Let's examine his process, shall we?

Step 1: Frame an effort to curb rampant sexual assault in the military as a "war on men" 

If you thought that Sen. Claire McCaskill's, D-Mo., objections to the nomination of Lt. Gen. Susan Helms to vice commander of the Air Force Space Command were about Helms' decision to overturn -- against the advice of legal counsel -- the conviction of a captain twice accused of sexually assaulting women he served with, then you would be wrong, says Taranto.

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Last week, that opposition went right to the top, when Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said, “It is my strong belief — and I think others on Capitol Hill and within our institution — the ultimate authority has to remain within the command structure.” He was saying that, of course, while unveiling an annual report showing the number of sexual assaults within the Army had actually gone up in the past year. But on Monday the Pentagon press secretary backed away somewhat, saying the secretary was “open to all options.”

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"Of course you regret it," he said in the interview. "You think, what it would have been like if I hadn't done that."

Akin also took the opportunity to make a dig at Karl Rove, whose Super PAC American Crossroads launched a new project to make sure that another candidate like Akin doesn't win the Republican primary, only to prove unelectable in the general election. "Karl Rove has made himself an expert," Akin said. "I think I lost one race. He managed to lose about 12 of them in one night."

Watch:

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"The person that is a suspect writes a lot of letters to members," Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said Tuesday as she emerged from a classified briefing.

Authorities declined to comment on a suspect or any other aspect of the investigation being led by Capitol Police and the FBI after tests indicated that a letter mailed to the Mississippi Republican's Washington office contained the potentially deadly toxin. The letter was intercepted at a Senate mail facility in Prince George's County, Md., just outside Washington, said Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, a member of the Senate's Democratic leadership.

The letter's discovery shook the U.S. Capitol, where several events were canceled Tuesday in response to Monday's Boston bombing that killed three people, injured more than 170 and ignited fresh fears of terrorism. There was no evidence of a connection between the two events.

FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said initial field tests on the substance produced mixed results and it was undergoing further analysis at a laboratory. Only after that testing could a determination be made about whether the substance was ricin, Bresson said.

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The latest is Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, who said in a statement released to Buzzfeed Monday night that the senator believes "that same sex couples should be able to marry and should have the same rights, privileges and responsibilities as any other married couple."

"Government should keep out of individuals' personal lives—if someone wants to marry someone they love, they should be able to. Alaskans are fed up with government intrusion into our private lives, our daily business, and in the way we manage our resources and economy," he said.

On Monday, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., made a similar statement, following Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who came out in support of gay marriage over the weekend. Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V., and Tim Johnson, D-S.D., also announced that they no longer support DOMA. Both voted for the law when it first passed in 1996, and both are retiring in 2014.

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"I support marriage equality because it is the fair and right thing to do," he wrote. "Like many Virginians and Americans, my views on gay marriage have evolved, and this is the inevitable extension of my efforts to promote equality and opportunity for everyone."

Chris Geidner from BuzzFeed points out that though Warner signed on to a March 1 brief urging the Supreme Court to strike down DOMA, his office would not explicitly express support for same-sex marriage at the time.

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"I met him for the first time this morning," McCaskill said of the Americans for Tax Reform leader. "Nice to meet him. But, you know, who is he?"

People like Norquist, McCaskill concluded, almost make her feel sorry for John Boehner. "There is incredible pressure on him from a base of his party that is unreasonable about this. And he's got to decide: Is his speakership more important, or is the country more important?"

Norquist, meanwhile, compared the president to a big baby. "It's the president who's threatening to raise taxes on the middle class if he doesn't stamp his feet and get his way," he said.

The solution: C-SPAN!

"He should get into a room with C-SPAN cameras there and negotiate, so instead of hearing rhetoric like this -- that was all show, no economics. Let's have it in front of C-SPAN cameras," Norquist said. "And if the Republicans are being reasonable, we'll see that. If they're not, we'll see that. You've got to have cameras in that room; none of this press releases after."

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The Washington Post’s Outlook section sure tried. It asked 13 authorities for election predictions, even going so far as to reach beyond the usual Beltway pundits, strategists and gadflies. But with one exception, anyone looking for unique opinions will be disappointed.

Mostly respondents fell in line with mainstream numbers and predicted a narrow victory for President Obama. A 12th-grade government class, a meteorologist, a couple pundits and operatives, two tech guys and a poker player all have him beating Mitt Romney with 314 electoral votes or fewer. (A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win.) Only GOP strategist Leslie Sanchez and the Post’s horse-racing writer Andrew Beyer predict Romney winning a close race.

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The New York Times reports:

"Nearly a million of those dollars on television ad buys are coming from Mr. Akin’s campaign, while the rest is from outside groups, and there is speculation that organizations that previously distanced themselves from the six-term Congressman could be behind some of the new spending.

The Missouri Republican Party coordinated with the Akin campaign for a $387,000 ad buy, a spokesman for Mr. Akin said, while the campaign itself made a $300,000 purchase two days ago. The spokesman, Rick Tyler, said the Akin campaign planned to make another $600,000 ad buy on Thursday."

At the end of October, the state GOP had $375,000, indicating that it might have gotten some additional help from outside donors.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee has repeatedly declined to comment about whether it's paying for the ads, though the RNC said it wasn't them.

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Right Wing Watch flags that in 1992, Akin opposed the bill, which would have established a "'statewide child abuse review board' and tighten[ed] the standard for proving child abuse from 'reason to suspect' to 'credible evidence.'"

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported at the time:

"Akin said he was concerned that ‘the department could come into your home and if your kid had just fallen off his bike and skinned his knee…take your kid away.’ Akin also said that with a loose definition of abuse, neighbors might use child-abuse reports ‘as a tool to harass, a way to get even with’ someone they dislike."

The editorial board of the Post-Dispatch slammed Akin's opposition to the bill, saying that he "resorts to extreme and unlikely examples to bolster his case."

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Akin has already acknowledged being arrested once, but according to the draft report the campaign leaked, the congressman was arrested on three previous occasions, all in 1985 for criminal trespassing and resisting arrest at abortion clinics in St. Louis and Illinois. In one instance, Akin “had to be carried by police to an elevator because he refused to walk.” The paper found the arrests by searching through its archives (it had previously missed them because Akin changed his first name).

The Akin campaign leaked the story when spokesperson Rick Tyler (of Newt Gingrich fame) posted on the campaign website an email exchange with Post-Dispatch reporter Kevin McDermott, who included a draft of the story in an email seeking comment.

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“She goes to Washington, D.C., it’s a little bit like one of those dogs, ‘fetch,’” he said. “She goes to Washington, D.C., and get all of these taxes and red tape and bureaucracy and executive orders and agencies and she brings all of this stuff and dumps it on us in Missouri.”

Rick Tyler, a spokesman for Akin, downplayed the remarks, telling the New York Times that Akin “made an analogy — probably could have made a better one. Everybody’s going to find a reason to get their feelings hurt and get bent out of shape.”

He also joked that Akin “could have said liberals — people actually like dogs.”

Here's the audio of Akin's remarks, via PoliticMo:

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“I believed at one time they did want Akin to win, even though they didn’t want to admit it,” Rick Tyler, a senior Akin advisor, told Alex Pappas and Alexis Levinson of the Daily Caller. “I’m convinced now they don’t want Akin to win.”

“They would rather lose this race and give it to McCaskill than have Todd Akin win,” Tyler said. “This has somehow gotten to be personal with them. So they’re willing to throw away the Senate majority. They’re willing to keep Obamacare right where it is.”

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How about whether Arizona Democratic Senate candidate Richard Carmona would support Majority Leader Harry Reid next year? Carmona's not talking about that. Former Maine Gov. Angus King has nothing for you on whether he'd side with Republicans or Democrats if his independent Senate bid works out. And Paul Ryan's proposed changes to Medicare? Not relevant, said Republican House candidate Chris Collins of New York; not going to answer, said Republican Senate candidate Josh Mandel of Ohio.

"I'm someone who looks forward and not backward," says Collins, who's trying to unseat Democrat Kathy Hochul in New York's most-watched House race. "And the Ryan budget is in the past."

Thanks for the questions, but these and other candidates are just flat-out refusing to reveal where they stand on sensitive matters of public policy. Their likely calculus: No answer is better than one that alienates critical voter groups — like women or seniors.

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Among "abortionists," Akin said in a floor speech in 2008, "you find that along with the culture of death go all kinds of other lawbreaking: the not following good sanitary procedure, giving abortions to women who aren't actually pregnant, cheating on taxes, all these kinds of things."

Watch:

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First, a video that surfaced today shows Akin at a recent campaign event where he's asked why he voted against the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which prevents gender discrimination in pay. "Why do you think it is OK for a woman to be paid less for doing the same work as a man?" an audience member asked.

"Well, first of all, the premise of your question is that I'm making that particular distinction," Akin replied. "I believe in free enterprise. I don't think the government should be telling people what you pay and what you don't pay. I think it's about freedom.  If someone wants to hire somebody and they agree on a salary, that's fine, however it wants to work. So, the government sticking its nose into all kinds of things has gotten us into huge trouble."

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Bloomberg reports that at a press conference in Jefferson City, Mo., Akin said that in 2006, when McCaskill beat out Republican Sen. Jim Talent, she “had a confidence and was very much more sort of ladylike."

“In the debate we had Friday, she came out swinging, and I think that’s because she was threatened,” Akin said.

The McCaskill campaign had no comment.

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The National Republican Senatorial Committee is the latest to reconsider its earlier vow to shut Akin out, though last week Sen. John Cornyn, who chairs the Committee, told the Hill that they wouldn't. “We’re done,” Cornyn said.

In a statement Wednesday, Rob Jesmer, executive director of the NRSC, said that they'd "continue to monitor this race," and Akin is a "far more preferable candidate" to Claire McCaskill.

"There is no question that for Missourians who believe we need to stop the reckless Washington spending, rein-in the role of government in people's lives, and finally focus on growing jobs that Todd Akin is a far more preferable candidate than liberal Senator Claire McCaskill," Jesmer said. "As with every Republican Senate candidate, we hope Todd Akin wins in November and we will continue to monitor this race closely in the days ahead."

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Now Akin is approaching a critical week that could determine whether his re-emerging campaign can gain enough momentum to put Missouri back in the battleground column as Republicans attempt to win control of the Senate from Democrats.

Tuesday is the deadline for Akin to get a court order to drop his challenge of Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill. But Akin says he won't do so. Instead, Akin plans to ramp up his campaign. He's holding a fundraiser Monday with former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich. He's addressing a potentially influential group of pastors Tuesday morning. Then as the drop-out clock ticks down, he's kicking off a statewide bus tour for his Senate bid that will include venerable conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly.

"I believe the state of the campaign is looking better and better," Akin said Friday after engaging McCaskill in their first debate and then rallying on the Missouri Capitol lawn with supporters of a newly formed women-for-Akin coalition.

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The campaign launched a "Women for Akin" vertical on its website on Tuesday, with the tagline “We think for ourselves.” It then promptly pulled it after it was revealed that one of the women pictured as a "woman for Akin" was actually a Democratic operative.

The picture had the headline “I'm a women[sic], and I support Todd,” but the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the woman to Akin's left was Corinne Matti, a tracker for the Missouri Democratic Party.

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