As Nicole wrote earlier today, Dana Milbank took his turn this month helping to mainstream the type of hatred and bile spread by the likes of the FRC's Tony Perkins. This Thursday it was Mrs. Greenspan allowing him air time to defend Todd Akin after the Republican establishment threw him under the bus and to pretend that Joe Biden has ever said anything nearly as offensive as what came out of Akin's mouth.

Naturally we could count on Andrea Mitchell to allow Perkins' lies and obfuscation to go unchallenged, but the bigger problem is that she's allowing him to go on the air at all if she's not going to all and treating him as though he's some respectable member of the beltway establishment. As Nicole explained though, that's exactly the problem because in Mitchell's mind, that's exactly what he is. Just another lobbyist out there running the cocktail circuit with the rest of them.

Tony Perkins downplays ‘legitimate rape’ as a ‘Biden-ism’:

Family Research Council President Tony Perkin on Thursday defended Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), saying that his assertion that women could not get pregnant from “legitimate rape” was the type of innocent gaffe that Vice President Joe Biden might make.

Perkins told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell that he met with Akin in private “to encourage him and the stand that he’s taken.”

“This is a challenge for him,” the evangelical leader explained. “It was a Biden-ism that he made. It was inexcusable, it was inappropriate, he has acknowledged as such and he’s moving on. Now, there are some in the Republican Party that want him to get out, he has made his decision that he’s going to stay in.

He continued: “And from my perspective as our organization endorsed him in the primary, we endorsed him based upon the totality of his record. He has been a strong advocate for national defense, a strong advocate for life, for family and for all Americans. And so our position on him and his candidacy has not changed.”

Mitchell wondered how widespread was the view in the anti-abortion movement that women who were “legitimately raped” could not get pregnant.

“I’ve never had a discussion about that,” Perkins insisted. “It’s not something that’s discussed. Look, I see that every human life is sacred, it should be welcomed into our world and protected by our laws …. Todd [Akin] said he misspoke, he apologized for it. Now, I think it’s time to move on.” Read on...

"Biden-ism" huh? Yeah, good luck with that Tony. I think that's going to stick about as well as "Obamaloney" did for Mittens.