The Republican wagons are now circling around Indian Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock after his comments about rape.
He is now getting strong Republican support after comments were he tried to walk part of his comments back. That was enough (you gotta win that seat) from top GOPers:
After initially keeping Richard Mourdock at arm’s length for his assertion that pregnancies produced by rape are intended by God, prominent Republicans rallied around the embattled Indiana Senate candidate.
Top among them was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whose chances of taking over the Senate next year could be sunk by Mourdock’s intemperate remarks.
“It’s incredibly irresponsible for anyone to take what Richard said about his views on life to demean his opposition to the detestable act of rape,” McConnell said in a statement printed in Kentucky’s Courier-Journal.
“We’re at the end of an election season here and I understand each side is looking to make hay out of every comment, but sharing the view of millions of Americans that life begins at conception is Richard’s deeply held personal belief that shouldn’t be misconstrued by partisans to imply something it does not,” McConnell said in the statement released late Wednesday.
But there’s more: Arizona Senator John McCain quickly backtracked from his initial statement:
In a debate on Tuesday, Mourdock had declared, “I came to realize life is that gift from God. I think that even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.”
Mourdock later sought to clarify that he meant only that the baby’s life was a holy gift, not that God intended women to be raped. The Indiana state treasurer apologized for how people had interpreted his words and specified that he was not apologizing for the sentiments themselves.
Perhaps more startling than McConnell’s support was Sen. John McCain’s announcement. The Arizona Republican, who had withdrawn his backing of Mourdock Wednesday night, backtracked Thursday in a statement from his office that said McCain was satisfied with the “apology.”
“Senator McCain is glad that Mr. Mourdock apologized to the people of Indiana and clarified his previous statement,” said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers. “Senator McCain hopes the people of Indiana will elect Mr. Mourdock to the U.S. Senate.”
Actually, it isn’t startling to those (of us) who supported John McCain in 2000. McCain walked away from his political legacy as a politician who wasn’t lock step once he lost his 2000 bid and has emerged into just one more predictable partisan voice.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) added his support for Mourdock at a campaign stop in Wisconsin, saying that a rape ending in a pregnancy was “horrifying” and that Mourdock’s comments were a reminder to talk about such issues more carefully.
“I think the candidate, Treasurer Mourdock, was right to apologize to anyone who was offended, and I think he was right [on] where he stood on it,” Rubio said. “It’s unfortunate it happened.”
And Mitt Romney? You guessed it:
Even the GOP presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, who had at first distanced himself from Mourdock, declined to withdraw support and refused Thursday to answer questions about the Indiana candidate.
Other GOPers are talking. Romney won’t talk — and that’s perhaps why the announcement came out today that he and runningmate Paul Ryan will do no more network interviews until after the votes are cast.
Prediction: They’ll talk to Sean Hannity before election day.(OOPS! That isn’t a real interview.)
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.