Congressman Todd Akin’s asinine comments about “legitimate rape,” pregnancy and abortion have knocked medicare and the economy off center stage in the political debate, at least temporarily.
Akin has apologized. Yet his comments are unforgivable because he is clueless to the hurt and damage he has caused and continues to cause. He is clueless to how hurtful his comments are to women, particularly rape survivors. His apology is empty because he doesn’t realize what he did.
Akin is clueless to the political damage he is causing as evidenced by the fact that he refused to resign his candidacy for U.S. Senate. He thinks he can win. He says his campaign is not about him, but about his message, as if he is a messiah with a unique message that no one else can deliver. Akin is a candidate for a straight jacket and the U.S. Senate.
Republicans are losing women over the Akin gaffe because 1) they failed to get him out of the Missouri U.S. Senate race and 2) their response is too male. Empathy is missing. The Republican response, which failed, is strategic and politically expedient. The strategy is sound, but empathy is missing and women feel that.
Much of the empathy coming from the left is false. It is strategic. But at least they are trying. Thus the gender gap will expand until Republican males get empathy for women, or at least fake it as well as Democratic males do.
The sin of it all is that on a political level the abortion debate is bullshit.
TRENTON – With just two weekends left in the unofficial summer season, the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control is warning underage drinkers and those who would help them get alcohol to think twice before they try to buy liquor.
That’s because both local law enforcement and ABC investigators have made more than 200 arrests at the Shore this summer.
“We are going to be relentless in our efforts to combat underage drinking,” said Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control Director Michael Halfacre. “We are placing a spotlight on everyone involved in this: from the underage person who tries to buy, to the adult who agrees to help them buy, to the bartender who serves them.
The ABC’s enforcement efforts are spearheaded by its Investigations Bureau. Since May, investigators have visited 130 licensed establishments in New Jersey and have carded 1,091 patrons, resulting in 81 arrests relating to the sale, service, or consumption of alcoholic beverages by person underage persons. Investigators are working closely with the State Police and county prosecutor’s offices in many of these details.
Recently, four people, including a bartender, were arrested and charged for underage-related violations at the Sand Bar Restaurant in Brielle. That bartender, Jessica Zeffiro, 28, of Ocean, was alleged to have sold alcohol on August 4 to 31-year-old Valerie Gialanella, of Barnegat, who then passed those drinks to Carly Unger, 19, and Alexa Rickert, 20, of Cedar Grove. Gialenella was charged with providing alcohol to persons under the legal age and Rickert and Unger were charged with consumption of alcohol underage.
That same day, ABC investigators observed Jeffrey M. Santiago, 21, purchase alcohol for Michael Malley, 18, at Corner Liquor Store in Union Beach. The investigators, who were serveiling the store from an adjacent parking lot, arrested Santiago and Malley after the former handed off the alcohol. Both men were Union Beach residents.
Missouri Congressman Todd Akin, a GOP candidate for U.S. Senate, set off a national uproar and likely ended his poltical career with his comments comments about rape and abortion over the weekend when he said pregancy from “legitimate rape” was rare and that women’s body have a natural way of “shutting that whole thing down,” during an interview on a St. Louis Fox afflilate wherein he was asked about his views on abortion in the case of rape.
“From what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare,” said Akin said of pregnancy caused by rape. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume maybe that didn’t work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist.”
Akin issued an apology of sorts on facebook later in the day on Sunday and told Mike Huckabee on the radio that he should have said “forcible rape.”
President Barack Obama called Akin’s comments offensive during his press conference this afternoon.
GOP Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney distanced himself from Akin, calling the congressman’s remarks “insulting, inexcusable and frankly wrong,” according to the Washington Post.
Governor Chris Christie called Akin’s comments “asinine” and “ridiculous” during his press conference in Asbury Park this afternoon, according to Poltickernj.
In a press release, New Jersey GOP Senate nominee Joe Kyrillos took his criticism of Akin one step further than his fellow Republicans by addressing the congressman’s views on abortion :
“Like many I am outraged by Representative Todd Akin’s remarks regarding pregnancy and ‘legitimate rape’ – they have no place in our public discourse. But beyond my concern for our national public discourse, I am saddened and disappointed as a husband and a father to a 10 year old daughter. Not only are Representative Akin’s comments about a horrific act of violence wrong and inappropriate, he and I disagree on the issue of abortion, generally.”
(emphasis added)
Neither Kyrillos nor his campaign have responded to requests for a clarification on what he means by his “general” disagreement with Akin over abortion.
U.S. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell is suggestting that Akin withdrawl his Senate candidacy by the 5pm Tuesday deadline, according to the LA Times.
Governor Chris Christie will be holding a press conference on the Asbury Park boardwalk tomorrow afternoon, Monday August 20.
Following his meeting the press at 3PM, Christie is scheduled to greet boardwalk patrons and beach goers along the boardwalk and emphasize the importance of clean beaches and waterways to the New Jersey shore economy.
New Jersey’s GOP nominee for U.S. Senate and his wife earned $437,500 in 2011, according to tax returns made available to the press by the Kyrillos for Senate campaign this afternoon.
Joe and Susan Kyrillos paid $106,564 in federal income taxes and $24,299 in NJ State income taxes on the $289,728 portion of their income that was taxable. Property taxes on their Middletown home are almost $20,000.
The couple jointly reported wages of $133,738. $49,000 of those wages are the senator’s legislative salary. The senator earned gross revenue of $150,000 and a net profit of $109,299 from his commercial real estate business. Mrs. Kyrillos earned gross revenues of $255,364 and a net profit of $197,532 from her insurance consulting business.
The couple did not disclose their W-2s or 1099s which would have revealed the source of their incomes.
In 2010 they earned gross income of $365,509, $214,072 of it taxable. They paid $95,811 in state and federal income taxes that year. In 2009 their gross income was $381,052, $239,582 taxable. Their state and federal income tax bill was $177,820 in 09.
The Kyrillos campaign announced that the senator would make three years tax returns available yesterday afternoon. A few hours later, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, the Democratic incumbent, announced that he would disclose five years of returns next week. Menendez has never before released tax returns in his six years in the U.S. Senate.
“I congratulate Senator Menendez for following Senator Kyrillos’ lead and agreeing to release more than one tax return,” said Kyrillos Campaign Manager Chapin Fay. “It’s clear had Senator Kyrillos not led this charge, Senator Menendez would have continued to keep New Jerseyans in the dark. Joe will bring this same agenda of good government and transparency to the United States Senate and bring an end to backroom deal-making and special interest influence.”
According to The Star Ledger, the Menendez campaign issued the following statement regarding the Kyrillos returns:
“Joe Kyrillos’s personal finances raise more questions than his tax returns can answer. Kyrillos makes a substantial income in addition to what he is paid as a public official, and it is incumbent upon him to disclose the nature of the work he does at Newport Capital, Kyrillos Real Estate and any other outside enterprises in which he is involved,” Menendez spokesman Michael Soliman said in the statement. “Without knowing the nature of Joe Kyrillos’ reported outside income, New Jerseyans are left with no assurances that this income is entirely unrelated to his public duties.”
