Molly Redden
Republicans are letting on their fears that the race to replace Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss could end in disaster for them. The cast of GOP primary characters, which The Hill has ruled a “clown car,” features the likes of Rep. Phil Gingrey—briefly infamous for saying Rep. Todd Akin was “partially right” about rape and pregnancy—and Rep. Paul Broun—who seems to utter “a gaffe every other day,” in the words of Georgia political operative Joel McElhannon. My colleague Nate Cohn has called the general election, where Democrats will likely run Michelle Nunn, Democrats’ best shot for picking up a Senate seat in 2014.
Today, Manu Raju of Politico reports that in a bid to avoid “Todd Akin 2.0,” Republicans are considering substantial primary ad buys against Broun. Establishmentarians are right to focus their fears on him: The first legislation he introduced to Congress was a personhood bill defining life as beginning at conception, he’s a goldbug, and he voted for Allen West as speaker this Congress, even though West was no longer a member. And his over-the-top rhetoric makes fertile territory for the next “legitimate rape.” See his contribution to the debate over the 2009 stimulus bill:
“This non-stimulus bill is the road to socialism. It will give us a journey that includes bureaucratic controls, high taxes, government intervention, Cuba-style medicine, and economic collapse of America. This steamroller of socialism is being shoved down our throats, and it will strangle our economy. This porkulous bill has a few decent provisions in it, but it's mostly filled with mystery meat. Rancid meat.”
