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" Can I just say something for the record? Good on you, Senate Conservatives Fund. It seems that Todd Akin has decided to stay in the race for the Senate seat in Missouri, and that Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina may line up his personal super-PAC behind Akin after all. This is all to the good, and not just because it increases the likelihood of Harry Reid&amp;#039;s remaining majority leader. After all, the incumbent, Claire McCaskill, is exactly the kind of Democrat that makes me yearn for eighth- and ninth-party alternatives. (I guarantee you, she is going to be the one who thinks the inevitable Great Sellout to be the Grandest of Grand Bargains.) It is all to the good because it shows tremendous respect for Missouri Republicans, and for the choice they freely made in a free primary election. They could have nominated popular Sarah Steelman, but they didn&amp;#039;t. They could have nominated self-financed freelance moneybags John Brunner, but they declined. They went to the polls, enough of them did, and they nominated a guy who &amp;quot;hates&amp;quot; Social Security, who thinks Medicare is unconstitutional, who thinks federal student-aid is a terrible idea, and who thinks that women have magical potions in their ladyparts that keep them from getting pregnant during &amp;quot;legitimate rapes.&amp;quot; And it&amp;#039;s not like Missouri Republicans were overwhelmed by a flood of Akin money and a torrent of Akin advertising. He was the underfunded underdog all the way through and, even though he benefitted from some ads created out of pure mischief by the McCaskill people, it is impossible to argue that Akin was not the clear choice of the Republican primary voters in Missouri. The fact that he makes longer the chances of the Republicans taking over the Senate is entirely a Republican problem. If they didn&amp;#039;t want the party to nominate crackpots, they should have either abandoned primaries \u2014 don&amp;#039;t think it hasn&amp;#039;t occurred to them, and, in fact, there&amp;#039;s a strong no-longer-underground movement within conservative politics to repeal the 17th Amendment and do away with the direct election of senators entirely \u2014 or they shouldn&amp;#039;t have spent the past four decades creating a primary electorate that was full of people to whom crackpots have an undeniable appeal. After all, this is the national party that&amp;#039;s spent the past several months trying to find a way to crowbar Akin out of the general election, but which also gave the honor of replying to the president&amp;#039;s weekly address to a guy who on Tuesday made news by saying this: &amp;quot;My statement to the United Nations would have been, &amp;#039;The future does not belong to those who attack our Embassies and Consulates and kill our Ambassadors. The Angel of Death in the form of an American Bald Eagle will visit you and wreak havoc and destruction upon your existence.&amp;#039;&amp;quot; Yeah, Todd Akin&amp;#039;s your biggest problem. Compared to Allen West, Todd Akin is Henry Clay. This is your party today, Republicans. Own it. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a15941/todd-akin-staying-in-missouri-race-13098349/?src=rss>