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Missouri delegates get pep talks, but absent Akin remains elephant in room

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Aug. 27, 2012 - TAMPA – Missouri delegates got a pep talk from U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt and a platform pitch from former Sen. Jim Talent on Monday. But the unspoken elephant in the room where the delegates gathered for breakfast was the controversy over GOP Senate nominee Todd Akin.

Blunt, R-Mo, who has helped lead the Republican effort to convince U.S. Rep. Akin, R-Wildwood, to drop out of the race, said in an interview that – despite Akin’s defiant “this is an election, not a selection” commitment to stay in the race – Akin still has time to step aside for a replacement candidate to face U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, R-Mo.

“I don’t think we’re at a final decision point yet” for Akin to withdraw, Blunt told the Beacon. “I hope he continues to look at this.” The senator added that “the national interest is not well served by Todd staying in the race.”

Blunt's overall remarks, which avoided Akin, got a standing ovation from the 150 or so Missouri delegates, alternates and guests who attended the Monday session. But there was considerable disagreement behind the scenes about whether Akin – who had made controversial statements the previous week about rape and abortion – was being treated fairly by Blunt, presumed GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, and other Republicans who have asked him to withdraw.

“Todd Akin is a very fine man. It’s his decision what he’s going to do,” said Eagle Forum founder and conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly, a delegate. "I think a lot of Missourians are very ticked off at the out-of-staters who are telling us who to have for our Senate candidate.”

Schlafly, who is cohosting an anti-abortion “Treasure Life!” rally in Tampa Tuesday with Family Research Council leader Tony Perkins, said the Missouri delegates with whom she’s talked are divided on Akin. “The trouble is, he is the candidate who won the primary,” she said. “You would have to make a good case that somebody else could do a better job of winning.”

The Missourians met as Tropical Storm Isaac veered away from Tampa – where the Republican convention officially opened Monday but quickly adjourned for the day because of the weather – and headed through the Gulf of Mexico toward New Orleans.

Delegates got fired up at the breakfast, met later for lunch at a Cuban neighborhood near Tampa, and prepared for the process Tuesday of nominating Mitt Romney for president and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan for vice president.

Journalists prod delegates on Akin

While neither Blunt nor Talent brought up Akin in their public comments at the breakfast, journalists prodded them and delegates about the controversy after the meeting. Former U.S. Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond reiterated his position – expressed in a statement last week along with Bunt, Talent and former U.S. Sens. John Ashcroft and John C. Danforth – that Akin should step aside.

But several delegates and alternates were sporting Akin stickers and buttons at the meeting, and U.S. Rep. Billy Long, R-Springfield, told reporters that he still backed his Missouri colleague in the Senate race, as the winner of the GOP primary by a considerable margin.

Several other delegates, including Platte County Clerk Joan Harms, told the Beacon that they back Akin. Expressing a more nuanced position was Heather Coil of St. Louis, a Ron Paul delegate who supported John Brunner in the GOP Senate primary. While she disagrees with Akin on many issues, she thinks "the decision on whether or not to stay in the race should be made by Mr. Akin and his family based on if he feels he can beat McCaskill this November." She also thinks it would be best to avoid "using the mass media as a means to confront him on this issue.”

In an article Monday based on interviews at the breakfast gathering, Politico quoted five other Missouri delegates who also want Akin to stay in the race.

In his interview with the Beacon, Blunt contended that most Missouri delegates agree that Akin should step aside, “Generally the delegates agree with me and my colleagues, former Republican senators, on this topic. There are a few who don’t, and I understand that. That continues to be an issue that only Todd [Akin] can deal with.”

One factor that may affect Akin’s decision is campaign money. On Monday, Republican Karl Rove – who runs the Crossroads GPS super PAC, which he said would not spend on advertising in support of Akin  – predicted at a Politico event that Akin would lose by the widest margin of any GOP Senate candidate in modern history if he stays in the race against McCaskill.

“What he said was indefensible and the way he handled it made it worse,” Rove said.  While Rove credited Akin with having “a good heart,” he contended that the Missouri congressman “said a real stupid, indefensible thing from which there’s no recovery. And if he really cares about the values of conservatism and pro-life, then he will not go down in defeat with the biggest loss of any Republican candidate for Senate in the modern history.”

Speakers point to importance of November

At the delegation’s breakfast meeting, Romney adviser Talent, who chaired the GOP platform’s security and foreign policy subcommittee, lashed out at what he viewed as deep flaws in Obama administration policies that he said were weakening America’s role in the world.

Instead, Talent advocated what he called a “peace through strength” approach – advocated by Romney – that would combine bolstered economic and defense sectors with a more assertive U.S. foreign policy. He said the platform’s security planks were a good foundation for such an approach.

Praising Talent’s role as a key Romney adviser, Blunt blasted the White House economic failure and security lapses. He contended that this fall’s election will be the most important national election since 1980, when President Ronald Reagan rose to power.

“This is the time. This is the moment,” Blunt told the delegates and guests. “This is a big party. We don’t have to agree on everything but we agree on the fundamental things.”

While the vast majority of GOP delegates back Romney, many delegates committed to U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Tex., complained Monday that planned revisions to the party's nomination rules were a power grab that, in the future, will make it much tougher for outsider candidates like Paul to garner backing,

"They are trying to concentrate power at the national level at the RNC and deprive states of their influence," complained Missouri delegate Paul Trask of Jackson County, who backs Paul. "This is just not right."

Romney forces were working behind the scenes Monday to try to quash the rebellion -- or at least prevent public battles over the rules change on the convention floor this week. Trask had joined Missouri's three other Paul delegates and two of the alternates at a massive rally Sunday at a Tampa stadium where Paul and allies spoke to a crowd estimated at 10,000.

"Ron Paul gave an outstanding speech," said Trask.