Karl Rove really doesn’t want Todd Akin to continue in the Missouri Senate race after his botched answer on abortion exceptions during a recent interview when he made reference to “legitimate rape” and mistakenly said that conception through rape rarely occurs. Karl Rove’s American Crossroads PAC, along with other groups, pulled their funding. Numerous people along with Rove called for Akin to drop from the race.
Adding insult to injury, Sheelah Kolhatkar of Businessweek reports that at a closed door fundraiser for American Crossroads Karl Rove joked about the hypothetical murder of Todd Akin. He allegedly said, “We should sink Todd Akin. If he’s found mysteriously murdered, don’t look for my whereabouts!” Kolhatkar also reports that American Crossroads disputes her version of the events.
Kolhatkar also reported that he urged every attendee to urge Akin to drop, “Rove urged every attendee to apply pressure on Akin to convince him to leave the race. ‘We have five people who are interested’ in replacing Akin, Rove said. ‘We don’t care who the nominee is, other than get Akin out.’”
If Karl Rove said this, and I don’t have any reason to doubt that he did, he should apologize. Yes it was a joke, which in my opinion is far worse than what Akin said, but it was a tasteless joke and frankly people have been fired for far less.
On a related note, Public Policy Polling still has the Missouri race between Akin and incumbent Senator Claire McCaskill as a toss-up. The Real Clear Politics average however has him down by almost 7 points.
Update: Karl Rove has apologized to Todd Akin, but the Akin campaign believes he should make a public apology as well.