GOP Embracing Todd Akin?

     D-day came and went and Akin has stayed in the race. There's no way out now. The GOP did everything to drive him out.

     Now that he's in, some GOPers seem to be coming back to him. Demint and Santorum issued a joint statement of support yesterday. New Gingrich supports him. Phyllis Schaiffly can't keep her hands off of him. I guess rape talk for some women really is an aphrodisiac.

     However, all these conservatives are the usual suspects. Are there signs that the rank and file GOP is coming back to him? Is there anyone who previously repudiated him, told him to get out the race, is now  supporting him? One who is doing just that is Roy Blunt.

      "Neither DeMint, Gingrich nor Santorum were among those who called on Akin to drop out in the first place. But there are signs that even more mainstream Republicans are coming home to Akin now that he’s made it clear he intends to stay in the race until the end. Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt announced support, albeit tepid, for Akin Tuesday night, after the deadline to withdraw had expired. Blunt had called for Akin to get out of the race in August."

      Akin and I “don’t agree on everything, but he and I agree the Senate majority must change,” Blunt said in a statement Tuesday. “I’ll be working for the Republican ticket in Missouri, and that includes Todd Akin.”

     http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/09/todd-akin-rick-santorum-jim-demint-newt-gingrich.php?ref=fpa

     Uh, huh. So he "disagrees" with the coment about legitimate rape but still that's small beer compared with the GOP taking the Senate. How though does he square this particular moral calculus with when he said that Akin should get out. Did he not think that a GOP Senate majority trumps everything then?

     John Cornyn does insist that the RSCC won't chance as Blount has done:

     "NRSC chair John Cornyn has said his group has made its choice and will remain clear of Akin for the duration of the campaign."

     “We’re done,” he told The Hill last week. The NRSC didn’t respond to a request for comment from TPM on Akin’s new supporters.

     However, cynical Dems wonder about the GOP's sincereity in repudiating Akin in the first place:

     "Democrats aren’t surprised."

     “No one should’ve been fooled by the party’s faux outrage and their ensuing change of course because as the Republican establishment is making clear today, the Akin backlash was never about principle,” said Shripal Shah, spokesperson for the DSCC, “it was purely about politics.”

      Now what could make these Dems take something the GOP says at less than face value? I guess for starters, Romney's entire campaign.

       McCaskill has the candidate she wanted. Now the gloves can come off. Of course, until now, there was no reason to criticize Akin before yesterday. Now the game has begun.