Rush and Levin both articulated what it is about this whole episode that irks me. This is not just any other election. This is the last one that will give us any chance at halting the fundamental transformation. The stakes could not be higher. So if you have an 80% probability of winning in a particular race, WTF do anything that would reduce that to even 79%?
IDP is right, the Republican leadership should not have immediately gone public in their demands. But they did, and it's done. That horse has already bolted the barn. He is now a severely handicapped candidate, possibly ruining the chance to win a Senate majority. Does it now really matter why he is a weakened candidate? He just is, period. Knowing this, I find it unforgivable that he not step aside and let another candidate run for the seat. Because the stakes are just that high.
It seems a lot of his defenders are basing that defense on all the should-bes. The Republican Party should have backbone. The media should make an issue out of Democrat stupidity too. Etc, etc, and so on. Yeah, all that is true. But what good does it serve to bicker over recriminations? In every single election this year, we need the candidates who stand the very highest chance of defeating their Democrat opponents. Now, for a variety of injuries both self-inflicted and not, we have one in Missouri who is substantially less likely to defeat his loathsome opponent. Why isn't that enough of a reason to fall on your sword and let one of your fitter colleagues enter the ring?
I can tell you one thing, if next year we lack a majority in the Senate because Claire McCaskill kept her seat, I will take exactly zero comfort in the idea that Todd Akin really stuck it to those GOP insiders. That's a fool's prize.
