Haley Barbour: Todd Akin is yours alone as are eleven 2012 Senate races you lost with retread candidates not to mention big loser Romney. Akin was re-elected to US House of Reps. 5 times after your guy John Ashcroft gave him his start in 1987. Long before Akin's gaffe your GOP pal Sen. John Danforth sabotaged the entire Missouri GOP primary

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11 US Senate races lost in 2012 by GOP Establishment. Barbour, FYI, Todd Akin Bio and Resume, per AP:

Todd Akin was elected in 2000 to the US House of Representatives and re-elected 5 times. In 2010 he won by 67.9% of the vote. If Mr. Barbour and the GOP E thought Akin needed coaching, that he was "untested" or "unpolished," they had plenty of time between 2000 and 2012 to help him. Either they opted not to do so or their coaching method didn't work.

"Akin is an avid student of the U.S. Constitution, and got his start in politics in 1987 when Gov. John Ashcroft appointed him to the Bicentennial Commission of the U.S. Constitution....

Akin was elected to the Missouri House in 1988 and served there until election to the U.S. House in 2000. He won Missouri's August 2012 Republican primary for U.S. Senate."...

"Todd Akin only received 36% of the vote, but won because it was a three-way contest with no run-off election."  ^{The Chamber of Commerce supported} loser John Brunner. More on Missouri's primary rules.

Per Sunlight Foundation, 8/8/12: "Though Akin did not have direct support from outside groups, he may have benefitted from the last-man-standing effect: Of all the outside groups targeting ads at GOP candidates that have been reported to the Federal Election Commission, 88 percent focused on attacking Akin's opponents: businessman John Brunner and former state treasurer Sarah Steelman. The biggest outside group has been Majority PAC, a  super PAC devoted to maintaining the Democrats' edge in the Senate. Majority PAC spent nearly $1.2 million in independent expenditures opposing the frontrunner Brunner, widely viewed as the biggest threat to McCaskill because he had the most centrist credentials of the GOP frontrunners as well as a personal fortune to invest in the race."
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"Todd Akin was little known to many Missourians, much less the nation, when the six-term congressman launched a campaign in 2011 to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill.

Akin now has national renown after making remarks in August 2012 that a woman's body has ways of averting pregnancy in cases of "legitimate rape."

Akin has apologized repeatedly, stating that he misspoke when using the term "legitimate rape" and was wrong on the medical science. He also has emphatically rejected calls to quit the Senate race by top Republicans, including the chairman of the Republican National Committee, presidential candidate Mitt Romney and all five living Republicans who have represented Missouri in the U.S. Senate.

The campaign arm of Republican senators and the conservative Crossroads group both have said they will pull millions of dollars of TV ads from Missouri as long as Akin remains in the race. Akin responded by launching an online fundraising drive, seeking $3 and $5 donations while appealing to social conservatives and anti-establishment Republicans.

Akin's inflammatory remarks came just two weeks after he won a hotly contested Republican Senate primary against suburban St. Louis businessman John Brunner and former Missouri Treasurer Sarah Steelman....

He wants to repeal the 2010 health care reform law signed by President Barack Obama, and he touts his opposition to the federal stimulus act passed in 2009....

Akin also highlights his opposition to some high-profile initiatives backed by former Republican President George W. Bush, including the No Child Left Behind Act for schools and the 2008 bank bailout....

During his first term in Congress, was chosen vice president of his freshman class."

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Haley Barbour out of ideas to sell Cochran has tried to create a link in peoples' minds between longtime Establishment GOP Rep. Todd Akin and Chris McDaniel:

6/3/2014, "Barbour's super PAC has distributed talking cards that, on the front, juxtapose McDaniel with Todd Akin, the failed Missouri Senate candidate."...(end of article). Barbour then admits, "But there's no question, Thad's swimming against the current."
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Note: Akin won with only 36% of the vote because Missouri primary rules say the winner merely needs to have the most votes. In other states if no one wins 50% of votes, a runoff takes place. A runoff might have provided a different candidate.
 
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Akin announced his run for Senate on 5/17/11. The Tea Party is never mentioned in the 2011 Roll Call article:

5/17/11, "Todd Akin Announces Missouri Senate Bid," RollCall.com, Joshua Miller

(The House ‘Tea Party Caucus‘ didn’t exist until July 19, 2010). 

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Karl Rove suggested he might murder Akin. Isn't that a 'gaffe'?
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8/31/2012, "Exclusive: Inside Karl Rove's Billionaire Fundraiser," Bloomberg Business Week, by Sheelah Kolhatka 

“We should sink Todd Akin. If he’s found mysteriously murdered, don’t look for my whereabouts!”"...
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^{GOP Establishment supporters at the Chamber of Commerce backed John Brunner in 2012 against Akin but Akin won:}

8/6/12, "Tea Party Feud in Missouri Primary," opensecrets.org, Dan Glaun

"FreedomWorks for America’s support of Brunner has placed it on the same side as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a powerful business advocacy group that typically supports conservative candidates yet has clashed with the tea party — most notably over its support for raising the federal debt limit in 2011. The Chamber has spent $346,000 opposing Steelman and has campaigned with Brunner."...

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In March 2012 former US Senator John Danforth and a Bush family cousin among others engaged in a sabotage attack against a slate of three Republican primary candidates running for the US Senate nomination from Missouri 5 months before the August 7, 2012 election.
 
Danforth and his group had a 4th prospective candidate in mind, Danforth friend and former Bush administration State Dept. official Thomas Schweich.
 
2012 was Danforth’s second attempt to trash normal functioning of a Missouri US Senate GOP primary by promoting his friend Schweich, the first being in 2009.
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The three candidates in 2012 had been running for months, one was a sitting congressman who’d been re-elected 5 times, one had won statewide election before, and one was self -financed and strongly endorsed by the US Chamber of Commerce. The Danforth group sent an "open letter” to the media promoting a prospective fourth candidate they said would have the best chance to win (“nothing against anyone else”). 

“Besides Danforth, 17 others signed the letter, including...Bert Walker, the first cousin of the first President Bush"...

Obviously a 4th candidate would further splinter the vote. Danforth’s clear implication was the 3 GOP candidates were so bad he needed to intervene. He derailed the momentum of the three main campaigns. His candidate would just need a couple weeks to decide for sure if he’d run. The Danforth group could’ve worked behind the scenes lining up donors, preparing their potential candidate, and when all was in place announce his addition before the March 27 filing deadline. As it turned out, Danforth candidate Tom Schweich, ended up announcing on March 20 that 

• he wouldn’t be running after all. 

Danforth’s actions took two weeks away from the existing GOP slate, humiliated them, interrupted and diminished their fundraising, made the GOP look like an unprincipled collection of mental cases, deterred good people from attempting to become GOP candidates, and harmed the entire country. The Republican Party is the only vehicle available to turn back the radical left in the US. So harming the GOP harms America. Of Danforth’s purported rescue of the Missouri GOP from imagined weak candidates a primary candidate who was also a sitting Congressman said:

“The field is anything but weak. In fact, I would say it is too strong for many powerful people in the liberal wing of the Republican Party.”
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The candidate, Todd Akin also said he considered Danforth a friend. (Contrary to media headlines, Akin wasn’t a “Tea Party candidate.“ Tea Party groups and Sarah Palin supported his two opponents, Steelman and Brunner. The GOP establishment actually gave Akin his start in politics in 1987. In 2010 he was re-elected for the 5th time with 67.9% of the vote. The House ‘Tea Party Caucus‘ didn’t exist until July 19, 2010). 

Publicly sabotaging  entire slates of GOP candidates late in campaigns obviously weakens all the candidates and increases likelihood of a democrat winning. Which may be what John Danforth had in mind when he publicly announced that today’s GOP:  

• makes one “nauseous” (2006),
• is “embarrassing” (2011),
• “beyond redemption“ (2010),
• has ruined “bipartisan collegiality” (2005), and if you
• write a book hoping to effect the 2006 elections

calling for push back of Republican and Conservative Christians. (p. 5).

Danforth’s book, “Faith and Politics“ asks, “Are Christians reconcilers or dividers?“ I guess he’s talking about pesky Christians who weren’t slaughtered by Islamic terrorists on 9/11/2001. 

• Danforth got his wish. In November 2006, six Democrats beat Republican incumbents giving Democrats control of both the House and Senate. (They deserved to lose but not because of Christianity.)

Some say the GOP wants polished candidates but their actions say otherwise. They let many months go by in which they could’ve coached any of the 2012 Missouri US Senate primary candidates. Instead they tried to make GOP candidates much weaker. This doesn’t even get into Danforth’s disrespect for the time and money invested by candidates, their staffs, families, and donors. Citizens concerned about Missouri and the country may have sacrificed to donate to one of the GOP candidates Danforth smeared. He threw an entire election into disarray. Thanks to Danforth, the idea of  “weak GOP candidates” was pounded into the electorate’s mind for 2 weeks. Then Danforth and his establishment cronies were gone leaving Missourians with the knowledge that the United States has only one functioning political party, the radical left democrats.

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In the 2010 US Senate race Missouri Republican Roy Blunt defeated “household Democrat name” Robin Carnahan by 14 points. This was despite a May 2009 sabotage attempt by Danforth. Rep. Roy Blunt had already announced his candidacy and sitting Missouri Senator Kit Bond had endorsed him. Danforth hit town and directly rebuked Congressman Roy Blunt’s candidacy and the endorsement given him only days earlier by current Missouri US Senator Kit Bond, presenting his friend and former Bush administration State Dept. official Thomas Schweich as “an alternative” to beat Democrat Carnahan. Despite Danforth’s efforts, Roy Blunt beat Democrat Carnahan by 14 points:

5/11/2009, “Danforth Lends Credibility to Schweich,” ky3.blogspot.com 

”Former Senator John Danforth’s endorsement of St. Louis law professor Thomas Schweich for U.S. Senate gives the little known former U.S. ambassador an initial jolt of credibility among top tier Republicans who remain uneasy about next year’s election prospects.  

Schweich is not well known outside of St. Louis political circles, but Danforth’s strong backing of his former chief of staff is grabbing the attention of GOP leaders, donors and consultants across the state….
 
It’s a direct rebuke of Congressman Roy Blunt’s candidacy and a clear separation from the current incumbent, Sen. Kit Bond, who just tossed his official blessing to Blunt on Friday. If there was any doubt that   

• the Missouri Republican Party is deeply conflicted

about how to best defeat Robin Carnahan next year, Monday’s news should rest the case. “I think we have a better chance at keeping Senator Bond’s seat with Tom Schweich than anyone else I can think of,” Danforth said.”…

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Danforth’s 2009 and 2012 sabotage attempts naturally elicited negative publicity about the GOP:

• 1. The GOP remains “uneasy,” “deeply conflicted,” and “strained.“

• 2. “An undertow of dissatisfaction haunts the GOP.”

• 3. “Acrimony in the GOP.“

• 4. “Like so much involving the GOP these days, a golden opportunity appears to be getting gummed up.”  

Danforth on behalf of “his” party, makes excellent use of his high profile to attack Republicans and conservative Christians (“I’m counting on nausea.”) in such venues as the NY Times, the Washington Post, a radio broadcast, and even a 2006 book timed to negatively effect Republicans (p. 5)  in the midterm elections.

The GOP as exemplified by Danforth shows they want America under radical left democrat control. Following is a partial Danforth chronology:

• 12/27/76-1/5/95, John Danforth, US Senator from Missouri for 3 terms,18 years
• 7/04-1/05, UN Ambassador, submitted resignation after 5 months
• 6/11/2004, Washington Post, “He (Danforth) loved working with democrats.” (parag. 16)
• 3/30/2005-NY Times: Danforth op-ed, GOP has become “political arm of conservative Christians”
• 3/30/2005, Daily Kos: “Republican John Danforth Condemns (Republican) Party in NYT Op-Ed Piece”
• 6/17/2005, NY Times: Danforth op-ed, Sees connection between “increased activism of the Christian right, especially in the Republican Party, and the collapse of bipartisan collegiality.”
• 2/1/2006, Washington Post: Danforth says “the Republican right is a divisive force in the party and the nation.“ “St. Jack and the Bullies in the Pulpit,”
• 2/1/2006, “Danforth style GOP can forgive anything except success.” “When Danforth took office in 1977, there were 143 Republicans in the House and 38 in the Senate, compared with 232 in the House and 55 in the Senate last year (2003).” (“St. Jack and the Bullies in the Pulpit,” Washington Post, p. 4)
• 2/1/2006, Danforth publishes book timed for 2006 election criticizing GOP and Christian right (Wash. Post, p. 5, end of article). Danforth got his wish. In November 2006, six Democrats beat Republican incumbents giving Democrats control of both the House and Senate. (They deserved to lose for many reasons, none of them Christianity.)
• 2/1/2008, Danforth named honorary chairman of McCain Missouri campaign
• 5/11/2009, KY3 Political Notebook: Danforth publicly rebukes elected Missouri Republicans and candidates, proposes his own candidate for US Senate from Mo.
• 11/27/10, NY Times: Danforth says GOP “has gone overboard and is beyond redemption.” This bitter outburst right after the historic Nov. 2010 Tea Party landslide gives credence to the claim, “Danforth style GOP can forgive anything except success.” (p. 4)
• 11/27/10, Think Progress notes Danforth’s NY Times comments about the GOP :beyond redemption” (The left appreciates Danforth’s help.)
• 12/1/11, Think Progress notes Danforth on KTRS radio, 11/30/11, where he says the “GOP Presidential Field Is ‘Embarrassing’.” Probably true but if you want to help you do so behind the scenes. Danforth just makes things worse, damages the GOP brand, and hastens the demise of the two party system.
• 12/2/11, Daily Kos notes Danforth KTRS interview criticizing GOP presidential candidates and audiences at debates
• 3/12/12, “Stalwart Missouri GOPers want auditor Schweich to run for U.S. Senate,“ Kansas City Star, Steve Kraske. “Besides Danforth, 17 others signed the letter, including Sam Fox, one of the most prolific fund-raisers in the state; Bert Walker, the first cousin of the first President Bush; former Missouri GOP chair Tom Fowler; major GOP donor David Humphreys, and Annie Presley of Kansas City, former deputy finance chair of Bush for President.…Danforth can say what he wants. But the letter’s message is clear: The current field is weak.…“There is no doubt that you are the candidate best qualified to represent Missouri in the U.S. Senate,” the letter said of Schweich….Like so much involving the GOP these days, a golden opportunity appears to be getting gummed up.”
  Read more here: http://midwestdemocracy.com/articles/kraske-stalwart-missouri-gopers-want-auditor-schweich-run-us-senate/#storylink=cpy
  Read more here: http://midwestdemocracy.com/articles/kraske-stalwart-missouri-gopers-want-auditor-schweich-run-us-senate/#storylink=cpy
  Read more here: http://midwestdemocracy.com/articles/kraske-stalwart-missouri-gopers-want-auditor-schweich-run-us-senate/#storylink=cpy
  Read more here: http://midwestdemocracy.com/articles/kraske-stalwart-missouri-gopers-want-auditor-schweich-run-us-senate/#storylink=cpy“Danforth can say what he wants. But the letter’s message is clear: The current field is weak. But can Schweich, who is not all that well-known despite his election as auditor, win the GOP primary? He would be the third St. Louis-area male in the race….Like so much involving the GOP these days, a golden opportunity appears to be getting gummed up.“
• Read more here: http://midwestdemocracy.com/articles/kraske-stalwart-missouri-gopers-want-auditor-schweich-run-us-senate/#storylink=cpy
• 3/12/12 St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Danforth sabotage: 5 months before Missouri GOP primary Danforth and power brokers including George Bush #1 cousin Bert Walker say Missouri Senate primary field is too weak and a fourth candidate of their choosing should enter the race.
• 3/12/12, GOP US Senate candidate Congressman Todd Akin responds to Danforth implication that declared GOP group is too weak: “This is absolutely untrue; the field is anything but weak. In fact, I would say it is too strong for many powerful people in the liberal wing of the Republican Party.”
• 3/20/12, “Auditor Tom Schweich to forgo Senate bid,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “Some of Missouri’s leading Republicans, among them former Sen. John Danforth, had appealed to him this month apparently out of concern about potential weakness of Republicans vying to challenge McCaskill.”
• Danforth is a Senior Fellow at “Bipartisan Policy Center“
• Danforth is an heir to the Ralston-Purina fortune.
• 11/8/13, “The Sabotage Republicans,” By Jeffrey Lord, American Spectator

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