This looks like it's going to get ugly. Stories about the Republican presidential ticket and rape theorist Dr. John Willke keep turning up like a bad nickel. Nothing yet in the the US media
on the most recent connection - but the UK paper The Daily Telegraph is reporting that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan met with Dr. Willke in the recent past. Both met separately with him as recently as
October of last year during the Republican presidential primaries.
We already knew that Dr. Jack Willke, Todd Akin's medical expert on women's bodies biological reactions to rape, was a surrogate for the Mitt Romney's campaign during Romney's first presidential campaign in 2008.
The 87-year-old endorsed Mr Romney’s bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination and was one of his official campaign surrogates. ”I am proud to have the support of a man who has meant so much to the pro-life movement,” Mr Romney said at the time.
Both Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney have
denounced Willke's 'theories' of rape (which have been linked to Nazi Germany experiments) and have said Willke has no role in their 2012 campaign.
Dr. Willke wrote a letter of support for Todd Akin after Akin made his comments about legitimate rape and women not getting pregnant 'from rape'.
Dr Willke wrote an open letter on Tuesday declaring that “the pro-life movement and I unequivocally stand with Rep. Akin” despite Mr Romney and several other party heavyweights saying that he must step aside.
“The guy is clean,” he told the Daily Telegraph. “He made one mistake by using the wrong word and the volcano erupted. The powers that be in the Republican party threw this guy overboard”.
Mr Romney and Paul Ryan, his running mate, have denounced Mr Akin's remarks. Dr Willke has been given no role in Mr Romney’s 2012 campaign and aides stress that the candidate disagrees with his theory on rape.
Now the Daily Telegraph is
reporting that Dr. Willke in an interview says Mitt Romney met the doctor in his home in Cincinnati, Ohio during the primary campaign.
Local news reports made mention of the visits, which at the time attracted little attention outside Cincinnati.
However, Dr Willke told The Daily Telegraph that he did meet Mr Romney during a presidential primary campaign stop in the doctor's home city of Cincinnati, Ohio, in October last year. Local news reports at the time noted that the candidate held “private meetings” during the visit.
“He told me ‘thank you for your support – we agree on almost everything, and if I am elected President I will make some major pro-life pronouncements’,” Dr Willke said in a telephone interview on Tuesday
“I thanked him, and said I knew where he was – that he was 99 per cent of what we wanted,” he said of the roughly ten-minute meeting. “I told him I would help in any way I could”. A spokesman for Mr Romney declined to comment.
Oh, and he met Paul Ryan too
The doctor said that he had also met Mr Ryan, who sits in Congress for the Wisconsin district in which one of his sons lives, several times. He said that after listening to Dr Willke’s views on abortion during their last encounter, Mr Ryan replied: “That’s where I’m at”.
Dr Willke praised Mr Ryan as “a very obedient Catholic”, who would make a “great Vice President”. He contrased the Republican congressman with Joe Biden, the current Vice President, “who claims to be Catholic but doesn’t sound like one and doesn’t act like one”.
"Obedient Catholic". Gag.
.
"I had meetings with the Republican Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates"
The previous connection between Willke and Romney dates back to Romney's first presidential campaign in 2008, a lifetime in Romney political years. This recent meeting ties him indelibly to Willke and his extremist positions, and makes it impossible for him to credibly claim that he supports any exceptions for abortion, as he has tried to do by distancing himself from Willke.
Willke is obviously thrilled with the attention his views are getting in the presidential election and will not be content to remain quietly in the background. No matter how much they try to downplay and refudiate their connections to Willke, this illustrates the Republican subservience to their religious masters and raises questions as to who they will be taking policy direction should they get into office. Romney and Ryan can run from Akin and Willke but they cannot hide.
Let's see them wriggle out of this one.
11:12 AM PT:
The story is being picked up by a few outlets, who mention the DT article. The Maddow blog mentions that Rachel mentioned it in last night's show
The main exponent of Todd Akin's theory that rape victims don't get pregnant ... claims that he got a private meeting with Mitt Romney as recently as late last year.
The claim comes in an article just out from The Daily Telegraph (for what it's worth, it's the same pub and reporter who wrote the 'Anglo-Saxon' piece a few weeks ago which provided the inglorious kick off to Romney's European tour). As reporter Jon Swaine explains, Willke was an official surrogate for Romney back in 2008. Willke claims that he got a private meeting with Romney as recently late last year and told Willke "we agree on almost everything" about the pro-life cause.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/...