todd akin

Todd Akin’s legacy lives on, thanks to one of his close friends (though maybe not anymore),  Georgia Republican congressman and certified gynecologist Phil Gingrey. The congressman thought it would be a good idea to defend his pal’s controversial (read: stupid) rape comments at a town hall meeting recently, with a little science lesson. Brace yourselves.

It was hard to imagine at the height of  Todd “legitimate rape” Akin’s mass pillorying, that the Missouri congressman would survive his senate race. The Republican establishment all but abandoned him, Romney asked him to step down, and even Ann Coulter called him a “selfish swine” for his annoyingly strong convictions. What his decision to remain in the race will do for Romney’s chances is unclear, though his name–and now, Richard Mourdock’s– is pretty much synonymous with the dreaded “War on Women.” Akin’s own chances at victory, however, aren’t as damaged by his bogus science as everybody thought they’d be.

The real function of the rape hypothetical is to force the Todd Akins of the world to make their premises explicit