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Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm

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Why Does Akin Have To Go, But Paul Ryan Gets To Stay?

Posted: 08/22/2012 1:04 pm

Seriously Republicans: why does Todd Akin have to go, but Paul Ryan gets to stay? A tip of my hat to Christine Pelosi for asking this great question on Politico yesterday.

In fact, Congressman Akin has got to be scratching his head at the recent turn of events.

Why are the Republicans so breathlessly chasing him from the field when they all - and especially Paul Ryan - have advocated essentially the same thing?

It's about the policy - there should be no rape exception to abortion. It's got to be confusing, especially since the Republicans put that in their party platform yesterday.

Congressman Akin has apologized for his dumb remarks about rape biologically preventing pregnancy. Repeatedly. But the Republicans are still professing to be "outraged" - shocked and stunned by Akin's comments.

"There's no excuse" for such caveman-like statements, they are saying. He's a Neanderthal, they claim. Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell says Akin's a "lost cause." The National Review says his views are "abhorrent." Check out these statements from Republicans in the video below:

Surely these same Republicans were equally outraged when Paul Ryan joined Akin to sponsor a bill, HR-3 -- which shows it was a top priority among House Republicans -- defining "forcible" rape. After all, even Akin himself admits that when he said "legitimate," he meant to say, "forcible." So were all the Republicans equally outraged by that bill? Of course not -- 177 of them actually signed on to the bill.

After lots of outcry the word "forcible" was removed, but the point was made. What they're saying is that "real" rape is only when the woman is hurt. If she doesn't get hurt, she must have enjoyed it, so it obviously wasn't rape. The women who are drugged and raped, they're not conscious so what's the harm? The women who don't fight back, who succumb in order to save themselves from further harm? Well, they obviously must secretly want it.

Yes, the whole Republican Party is now aligned against Akin in name, but solidly behind his ideas. With no exceptions for rape or Romney.

The party platform - what they stand for - matches Akin and Ryan's no-exemption-for-rape position, and it's their governing document. But none of the Republican establishment is jumping up and down about that, are they? So why are all these Republicans so quick to banish Akin from their ticket? Because he said out loud what they're all thinking and what they're all legislating, but hope we don't notice.

If you're outraged about Akin's comments, you should be outraged by the entire Republican establishment. But let's just start here and go one man at a time: if Akin is drummed from the Senate race, Ryan should go, too.

Originally aired on "War Room with Jennifer Granholm." "The War Room" airs weeknights at 9 EST on Current TV. Follow Jennifer Granholm on Facebook and Twitter and "The War Room" on Facebook and Twitter.

 
 
 

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Seriously Republicans: why does Todd Akin have to go, but Paul Ryan gets to stay? A tip of my hat to Christine Pelosi for asking this great question on Politico yesterday. In fact, Congressman Akin h...
Seriously Republicans: why does Todd Akin have to go, but Paul Ryan gets to stay? A tip of my hat to Christine Pelosi for asking this great question on Politico yesterday. In fact, Congressman Akin h...
 
 
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schatsie
Wall Street is Worse than Vegas
07:24 AM on 08/29/2012
So Akin was well funded by the RNC and with the collusion of Grover Norquist is being used as a DISTRACTION from the reality of the Party of the Rich.... Give me a break, these idiots are going to listen to the pandering of the MSM and vote again for the shmucks who were born with Trust Funds and never really worked a day in their lives. And Annie baby, bet she didn't say a word about spending over $70,000 per year on ONE FRIGGING HORSE and GETTING a BIGGER TAX DEDUCTION for ONE FRIGGING HORSE than a family gets for 10 CHILDREN,,,,,,crikey this country is what?
MHT73
words matter
05:29 AM on 08/29/2012
Forcefully said! Brava!
acorus
don't be naive
10:31 PM on 08/26/2012
exacly, aiken is just speaking the same party line, but it's unadorned....ayn ryan and aiken go back a ways, they are birds of a feather, and there's no demonstrable difference in their intentions, or their message. be;ieve it
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
allen bupp
Fighting ignorance, one ideologue at a time...
08:52 PM on 08/26/2012
The truth of the mattter, is the problem ISN'T the un-informed anti-science, insensitive position Akin took - but rather that he went off message, and didn't use the proper 'code' words to do it.....

ie He spoke bluntly, during a major election year, about something that the party didn't want the public to focus on at the moment. They wanted a referendum on O, NOT on their own radical positions
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Heartlight3
Every act is an act of self-definition.
08:46 PM on 08/26/2012
You know what I haven't heard one single word about in this whole discussion? The responsibility of men for rape. We're talking about making the women criminals if they don't want to carry and raise the rapist's baby. There have been dozens of bills passed about that, but not one single mention of the men who perpetrate the crime.
06:16 PM on 08/26/2012
I must say that I'm biased because I am a Granholm fan. I find her strong and straight-talking.

And often, as in this case, she says what needs to be said.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
verflixed
It will come to pass
05:21 PM on 08/26/2012
I have a solution to the abortion debate. Anybody that signs their name to an abortion bill of any kind should be able to do so only after they have adopted a child. Make that a law. That will settle most of the disputes. I am against abortion as a means of birth control in all other instances it should be up to the mother to decide. All other folks that seem to know what is best for the mother let them adopt first and talk later.
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DTOM1776
Veritas Liberabit Vos
12:54 AM on 08/27/2012
Greetings verflixed

So...the value of human life....is based upon whether someone adopts a child??? Really?? Really?? Your contention is illogical and flawed. Human life has value. We should protect that valuable human life. PERIOD.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
verflixed
It will come to pass
08:23 AM on 08/27/2012
Tell that to the politicians that send our young men to war to die for no legitimate reason.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Nomccain
05:17 PM on 08/26/2012
Romney picking Ryan just shows how much control the tea baggers have over the Republican party.
He also represents one of the most absurd, extreme views of any Republican I've seen in 68 years. The moderate Republicans of the past are gone and along with them, sensability and reason. This bunch are not willing to negotiate or work together with anyone on anything. They have brought about gridlock in the legislative process for the past three years and if elected, would force their selfish, unfair agenda down all our throats.
schatsie
Wall Street is Worse than Vegas
07:29 AM on 08/29/2012
Yup, been doing that for 30 years with the able assistance of the Big Con Machine....Read the book The Big Con...Putin read it and laughed at the Democrats in this country....
03:01 PM on 08/26/2012
Why instead would people be against anyone who is fighting for lives of defenseless babies. Yes he should have chosen his words better, but The real war is not on women but the Democrats war on babies. The Bible says this causes the land to be under a curse, it is not global warming causing the drought, it is people who have turned away from the One Creator and God. If people do not think Almighty God is in control of the earth, I pray they will discover that before it is too late.
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Decorina
Hypocrisy means your karma ran over your dogma
10:45 PM on 08/26/2012
Charter member flat earth society no doubt.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Andrea Blackwell
Why watch the news? The truth's on Comedy Central!
04:17 AM on 08/29/2012
You don't write laws according to SOME religion's interpretations resulting from selective bibling that suits a politician's agenda. The golden rule is pretty much an international truth. It's wrong to try and monopolize the infinite.
They've been crushing the infrastructure until it's so hostile women can't afford to breed a new tax base for the rich to exploit.
By your logic, God tapped Mother Nature to send Isaac to shut them up!
Do you see how that DOESN'T work?
It is wrong to infringe on the free will of others.
God isn't Santa Clause, you know.
"Freedom is a length of rope. God wants you to hang yourself with it."
A line from a particularly frustrated angel in Supernatural.
It might seem like that on a bad day, but freedom is a gift that no one has the right to step on because the point is what we DO with it.
Otherwise, people will sit in their rooms, with their bibles, doing nothing, but NOT sinning.
Be Tee Dubs, lying on Jesus, doesn't help your case.
Live by ALL of Leviticus or NONE of it.
At the very least, consider this. My daughter remembers choosing me.
If you return reincarnation and read about the guff, you're missing some pieces.
Also, God left the Earth in our care.
EPIC FAIL
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WHYOHWHY
The Stunning of the Mullet by William Shakespeare
01:32 PM on 08/26/2012
At last. All the chaff thrown about because of Akin and the real issue is Ryan and GOP policies. Thank you.
de-meme-ing
Buying USA Feeds USA, Supports/Preserves USA
01:26 PM on 08/26/2012
Several years ago, young university/college women were wrting the names of young men on bathroom walls accusing them of rape, back in the late 90's if I remember correctly.

There was an outcry by these young men and their families, understandably, because the lives of some of these young men, tried without a trial, were being greatly harmed. It was a practice running rampant through the colleges/universities by young women.

I read an article about this in Parade Magazine, and was shocked to find the feminist University Presidents defending the young women, and laughing that turn about was fair play. They were smug. It really was a tragedy. Was this the democrat war on young men?

Equally, there is concern that young boys are being dimissed, forgotten, set aside in the class rooms in order to make up for what feminists term, social justice for young girls. Is this the democrat war on boys?

This is a researchable subject. I have no reason to lie.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Andrea Blackwell
Why watch the news? The truth's on Comedy Central!
04:21 AM on 08/29/2012
Considering the behavior of frat boys like Mittens.
CRY ME A RIVER!
schatsie
Wall Street is Worse than Vegas
07:40 AM on 08/29/2012
Frat Boys who would screw all the 'bad' women that they could before 'settling' down with a good woman and never cheating....talk about fairy tales..... and over 2 years dodging bullets in France while a real war was going on in Viet Nam.....
de-meme-ing
Buying USA Feeds USA, Supports/Preserves USA
10:40 AM on 08/29/2012
You obviously do not embrace Human Rights.

Equally obvious, you regard the law of the jungle as superior.

That said, when it bites you in the ***, who's fault is that?

Shall I then say, Cry me a river?

Actually, given the law of the jungle, you will have my sympathy too.
12:40 PM on 08/26/2012
To Progressives this is obvious. Ryan is just the culmination of the decline of Reason, Conscience and IQ marked by Bush and Palin.
Ryan's "credentials" are further besmirched since he was the co author of two bills with Akin, in addition to his worship of the atheist Rand, who didn't regard the family as a social unit.
And he purports to be a member of the Party of Family Values and God.
How can the Republican Party live with these contradictions? Are they so confident their base has been that dumbed down?
schatsie
Wall Street is Worse than Vegas
07:41 AM on 08/29/2012
The decline of SCIENCE AND MATH.....
12:18 PM on 08/26/2012
Akin's sin was not his policy position. Lot's of conservatives have the same position and are able to defend it without this backlash.

It was that he downplayed the crime of rape and used made up science backed by imaginary doctors to do it.

It's abortion politics 101. Defend the rights of the unborn without o
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
jimtodd
Unrepentant child of '60s
12:17 PM on 08/26/2012
Why? Simple answer is an incompetent press. The media in this country is corrupted and worse than useless. It spreads as much disinformation as information, and it makes no distinction between the two. In this case the media focused exclusively on the words of Akin, and totally ignored the fact that his policy positions are 100% the same as Ryan's.
schatsie
Wall Street is Worse than Vegas
07:43 AM on 08/29/2012
Sorry, you have to read the book The Big CON..... the media actually spreads the Gospel of the Kochs very well....there is actually more disiinformaton and spin than real information....When you see a Gallup Poll question that is bent beyond belief, you know we are in a real mess.....The founder of Gallup would never have alllowed that, but he is dead and gone....
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studioh!
bridging the snarchasm
12:12 PM on 08/26/2012
MO must not be the must win state we were told it was...