This Tuesday at the Republican National Convention, their platform committee, led by Gov. Bob McDonnell, approved anti-abortion language that has no exceptions for rape, right in the middle of the dust up with Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin and his statement about "legitimate rape" that had Republicans demanding that he drop out of that race.
As Rachel Maddow pointed out that same evening, Gov. McDonnell was so desperate to be the vice presidential pick this year that for a while he was trying to run away from his own positions on the topic, but now that he was passed over, here he was, putting that same extreme language into their official platform at the convention instead. And what is Mitt Romney trying to do? Run from it as fast as he can of course.
MADDOW: You know, if this is your policy position, you either have to explain and defend that policy position, or it can't be your policy position. You can't both have that as your position and never have to be held accountable for it. It is the position of your vice presidential nominee, and it is his voting record, and it is his policy record. And it is about to be the official party platform that you are running on. And your people were there shaping that platform when it wound up in there.
But that's not you? What's you then?
Whatever's convenient Rachel. Etch-a-Sketch doesn't ever expect to be held accountable for anything he's said or done. And in the mean time, Akin is refusing to drop out of the race, so we can look forward to Romney at least continuing to be pushed about whether he agrees with Akin or not and if he doesn't, why did he pick Paul Ryan for a running mate?
