Huckabee Makes A Play For The Far Right Base-- the Core Of The GOP-- For 2016

Whatever normal people think about Todd Akin and his bizarre pronouncements, the kind of claptrap he spouts is standard Republican fare they all talk about amongst themselves when they think no one else is around. He just said it on a TV station other than Fox News. And the GOP base isn't happy seeing Romney, who they mistrust anyway, leading a charge against him. Akin, far more than Romney will ever be, is one of them. Romney got Reince Priebus, John Cornyn and Paul Ryan to call and threaten Akin. Then he got the 5 still lucid Republicans who have represented Missouri in the Senate to all issue a joint statement demanding Akin give up his hard-won nomination. They even got media shill Sean Hannity to make a spectacle of himself-- and of poor Akin-- on Fox. To a real hard core base type Republican they saw something play out that they did not like-- not one bit. The whole pointy headed establishment that always sells them out, unceremoniously beat up on a true believer-- and what for? Just because he was going to have a bit of a harder time to win a state Romney can't lose anyway? Watch this video:



When Huckabee first endorsed him (see video below), he said "Always placing principles over politics, Congressman Akin has remained true to our conservative ideals, especially his belief in the sanctity of human life." Akin was generally endorsed by the furthest right and most extreme politicians among Republicans, the types who presided over the losses last cycle of Nevada and Delaware by pushing unelectable purists. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX): "If I were to sum up Todd Akin in a word, that would be 'principled.'  You can always rely on Todd to make that tough vote no matter who might be calling or what might be promised.  Count me 100% for Akin." Jim Jordan (R-OH): "Todd Akin is one of the conservative leaders you can count on to always do the right thing, even when under pressure from political leaders in either party.  He stands true to  his principles, and he has the commonsense approach that we need in the United States Senate." Steve King (R-IA), who makes a point of being even more radical than Akin and, unlike most of his fair-weather friends, is still backing him: "Congressman Todd Akin is my friend, he is running for the United States Senate and he is the man that will always stand on the principles that we believe in.  Too many people bend or sway in the wind or they get drawn into the mesmerizing idea that somehow someone can guide you up through a leadership channel if you just go along to get along.  He is not going to put up a vote for the sake of going along to get along and neither will I.  We have a sacred obligation to all of you, that’s to keep our oath of office.  That’s to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.  I look forward to the day that he is sworn into the United States Senate, because I want to pass out of the house the repeal of Obamacare, and I want to send it over to Todd in the Senate to do the same." Bachmann, was a big booster in the good times-- “I am proud to endorse Congressman Akin in his bid for the US Senate. I’ve known Todd for years and worked well with him in the House. He’s a principled conservative and will make a great United States Senator.”-- but now she's disappeared, along with most of the politicians who had backed Akin.

The base sees. And they see that the radical right organizations and hate groups they admire and get most of their info from are all fired up for Akin. Huckabee is throwing his weight behind a battle being waged by the American Family Association, the Family Research Council and other deranged hate groups.

The Family Research Council hopes to make up the lost air-support from groups like American Crossroads and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which have dropped their planned advertisements:

Leaders of several conservative Christian and social-issues groups said they would step in with organizational, financial and news-media help. The Family Research Council said it now hoped to sponsor independent advertising and phone banks and solicit donations for Mr. Akin. And by Wednesday evening, those tiny donations requested by Mr. Akin’s campaign several times this week were starting to add up. Mr. Akin’s Twitter account reported that he had set a goal to raise $100,000 by midnight and had raised $88,000.

Akin also met with the secretive, right-wing Council for National Policy in Tampa, days before the city hosts the Republican National Convention... The embattled Missouri Senate candidate flew to Tampa to meet with members of the Council for National Policy, a secretive coalition of powerful conservative and evangelical leaders, activists, and donors.

...Concerned Women for America’s Janice Shaw Crouse defended Akin as a victim of “the politics of personal destruction”:

He has been a pro-life advocate his whole career. He's been a man who has worked in crisis pregnancy centers. He's reached out to women and helped women in numerous ways in his private life. So it's very unfortunate that he's one who used words so insensitively, and he apologized for them, of course, and retracted from them.

But I think the bigger question for me is this whole business of the politics of personal destruction. We have a very, I think, appalling double-standard in this country where Republicans are held to these standards that are appropriate but somehow the Democrats get a pass. Vice President Biden, for instance, most recently and most-- in the headlines talked about you're going to put those, put everybody in chains.

Gary DeMar’s American Vision even accused the GOP leadership of engaging in a “legitimate political gang rape” of Akin:

We expect leftists, liberals, and other miscreants to pounce opportunistically, to lie, cheat, and twist (all the while drooling) over a phrase like “legitimate rape” when uttered by a strong conservative Christian politician. But should we expect the same from alleged conservatives?

Yet this is exactly what we’ve seen from several prominent conservatives in the wake of a media gaffe from U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin (R-MO) in regard to alleged “legitimate rape” and abortion.

These are the folks Huckabee is counting on when he tries to win the GOP nomination in 2016 to run against Cuomo, Clinton, Gillibrand, Biden, O'Malley or Warren. It's interesting that he judges the path to victory very differently than Republicans have traditionally gone after it. He's giving the finger to the Establishment and appealing directly to the base. Akin's ideas are exactly the same as Paul Ryan's, exactly the same as Mitt Romney's (on alternative days), exactly the same as almost all Republican Members of the House and exactly the same as the Republican Party Platform of 2012, written after the national freakout over what he had to say. Who's in trouble with the base won't be Huckabee, it will be the squishes in the Establishment like Scott Brown and Denny Rehberg and the ones they view as cowards unwilling to stand up for... you name it... like Bachmann.