Mr Foot-In-Mouth, Missouri senate candidate Todd Akin, just rose in my opinion.
Remember Todd Akin? He was the senatorial candidate who basically affronted the dignity of everyone with two X chromosomes by making a statement to the effect that if a rape was “legitimate” the woman’s body would protect itself and not allow her to get pregnant. Aside from the garbled way he expressed himself and the fantasy biology he seemed to believe, his apparent attitude toward rape victims was … well … horrible.
His own political party pressured him to withdraw from the race but Akins refused and doggedly campaigned on. He must be doing surprisingly well. The reason I say this is that opposition groups, including People for the American Way have “researched” his past, looking for an embarrassment or two. In my opinion, they might have left well enough alone.
It turns out that Todd Akins was arrested a number of times back in the 1980s for criminal trespass and resisting arrest in front of a St Louis abortion clinic.
According to the St Louis Post-Dispatch archives,
a 37-year-old William Akin from Creve Coeur — whose name and address matches other information about the future lawmaker — was among a group of protesters arrested on March 15, 1985. The newspapers account said: “Nineteen anti-abortion demonstrators who refused to leave the waiting room of an abortion clinic in the Central West End were carried out by St. Louis police officers.”
Three weeks later, another six protesters, including Akin, were arrested at another St. Louis demonstration. “Police had to carry Akin into an elevator,” the story said.
On April 5, 1985, Akin was arrested again as one of 10 protesters who were “attempting to block entrances” at the Hope Clinic for Women in Granite City, Ill., according to the paper. One clinic employee told the paper that the protesters caused minor damage and leveled “verbal abuse” at women entering the clinic.Akins has confirmed that he was arrested 25-years ago, but won’t give out further details. “We’re not talking about that at all,” Akin told the AP. “It was 25 years ago, and I think it underlines the fact that I stand up for the things I believe and I’m pro-life, and we’re just leaving it there.”
I think these opposition researchers would have done better to have stayed with the outrage over Akin’s earlier comments. The arrest they discovered seems more like confirmation of his dedicated pro-life stand than a scandal. It sounds as if he was practicing the time-honored tradition of non-violent civil disobedience as a form of protest. It confirms that no matter how bad he is at expressing himself — and he deserves some kind of prize for that — he has a life-time dedicated pro-life stance.
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