Todd Akin is back in the spotlight after he retracted his apology for his "legitimate rape" comments and Fox's Megyn Kelly was more than help him out with some Republican rehab on her show this Monday.
As our friend Ellen at NewsHounds noted, he got a few tough questions from Kelly, but the main purpose of this interview was to soften Akin's image and attempt to make him look good, while giving him free reign to attack Democrats and pretend that Bill and Hillary Clinton are really the ones waging the "war on women."
Megyn Kelly Pitches In For Todd Akin’s Rehab Effort:
Akin’s beef seems to be that while he may have used a “poor choice of words” about women, the Democrats are the real women abusers. Also that he has been the victim of media bias that ignores liberal missteps. Kelly helpfully played a few examples of Demcratic faux pas for her viewers: a clip of Joe Biden making insensitive comments about Indians owning convenience stores, then-candidate Barack Obama saying he’s been in 57 states and Senator Harry Reid saying that men “tend to become abusive” when they are out of work. As if any of them were comparable to Akin.
Nevertheless, Akin pointed a finger at the “Democrat party” as “the one that’s chairing the war on women.” Not surprisingly, Akin’s prime targets were Bill and Hillary Clinton. Exhibit A: Bill’s keynote speech at the “Democrat convention” in 2012:
Even if you disregard the Broaddrick claims about being raped, (Bill Clinton) has a long history of sexual abuse and indecency and he is applauded by that convention. And so, I’m thinking to myself - you know, what’s worse, saying a few words or actually having a long history of abusive behavior toward women?
The Washington Post gave a similar accusation from Rand Paul three Pinocchios. Secondly, Clinton has a policy record which is quite pro-women. In fact, Akin’s now-infamous “legitimate rape” comments – were made to support his anti-abortion stance, even in cases of rape. And, of course, suggested women are habitual liars about rape.
But Kelly mostly let it go, sympathetically noting that Akin sees hypocrisy in the treatment of Rush Limbaugh’s comments about Sandra Fluke vs. the treatment of Bill Maher (presumably his calling Sarah Palin the C-word).
Then, surprise! Akin went after Hillary Clinton.
Go read the rest where Ellen lays out what's wrong with the rest of this interview. She made an interesting point at the end, wondering if Huckabee's support for Akin and the fact that he wrote the forward for his book had anything to do with the friendly interview.
I don't know why they think it's a good idea to be bringing him back into the limelight other than the fact that they're always more than happy to have anyone taking cheap pot shots at the Clintons.
They'd better be careful though. They try too hard to mainstream this wingnut and it's going to backfire on them.
PoliticusUSA has more on Akin's god awful op-ed over at World Nut Daily here: Todd ‘Legitimate Rape’ Akin Wants Everyone To Know That Bill Clinton Is A Rapist.
[ad]
