Why Rove despises Todd Akin and what he was willing to do to get him out of the race

One of the consequences of Karl Rove's over-the-top comment about the murder of U.S. Senate candidate in Missouri, Todd Akin, has been a closer examination of the entire Akin controversy. What we're learning is that Akin is more of a Tea Party candidate than perhaps most of us knew; his bonafides in that regard may just be the the burr under Rove's saddle. If so, it would also show that Bush's "brain" knows how to hold grudges, has a long memory, and is far less conservative than many realized.

Cliff Kincaid over at USA Survival has some interesting information about Akin's propensity for not yielding to political pressure when casting votes in the House. Kincaid quotes John Putnam, the state coordinator in Missouri for the Tea Party Patriots:

Putnam says the reason the Republican officials wanted him (Akin) out of the race had nothing to do with abortion. Rather, he said, Akin voted as a member of Congress against several Bush Administration big government proposals, has a record of opposing “the party establishment,” and figures to be a Tea Party senator in Washington, D.C. if he wins the Senate race against Democrat Claire McCaskill.

Putnam says he thinks the GOP establishment doesn’t want any more independent voices in the Senate Republican Caucus. “I look at the role of the Tea Party senators who have come along the last couple years. They have shifted the balance away from the more moderate Republican establishment. I have to wonder how afraid they are to elect more of these Tea Party types,” he said.

Akin, who represents Missouri’s 12th District and has been described as an “avid student of the U.S. Constitution,” voted against President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” bill to expand the federal role in education; against Bush’s extravagant expansion of Medicare through what is called Part D, or prescription drug coverage; and against Bush’s federal bailout of Wall Street after the economic collapse in September 2008.

Akin’s website describes him as “one of just 16 legislators who opposed the series of bailouts which rewarded irresponsible behavior with taxpayer dollars in 2008 and 2009.”

Moreover, it appears that a George Soros-funded Super-PAC is responsible for tracking Akin and starting the whole 'legitimate rape' / abortion flap in the first place. The Republican establishment then jumped on it and apparently decided to use this information to attempt to force Akin out of the race, not because of the abortion issue but because the Missouri congressman doesn't seem to compromise on matters the establishment deems important.

The controversy over Missouri Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin’s abortion comments was started by a George Soros-funded Democratic Party Super-PAC and the “bait” was taken by Republican Party officials who wanted him out of the race for other reasons, says John Putnam, Missouri state coordinator for the national Tea Party Patriots group.

The Super-PAC, American Bridge, was started by former conservative turned liberal and homosexual activist David Brock, who also runs the Soros-funded Media Matters group. American Bridge sends “trackers” to follow conservative and Republican candidates in the hope that the candidate makes some controversial statements that can be distorted or taken out of context and used for partisan political purposes.

In this case, Putnam says, Republicans are the ones who used the material against Akin disseminated by American Bridge. “The first few days after the Democrats put out this distorted [abortion] comment, it was the Republican hierarchy that really acted like sharks in the water, striking this fresh meat,” Putnam said.

Isn't it interesting how...

The establishment tells conservatives not to eat its own, to get behind establishment candidates like Mitt Romney, et. al. when they win the primary? Tea Party candidates are painted as extremists who are more interested in cutting off their noses to spite their faces. Yet, if this report is correct, it will have meant that the Republican Party establishment jumped on information provided by a 'tracker' paid by a Soros-funded Super-PAC to get a conservative Tea Party Senatorial candidate out of the race.

Can anyone see the Tea Party doing such a thing?

In fact, during the same fundraiser at which Rove made those despicable comments about Akin getting 'murdered', he encouraged the Party not to go hard after Obama so Republicans could woo independents. Ironically, Rove has no compunction about going hard after Akin by utilizing information provided by a George Soros-backed Super-PAC. Why is Rove not worried about wooing Tea Party voters?

It's the establishment - not the Tea Party - that is looking increasingly like the entity that prefers the whole loaf over the half loaf while wanting to have its cake and it eat too.

Meanwhile, the conservative media appears to have little interest in going after Rove while having no compunction about going hard after Akin.

Yes, that includes Sean Hannity. More irony is that when someone like Hannity sticks by Rove in instances like this, it reinforces the views of independents who think the talk show host is just a partisan hack. Again, such things drive independents away; they don't move them to the right.

Read it all.