This Is Disappointing (But With Encouraging Updates)

I knew Todd Akin was too good to be true (from CNN):

U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, who won Missouri's GOP Senate primary earlier this month and will face incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in November's general election, said Sunday that he misspoke when he claimed "legitimate rape" rarely resulted in pregnancy.

Answering a question about whether or not he thought abortion should be legal in the case of rape, Akin explained his opposition by citing unnamed bodily responses he said prevented pregnancy.

"First of all, from what I understand from doctors, that's really rare," Akin said of rape-induced pregnancy in an interview with KTVI. A clip of the interview was posted online by the liberal super PAC American Bridge.

"If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down," Akin continued. He did not provide an explanation for what constituted "legitimate rape."

Why am I disappointed that Akin made these insane comments? Because if he was forced to pull out of the race, then that could be disastrous for the Democrats -- he'd undoubtedly be replaced by someone who's only partially bat-shit crazy and would thus have a strong chance of beating McCaskill. And there are already many Republicans calling on Akin to withdraw from the race.

Josh Marshall gives me some hope that this won't happen:

So is Todd Akin toast? Let’s start with two pretty good axioms to follow. People can say some totally crazy crap and see it have relatively little effect on their poll numbers. People do things that are so toxic that they are not only bad for them but bad for their whole party and yet it’s still really, really, really hard to pry these folks free and get them to step aside and let someone else run.
 
I mean, really, really hard.
 
There were several 2010 candidates — including at least a couple running for senate — who totally imploded and yet it was still impossible to get them to step aside. These are nominations people have often worked their whole lives for. You don’t just walk away even if a rational analysis says you’re done.

I hope Josh is right. My main concern is that Akin made his "legitimate rape" comments early enough so that it just might be possible to replace him. Christine O'Donnell's "I am not a witch" flap didn't start gaining steam until mid-to-late September 2010 and by then it was too late for the GOP to do anything about it.

UPDATE:  Steven Benen took a look at the Missouri statutes, and MRS 115.359 states that Akin, if he wanted to withdraw from the race, would have to do so by tomorrow.  Let's hope Akin is either unaware of this statute or has such a huge ego that he has no immediate intent to withdraw, his party be damned.

One thing I know about these Tea-Bagging GOP religious zealots is that they have almost as much contempt for the Republican Establishment than they do for Democrats, meaning that Akin would probably ignore calls from the GOP to withdraw.  Plus, Akin might just want to stay in the race even if he was sure he'd lose, just so he - for the next two-and-a-half months - could expose the electorate to the same kind of horseshit that he spewed yesterday.  These assholes love to preach.

UPDATE II:  Here's another encouraging development:  Fox News has instituted a virtual blackout when it comes to covering the Akin dust-up, meaning that a lot of Republicans are receiving little or no information about it.  That may change as more and more Republicans demand that Akin withdraw, but so far Fox has little interest in dispiriting the GOP base. 

Usually it's a bad thing that so many Americans get their news only from Fox, but this time that fact might actually help the country.