With Missouri GOP Senate candidate Rep. Todd Akin refusing to withdraw from the race, and with Tuesday’s deadline now passed — some GOP power-brokers are exploring alternative options to displace Akin in their quest to unseat incumbent Democratic candidate Sen. Claire McCaskill. Akin is under fire for comments he made recently about rape and abortion.
On Tuesday’s broadcast of “On the Record” on the Fox News Channel, former Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin suggested a third party bid to defeat both Akin and McCaskill. Host Greta Van Sustren praised Palin for her endorsement of Sarah Steelman over Akin — a wise choice in hindsight, the host said. But Palin explained she had some sympathy for Akin. (RELATED: ThinkProgress blows it, claims Fox News ‘blackout’ of Todd Akin coverage)
“Now we do have opportunities — Todd Akin has said he is not going to drop out, bless his heart. I don’t want to pile on Todd Akin, because in some respects I understand what he’s trying to say here, and standing on principle that he doesn’t want to be perceived as a quitter,” Palin said. “But you got to know when to hold ’em and know when to fold ’em.” (RELATED — Akin: I’m staying in)
Palin hinted she might be interested in backing Steelman as a third-party candidate.
“Believe me, I’ve walked it before,” Palin continued “I know when you have to hold that mantle and then hand it to someone else in order to progress a positive agenda. That’s what I had to do in Alaska.”
“In order to … promote the ideas and policies of respecting and protecting the sanctity of human life, and respecting the idea and policies that would perpetuate a strong economy based on empowering hard-working individuals instead of growing dysfunctional indebted government, we have to take back the Senate. And Missouri is a must-win state. The way we do that is to have someone like Sarah Steelman be able to run, even if it’s as a third-party candidate, to be able to run and take this back.”
But St. Louis radio host Dana Loesch, also the editor of Breitbart’s “Big Government,” website, the third-party deadline had passed and that Missouri law would prevent Steelman from running since she was a Republican primary candidate.
Still, Palin said a third-party effort might be called the “Status Quo Has Got To Go” Party. (RELATED — Romney calls on Akin to get out of Senate race)
“Maybe it is a third-party run of Sarah Steelman that I can get behind, and granted the ‘Status Quo Has Got To Go’ would be an odd name for a third party, but we’ll coin it, adopt it, we’ll run with it if that’s what it takes in order to get a common sense constitutional happens-to-be-pro-life woman in Missouri to clean up this mess that now hass been created — and at the same time take back the Senate, which means we get to take back the country and put government back on the side of the people.”