Bush WH Communications Director: Don't Talk About Rape, Or I'll 'Cut Out' Your Tongue

Two days ago, Karen Hughes, communications director for the Bush White House, announced, “If any Republican man makes a comment about rape other than it’s a heinous act, I’ll personally cut out his tongue.” Her comment was made, of course, in the aftermath of the disastrous 2012 election cycle, in which failed Republican Senate candidates Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock made controversial comments about abortions in the aftermath of rape.

 

 

Hughes continued: “The college-age daughters of many of my friends voted for Obama because they were completely turned off by Neanderthal comments like the suggestion of ‘legitimate rape.'”

 

 

Akin’s comments, were, of course, asinine. But “forcible rape” — the term Akin meant to use — is a legal term meant to differentiate statutory rape from forcible rape. Nonetheless, the media ignored that obvious legal point in favor of demagoguing the issue.