Todd Akin on women’s issues in Kansas City campaign stop
Source: Washington Post
He stood by his description of Sen. Claire McCaskill’s (D-Mo.) behavior as not very “ladylike” during last week’s debate. “We’ve got a couple of words in the English language, one is a gentleman and a lady. … I think those are pretty self-explanatory terms, and I was using them just as the English language uses those terms.”
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Akin was also asked why women should support him, after his comment on “legitimate rape” last month. “We have a regular army of women campaigning,” he said, citing the “Women for Todd Akin” campaign event last week in St. Louis. He mentioned the need again for an energy policy. “The federal government’s so big … it’s sucking the freedom out of our country.”
Finally, another reporter questioned him on the role of women. “It’s pretty evident,” he said, launching into rhetoric I’ve heard before. “We have a long heritage of freedom that defines America. We believe there is a Creator who blessed us with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Then he railed against those “who want to divide America” by pitting the poor against the rich, identifying people by skin color and blaming the Republicans for a “war on women.”
I didn’t get a chance to ask him about equal pay for equal work. He voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, but at another event last week, this was his answer to why: “I believe in free enterprise. I don’t think the government should be telling people what you pay and what you don’t pay. I think it’s about freedom. If someone wants to hire somebody and they agree on a salary, that’s fine … the government sticking its nose into all kinds of things has gotten us into huge trouble.”
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2012/10/01/todd-akin-on-womens-issues-in-kansas-city-campaign-stop/
Ah, the recent musings of Todd Akin on women's rights. It is interesting how he defends his vote against Equal Pay as the right of employers to discriminate against women based on gender.
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