Now that Mitt Romney has come out with two different statements strongly condemning Republican senate candidate Todd Akin’s comments about rape and abortion, the media finds that they will need to gin up another reason to aid and abet Barack Obama in tying these comments to a Romney-Ryan ticket.
To the rescue rides the ever-insufferable Carol Costello.
This morning, CNN’s Costello was almost as giddy to talk about the damage the media wants Akin’s comments to do to the GOP brand as MSNBC’s Chuck Todd (who could not stop smiling as he concern-trolled). After covering Akin’s comments, Costello brought on a couple of guests to debate the topic — one leftist and one conservative. But it wasn’t until the end of the segment that Costello played the card meant to tie Akin’s outrageous comment to GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan.
Watch below:
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What Costello and her left-wing guest do here is attempt to create a new narrative thread for the media to chew on. It’s obvious the media will now move into a second phase that ties Akin’s stupid use of the term “legitimate rape” to a bill GOP VP candidate Paul Ryan signed on to that uses the term “forcible rape.”
Costello is intentionally attempting to create an equivalency between “legitimate rape” and “forcible rape” where absolutely none exists.
Akin’s suggestion that there’s a form of rape that isn’t legitimate is outrageous. But the term “forcible rape” is a legitimate legal term:
Forcible rape, as defined in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, is the carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will. Attempts or assaults to commit rape by force or threat of force are also included; however, statutory rape (without force) and other sex offenses are excluded.
The Ryan bill Costello refers to is about taxpayer funding of abortions. Currently, federal law prohibits federal dollars from paying for abortion unless the usual qualifiers of rape, incest, and the life of the mother are involved.
I haven’t read the full bill, but it seems reasonable to me to exclude statutory rape which, while illegal, is a consensual sexual relationship.
What this all comes down to is what it has always come down to throughout this election: The desperate need of the Obama campaign — and by extension their Media Palace Guards — to create artificial distractions that stop the national conversation about Obama’s dismal economy, his raiding of almost three-quarters of a trillion dollars from Medicare to fund ObamaCare, Vice president Race-Baiter, and let’s not forget the disturbing increase in American casualties in Afghanistan.
It’s also worth noting that Akin likely meant “forcible rape” when he said “legitimate rape.” He claims he misspoke, and it makes sense that what he meant was to exclude consensual sex that the law later qualifies as rape, such as statutory rape.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC