Presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s upcoming lovefest in Tampa will be held in the context of some increasingly bitter party squabbling over the attempt by the GOP establishment to get Rep. Todd Akin to drop out as the Republican Senate nominee in Missouri so the GOP will have a better chance of winning the seat and a Senate majority. Former Arkansas Governor and Fox News megahost Mike Huckabee — never a big Romney fan — has minced no words about his reaction and, in the process, become the most prominent GOPer to defend Akin. Here’s the comment to fans that’s raising all the eyebrows:
If Todd Akin loses the Senate seat, I will not blame Todd Akin. He made his mistake, but was man enough to admit it and apologize. I’m waiting for the apology from whoever the genius was on the high pedestals of our party who thought it wise to not only shoot our wounded, but run over him with tanks and trucks and then feed his body to the liberal wolves. It wasn’t just Todd Akin that was treated with contempt by the thinly veiled attack on Todd Akin. It was all the people who have faithfully knocked doors, made calls, and made sacrificial contributions to elect Republicans because we thought we were welcome in the party. Todd Akin owned his mistake. Who will step up and admit the effort being made to discredit Akin and apologize for the sleazy way it’s been handled?
Nowhere is the phrase “political expediency” more evident in the scramble to get Akin out of the race, given the fact that he is in fact on the same wavelength as the Republican platform on abortion and on the same wavelength as Paul Ryan. The bottom line is that a)the establishment is best to just see if Akin runs out of money b)the establishment will embrace him and in effect do a big “never mind!” if his poll numbers go up or if he gets somehow a big infusion of money.
But the whole episode, the fact he has not withdrawn, and the fact that he has defenders in the party now show how far the party has moved to the right.
As Jerry Seinfeld would say: “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
But when you throw a stone in a brook there are ripples — and the GOP is now dealing with some ripples.
Which probably makes some in the Republican establishment want to drink some Ripple.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.