PPP Poll: Todd Akin back in the hunt (time for GOP Establishment to follow their own advice)

When Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), who is in a Senate race to defeat incumbent liberal Democrat Claire McCaskill, used the term 'legitimate rape' in an interview that turned to the subject of abortion, there were basically three arguments from the right for why Akin needed to drop out.

1. It was a stupid thing to say and Republicans are held to a higher standard than Democrats.
2. The comment made him unelectable in a race the Republicans desperately need to win.
3. He would be a lightning rod nationally for the Democrats' 'War on women' narrative.

Karl Rove, who heads a Super-PAC, as well as Reince Priebus, head of the Republican National Committee, have both said Akin will receive no money from their respective entities. Both men have recently been dealt a heaping helping of irony. Rove, who said something far more egregious than Akin did when he made an grossly irresponsible comment about Akin's murder, now has a double standard problem if he doesn't step down from his politically powerful perch. Priebus, who last month said that even if Akin is tied, "we're not going to send him a penny," might have a very similar issue relative to double standards.

First up, here is Priebus pledging not to send Akin any money, regardless of how competitive the latter's race with McCaskill becomes. At the time this video was recorded, polls showed Akin as much as 10 points behind the incumbent.

Via Revealing Politics:

Now, a week later, it looks like Akin and McCaskill are neck-and-neck.

Via Powerline:

A poll taken by PPP on August 28 and 29 has Sen. Claire McCaskill leading Republican challenger Todd Akin by only one point, 45-44. PPP is the same organization that showed McCaskill leading Akin by only one point just after Akin made his stupid remark about rape and reproduction. However, in that poll PPP oversampled Republicans to the tune of 39% R and only 30% D.

In PPP’s latest poll of the race, Republicans made up 35 percent of the sample, while Dems made up 33 percent. Thus, the latest poll is worthy of consideration.

Akin, no doubt, will consider it. The likelihood of him dropping out of the race seems quite small as long as at least one reasonably credible poll shows him basically even with his opponent.

So it would appear that when it comes to the Akin / McCaskill race, we have the unstoppable GOP Establishment force vs. the socially conservative, immovable Senate candidate object. The Akin race is shaping up to be the manifestation of the GOP argument for conservatives to support Romney but in reverse. The establishment tells us constantly... This race is about beating Obama; you need to get behind Romney if for no other reason. The convention showed conservatives are willing to do that.

Here we have an extremely liberal Obama lackey in McCaskill, who threw her entire support behind the Obamacare effort and it's looking like Akin is back in the hunt. The conservatives, in general, have already bought what the establishment is selling when it comes to Romney. It's time for Priebus and the rest of the establishment powers that be to do the same with Akin, else they risk a fate similar to that of the Zax.

Video: RNC Chair calls Harry Reid a 'Dirty Liar'

Defending the Republican establishment is not something I do often but in this case, Rence Priebus gets a big hat tip.

Harry Reid IS a 'dirty liar'. Perhaps Romney would do better than he is if he spoke the cold hard truth when it's warranted like Priebus does here.

h/t WZ

Speaker Boehner, working to make Fast and Furious go away would be Felonious

If House leaders (John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and Kevin McCarthy) still want Fast and Furious to 'go away' at this point, it'd no longer be an issue of political cowardice or courage, or even calculation; it'd be about them being accomplices in the coverup of a murderous federal program.

No accusations here but when it comes to politicians - especially ones of the establishment / RINO persuasion - history is on the side of the skeptics. Besides, there's nothing wrong with a bit of preemptive accountability when it comes to holding said politicians accountable. Trusting them almost always gets you burned. So why do it now?

Consider a post by Mike Vanderboegh over at Sipsey Street about sources telling him that John Boehner, Mitt Romney, and the RNC (by extension) could be looking for ways to prevent the truth about Fast and Furious from coming out:

Said one source, "Romney wants this to go away, so the RNC wants it to go away, and they're putting more pressure on Boehner who never wanted to get this far down the road in the first place but he's been pushed along by Issa and the stand-up guys on his committee." He added, "The NRA making this a 'scored' vote means that if it comes to a vote, it will happen with as many as two or three dozen Democrats as well. The leadership now thinks that the only way for this to 'go away' like Romney wants is to short-circuit the vote."

Again, I'm not making the charge but if that last sentence is true and House leadership is doing anything to sabotage the vote, they would already be accomplices in the coverup. Not only that but it would mean the presumptive Republican nominee for president - as well as the RNC - would be party to the biggest political scandal in perhaps the history of the country, before even winning the general election.

Another interesting aspect to this comes courtesy of the Washington Post (h/t Sipsey Street). They imply that a possible reason for House leadership scheduling the contempt hearing on Thursday is to coincide with the expected Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare on the same day.

Republican leaders plan to bring the issue to the floor on Thursday, meaning lawmakers likely will vote on contempt charges on the same day that the U.S. Supreme Court is slated to announce its ruling on the constitutionality of the 2010 health-care reform law.

The timing likely deprives advocates for contempt charges of the big headlines they might have received if the vote were held another day this week.

To his credit, when Boehner speaks publicly about Fast and Furious, his words are in support of getting to the bottom of the scandal. To his discredit, these concerns just keep rearing their heads. Maybe if he spoke a little more like Congressional freshman, Rep. Trey Gowdy and less like a politically guarded politician, that would stop.

As for Romney, he had a golden opportunity - when Obama announced amnesty for illegal aliens nearly two weeks ago - to point to Fast and Furious being a program that is responsible for hundreds of dead Mexicans. The implication would have been clear: If Obama cares so much about the welfare of Mexican nationals, why hasn't anyone been held accountable for a program that led to the deaths of hundreds of Mexican nationals.

Romney didn't do it and that is another example of why skeptics are, well, skeptical.

E-mail or call Speaker Boehner's office by clicking HERE.

E-mail or call the Romney campaign by clicking HERE.

E-mail or call the RNC by clicking HERE.

**UPDATE** POLITICO has written that Issa has sent a letter to Barack Obama demanding answers about why he asserted Executive Privilege. Toward the end of the article, we have more anecdotal indicators that may lend more credence to the claim that House Leadership wants this to go away:

Unlike Issa’s last letter to the administration, this note didn’t contain the signatures of House GOP leadership.

The contempt motion is sure to pass, but House Republican leadership is not whipping their members. Speaking aboard Air Force One en route to New Hampshire, White House press secretary Jay Carney declined to say whether the administration was trying to keep Democrats in line.

Compare that behavior with that of Congressional Democrats in 2009 - 2010 when it came to ramming Obamacare through.

Quite the contrast, eh?

Can you say Brokered Convention?

Yes, a brokered convention is a long shot but three years ago, a primary season like the one we're seeing now would have been considered a long shot as well. Consider the fact that the only two Republicans who qualified to be on the ballot in Virginia are Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. It was learned earlier this week that Santorum, Bachmann, and Huntsman all failed to get the 10,000 signatures necessary by the deadline. Then, yesterday it was learned that Gingrich and Perry failed as well.

As Hot Air points out, it's not even legal for candidates to launch write-in campaigns in the Virginia primaries. That means simply that Romney and Paul will be the only option for Republican voters in that state.

This news comes AFTER National Review's Brian Buldoc laid out the scenario necessary for a brokered convention. That scenario involves Romney, Gingrich, and Paul all getting so many delegates that none has enough to grab the nomination. If that happens, we'd be looking at a convention where someone like Palin, DeMint, or anyone for that matter, could jump in.

Via NRO:

Political junkies, take heart: A brokered convention is possible, if improbable. Using Rhodes Cook’s delegate count, I’ve made a spreadsheet that tabulates the results of different primary outcomes. If you use some imagination — but not too much — you can allocate the delegates in such a way that no candidate wins on the first ballot.

To secure the nomination, a candidate must get “a majority of the votes entitled to be cast in the convention,” according to GOP rules. Cook predicts there will be a total of 2,282 delegates*, so a candidate needs 1,142 votes to win. Here’s a not-impossible outcome: Mitt Romney wins 1,131 delegates, Newt Gingrich gets 954, and Ron Paul wins 181.

What's been the biggest beef of the Tea Party in this campaign? The answer is that none of the candidates in the field meet the standard.

One way for the Tea Party to find its way back into relevance might involve adopting a new strategy, one that starts with the premise that uses Ron Paul mania to its advantage. If the goal of the Tea Party becomes ensuring that NO Republican on the ballot gets the nomination, it is much closer to getting its preferred candidate nominated.

Take Virginia, for example. If Romney is way ahead by the time that primary rolls around on March 6th, Gingrich supporters might decide to pull the lever for Paul, who has already generated much more support than he did in 2008. He will stay in the race until the bitter end. If Gingrich an Paul can siphon enough votes away from Romney while not garnering enough for the nomination, we could be looking at an extremely historic nomination process.

Yes, it's a very long shot indeed, as Buldoc says but all that's necessary is for three candidates to split enough votes amongst themselves.

The odds of such a thing happening actually go up if an entity like the Tea Party actually works toward it.

Click HERE for the detailed scenario Buldoc lays out.

Oh yeah, and keep hope alive.

Video: Michael Steele on Bill Maher

In this exchange between former RNC Chairman Michael Steele and Bill Maher, Steele reminds me of the guy who is passed up for a promotion, becomes bitter, and then proceeds to act immaturely, thereby validating the original decision. The implication here is that Steele thinks the Republican Party is too rigid and unwilling to reach out to minority voters. He also scornfully refers to 'Republican justice' for why he was ousted despite all of the gains the party made in November.

Lost on Steele is that responsibility for the landslide elections was the result of two things - the Obama Administration and the Tea Party, which he did not do enough to support. Instead of humbly accepting that reality, he seems bitter and could go down a path similar to Al Gore after 2000, though certainly not to that extent.

The race that best exemplified where Steele went wrong was the special election in NY 23 in 2009 in which he backed far left liberal RINO Dede Scozzafava over Tea Party conservative Doug Hoffman. The end result was that Scozzafava dropped out and endorsed the Democrat. Hoffman lost a close race he most certainly would have won had the Republican party supported him.

Steele has essentially two choices at this point. He can either become bitter and trash the Republicans or he can get on board and show a little maturity. If this clip with Maher is any indication of coming attractions, he may choose the former which again, would validate his being voted out as RNC chairman.

Also, take note of Bill Maher's comment that there is a lot of 'Chicken' in Harlem.

Via Daily Caller:



Here is Steele standing by Scozzafava in 2009. It's at the very end of this clip; listen to Mika's comment after Chuck Todd gets Steele to publicly endorse Scozzafava.

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AWESOME! BAIT AND SWITCHBOARD

The end of the DNC's "Conservative Mob" ad asks viewers to contact the RNC to "express their outrage" while giving out the RNC phone number. What apparently happened next basically served to short circuit the bullies.



The RNC automated message PROMPTED CALLERS to "Press 1". When callers pressed "1", they were automatically sent to the DNC switchboard. The result was a "friendly fire" shut down of the DNC Switchboard.

Utter Brilliance.

Michael Steele has been getting beaten up lately but THIS warrants a Hat Tip. The WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT reports:

“I thought it was a good idea,” Steele said. “Don’t sit there and think you’re going to direct a bunch of angry liberals to call the RNC when I know full well what that’s all about. I get the joke. My response was, talk to your own party, because they’re the ones ginning this up.”

Refreshing when you think about what the GOP has been like lately.

We may be looking at another Obama tactic that has backfired.

h/t to FREE REPUBLIC

VIDEO: RNC HAMMERS BACK

Has anyone wondered why Obama hasn't learn when to stop campaigning? It's bad enough that the DNC is still doing campaign-like ads but they're targeting citizens who are lawfully assembling and exercising Constitutional rights.

Somewhat unrelated but nicely done is this ad from the RNC.