8 million children each day got their lunch through the National School Lunch Program” — a federally assisted meal program that is currently “operating in over 100,000 public and non‐profit private schools and residential child care institutions.” Under the measure, “children from families with incomes at or below 130 percent of the poverty level are eligible for free meals,” while those “with incomes between 130 percent and 185 percent of the poverty level are eligible for reduced‐price meals, for which students can be charged no more than 40 cents.”

The House Agriculture Committee has marked up a “compromise” version of this year’s farm bill — but it includes cuts to food stamps and the school lunch program. According to the Congressional Budget Office, such reductions could knock 280,000 children off of the free school lunch program. The Senate has adopted a farm bill, but the House has yet to move its version to the floor.

GOP Senate Candidate Linked To Controversial ‘Christian Supremacist’ Group

By Zack Beauchamp/Think Progress

GOP Representative and Missouri Senate Candidate Todd Akin has a long history of extremism, particularly with respect to the role of religion in public life. As it turns out, that shouldn’t be much of a suprise: one of Akin’s principal political influences appears to be Reverend D. James Kennedy, a minister who spent his life organizing a movement dedicated to reorganizing the American government along radically conservative evangelical lines.

Kennedy is widely believed to be a leading advocate for a variant of dominionism, (roughly) the idea that the American government should be run according to Christian, biblical lines. “It must be remembered that D. James Kennedy is a leader among the distinct group of ‘Christian Supremacists’ who seek to ‘reclaim America for Christ’ and turn the U.S. into a Christian nation guided by their strange notions of biblical law,” Abraham Foxman, the President of the Anti-Defamation League, explains.

Indeed, the Reverend has called the US a Christian nation that should be governed by Christians, sought to “rebuild America based on the Bible,” and suggested that Darwinism was responsible for the Holocaust.

Though he died in 2007, Kennedy is respected throughout the GOP, and was particularly influential on Akin’s worldview. According to a Politico profile of Akin, “[t]wo sermons by Dr. D. James Kennedy have been very influential for Todd and he references them frequently in discussions of government.” Akin told Kennedy’s Truth in Action (formerly Coral Gables Ministries) organization that “Dr. Kennedy understood how to connect the principles of Scripture with the practical applications of what keeps a nation free, the principles that America was founded on.” Akin also co-sponsored a resolution last year that “honors Dr. Kennedy’s lifetime of service and sacrifice to his God, his country, [and] the ideals of the Christian faith.”

Kennedy, for his part, recognized Akin’s commitment to his mission. In his book How Would Jesus Vote?, he praised Akin as “one of my favorite statesman,” suggesting Akin’s tenure in the House reflected that “he is a seminary graduate and has chosen politics as his ministry.” In 2007, Kennedy’s Center for Christian Statesmanship gave Akin their “Christian Statesman Award,”awarded to “a person recognizes that individuals (as well as nations) must ultimately give account to God and are dependent on Him for prosperity and success.”

Akin’s rhetoric and policy views bear clear marks of Kennedy’s influence. In “The Bible and Economics, one of the two Kennedy tracts that Politico reported were favorites of Akin’s, Kennedy writes that “the Bible has a great deal to say” about politics, economics, and science, and that we can use it to “erect certain systems and derive an understanding about those subjects.” Akin actually goes further, calling the Bible “an entire blueprint for the way civilization can be structured” in an apocalyptic anti-Obamacare video from 2009. Watch it:

Indeed, Akin consitently amplifies and intensifies Kennedy’s hateful rhetoric:

1. Marriage equality destroys civilization: Akin justified his legislative crusadeagainst LGBT rights by saying “anybody who knows something about the history of the human race knows that there is no civilization which has condoned homosexual marriage widely and openly that has long survived.” Kennedy, in his book What’s Wrong with Same-Sex Marriage, wrote that marriage equality would “sink the culture from civilization to barbarism” because “there’s never been a society — ever in the history of the world — that has survived this kind of perversion.”

2. Liberals hate God. Akin said that “the heart of liberalism really is a hatred for God.” In The Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail, Kennedy argues that even liberal seminary members “don’t believe in the Bible [or] the Deity of Christ.”

3. Liberals are Soviet-style socialists. A common touchstone of Akin’s rhetoric is that liberals are pushing America towards a Soviet Union-style society. This theme also pervades Kennedy’s work. In one sermon on socialism (for example), he said that a liberal is a “secular humanist socialist…it’s the same mindset that destroyed the Communist world that is at work in America.” One of Akin’s two favorite Kennedy lectures is called “The Bible and Socialism.”

This link to Kennedy should prepare us for Akin’s radicalism to become increasingly more obvious: just this Thursday, Akin claimed that he wanted to outlaw the morning-after pill.