...he's now trying to get around his White-Hot Fail on abortion in his last debate with Tammy Duckworth, he's now using past statements by Duckworth to say she blames sexual assault victims in the military for being attacked. So put on a raincoat, or wrap yourself in plastic, and follow me below the socialist tangerine beignet.
TPM has all the sordid details, but the upshot is this: Everyone's favorite Deadbeat-Dad Congresscritter released a statement "clarifying" his egregious misstatement about how "advances in science and technology" have wiped out any need for abortion when the life & health of the mother is threatened:
“In those very rare cases where a mother’s life may be in danger past the point of viability for the baby, today’s doctors work to induce labor or perform a caesarean section in an attempt to save BOTH lives,” Walsh said. “These cases are extremely rare, and they unfortunately are used by the militant pro-choice movement to justify every single abortion.”
But Walsh wasn't happy with the usual "I was actually
right on this issue" statement. He also took another ridiculous shot at Duckworth -- and this one honestly beats them all, from
saying she talks too much about being a soldier, to
attacking her fashion sense:
(WARNING: Possible Trigger Alert)
Let’s also not forget my opponent’s comments on sexual abuse. When asked earlier this summer about sexual abuse in the military and her personal experience with it, My opponents response was, and I quote, that I was never sexually assaulted because I was a pretty tough chick, and not some weak 18 year old who couldn’t push back. As a father of two daughters, I found those comments every bit as offensive as Congressman Akin’s offensive comments on rape. Ms Duckworth’s comments could not be more offensive and yet they were not covered. How dare Ms. Duckworth imply that women are only raped because they are too weak to fight back, and if only they were just a little tougher rape would not occur? How dare she say that?
Let's forget, for the moment, that Walsh is the only person in Congress who has
defended Todd Akin, which should be enough to consign both of those miserable pieces of excrement to the Outhouse of History. Instead, let's look at Duckworth's full statement, which came from an
interview she did for Buzzfeed a few months ago, when she was asked about the documentary
The Invisible War:
"It is absolutely unacceptable that there is sexual assault in the military. We should remember it occurs not just with female service members but with males as well. It’s unacceptable and we need more oversight. I think the military is trying hard, but until you have more female high-ranking officers, you’re going to have some issues. I never experienced sexual assault, but I was a pretty tough chick officer, and if anything I was there for lower enlisted females to come to. I wasn’t a scared 18 year old who couldn’t push back. A lot of this stuff is about power. It’s power relationships. The military needs to redouble its efforts, and there should be congressional oversight. And women need to become a bigger percentage of the military — I think as we do, things will get better."
In other words, Walsh did what Republicans have been doing for time immemorial: Finding something that can be "quoted", doing a little selective editing, and riding that sucker like a polo pony... only this time, Walsh shit-canned all that "unnecessary filler" that Duckworth fed the interviewer: How men
and women are being sexually assaulted in the military, how rape is a tool of power used by tools against young recruits that don't have Duckworth's strength and resolve, and how this won't abate until (a) there's way more oversight than there is now, and (b) there are more women officers in the military.
All that so Joe Walsh can look like an outraged "father of two daughters" (that he either can't or won't support) and not like some misogynistic Teahadist assclown who should never have been in Congress in the first place. Oh, and he Tweeted this crap, too -- more proof that Twitter is God's way of saying, "You really need to think this shit through before you tell it to anyone!"
With that in mind, I'd like to close this rant by paraphrasing soon-to-be-ex-Congressman Walsh himself:
"How dare he say that?"