You made an intemperate remark in private and now it is public...do you own up to it or apologize?

If I were Karl Rove, I’d explain that I was kidding about Akin being murdered and acknowledge that it was in bad taste. I’d apologize for saying it.

I would not, however, apologize to Akin for being angry about his remarks. His remarks angered liberals and conservatives alike, and rightly so!

Oh, for heavens sake – people get so much mileage out of this sort of thing – first: explain, then: deny and finally just laugh it off.

Yeah I know what intemperate means, saw it in Clint’s movie Unforgiven….“He was a man of intemperate disposition.”
Do I win a prize or something?

What’s the flap about? Rove should easily be able to explain that a Senator’s body will quite simply shut down a legitimate murder attempt.

Oh, wait. He’s not a Senator yet; he’s just thinking and speaking like one. Never mind.

The word is intemperate, not intemperant.

It depends on the intemperate remark. That was a classic Rove joke, nothing to apologize about.

But generally, yes, it’s quicker to make an apology on the remark and move on.

@zenvelo I got it right the first time, can’t explain the second goof there.

Rove didn’t say this in private. He said it in a speech.
He should be beheaded with a dull knife, then fed to local wildlife.
Ha ha ha! Just kidding. Don’t ask my whereabouts should it happen, especially next Friday

I would think you would both own up to it and apologize. But I hope Rove doesn’t do either. It’s much more fun to have Republicans tearing down Akin than to have them all make nicey about it.

And I don’t get it. Akin is just saying what is in the Republican platform. Why aren’t Republicans disavowing the Republican platform, too? Or at least that plank? I am feeling a serious sense of cognitive dissonance here. Clearly this is not about Akin. It’s about the bad press he got. If he got no bad press, no one would be disavowing him. If they really believed that abortion in the case of rape was acceptable, then they wouldn’t be outlawing it in their platform.

Does anyone else find this discombobulating, or is it just me?

@wundayatta I read the 2012 Republican platform and didn’t see this issue of rape and abortions mentioned. The word rape is not used once in the entire platform.

@Cruiser: On page 32 of the link you provided, this is slipped in, in the middle of a paragraph on affordable health care.

”...Through Obamacare, the current Administration has promoted the notion of abortion as healthcare. We, however, affirm the dignity of women by protecting the sanctity of human life.. Numerous studies (no citations here for this vague and erroneous claim) have shown that abortion endangers the health and well-being of women, and we stand firmly against it.”

Event though the word “rape” is carefully not used, the language above is explicit and pellucid in what it does not say. There is the usual rhetorical shorthand here. I, as a woman, do not feel (strongly) that that POV affirms my dignity, health or well-being nor that of my daughter, my nieces, my sister, my female cousins or kin.

I personally would acknowledge I said it and apologize if necessary.

@gailcalled I do agree with you and that unfortunate characterization of a woman’s dignity tied to their championing an unborn’s right to life and find that insulting as well. That said I respectfully do not agree with your interpretation of that section as addressing rape in any way shape or form and consider how you have is IMHO quite a stretch to do so.

@Cruiser You don’t read very carefully, do you? Why don’t you search the document for mentions of abortion. You will find at least nineteen results. Nineteen. Come on. Do you expect me to take anything you say seriously? You didn’t see any mentioned? Why do I bother? Indeed, on page 44, you will also find a mention of rape.

You are behaving like a typical conservative. Someone who blows smoke and says shit that is demonstrably not true without any apology. Some might say you are a liar, but I choose to believe you are simply careless. Still, I thought you were better than that.

I think what he said, @wundayatta, which seems clear enough to me as I reread what he said, is that there is no mention of “rape and abortion”. Which is true. There is no juxtaposition of those terms. (The word ‘rape’ is mentioned one time in the context of “crime”, but not with respect to “abortion’. Yes, the word “abortion” occurs several times. He didn’t say that it didn’t.)

The problem that many have with the platform is that “there are no exceptions” for how a conception might occur, which would allow for “abortion in this case”.

@CWOTUS Ah, I see. Yes, he did link rape and abortions. I take that back. But not the part about there not being a single mention of rape.

Absolutely acknowledge it and explain yourself. You’re only human and humans make mistakes.