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Former Republican Missouri Senate nominee Todd Akin said on Thursday that he wished he could take back his comments about women not being able to get pregnant from "legitimate rape" because he's "relived them too many times."

In an interview on Thursday, KSDK's Leisa Zigman asked the former candidate if he regretted telling KTVI last year that "the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down" if the rape was "legitimate."

"Would you take those six second back if you could?" Zigman wondered.

"Oh, of course I would!" Akin exclaimed. "I've relived them too many times. But that's not reality."

He added: "All of us are fallible, we make mistakes, we say things the wrong way. I've relived that moment many, many times."

"Do you believe there is such a thing as legitimate rape?" Zigman pressed.

"No, no," Akin stuttered. "And I apologize for that. Of course you regret it. Well, what would it have been like if I hadn't done that?"

The former candidate also said that he had refused to drop out of the race because his supporters told not to give in to the will of "party bosses."

"Karl Rove has made himself an expert -- I lost one race, I think he managed to lose about 12 of them in one night," Akin quipped.

"I believe the party will either stand on principled positions or it's going to be replaced by some other party," he concluded, adding that he was not ruling out a possible run for office because he had a "bright new future."

(h/t: The Huffington Post)

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Conservative strategist Karl Rove on Sunday lashed out at former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) after she used her speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) to blast his super PAC for "vetting our candidates."

Following major losses in the 2012 elections, Rove launched the Conservative Victory Project to pick conservative candidates who could win -- instead of fringe tea party favorites like former Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), who said that women could not get pregnant from "legitimate rape."

On Saturday, Palin took to the podium at CPAC and called Rove's effort the "last thing we need."

"The architects can head on back to the great Lone Star state and put their names on some ballot," she said.

In an appearance on Fox News Sunday, it was clear that Palin had gotten under Rove's skin because he took a shot at her for quitting halfway through her first term as Alaska governor.

"I have to set the record straight," Rove told Fox News host Chris Wallace. "I'm a volunteer. I don't take a dime for my work with [super PAC] American Crossroads. I even pay my own travel expenses out of my own pocket. I thought Sarah Palin was about encouraging grassroots volunteer activity, I'm a volunteer."

"Second of all, look, I appreciate her encouragement that I ought to go home to run for office," he continued. "I would be enthused if I ran for office to have her support."

"I would say this, though. I don't think I'm a particularly good candidate, sort of a balding, fat guy. And second of all, I'd say if I did run for office and win, I'd serve out my term, I wouldn't leave office midterm."

It should be noted that Rove did leave his unelected office before the end of President Bush's term.

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Laura Bush says that the Republican Party has room for all candidates -- even the ones who "frightened" women with unconventional remarks about rape.

During an interview that aired on Monday, CNN host Erin Burnett asked the former first lady if the Republican Party "has made a mistake in doubling down" and making issues like same sex marriage and abortion central to its platform, which may have contributed to President Barack Obama's re-election in 2012.

"Well, no, I wouldn't say that necessarily," Bush replied. "And every candidate was different, each one of them. There were obviously some examples of candidates that were -- that I think frightened some women, but they were the exception rather than the norm in the party."

"And, you know, all of those social issues are very, very heartfelt by people," she added. "And I understand that. There are differences, and people -- you know, there just will be. And I'm glad that in our party, we have room for all of them."

Bush was most likely referring to remarks made by former Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin, who said women could not get pregnant from "legitimate rape," and former Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, who suggested that pregnancies from rape were a gift from God. Both Akin and Mourdock lost their elections in 2012.

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After giving his viewers a little reminder of what the Republicans sounded like during the 2012 Republican presidential primary race and their blatant race baiting and fearmongering over "illegal immigrants" Jon Stewart took Sen. John McCain and his buddies to task for their "craven political calculation" to try to "squeeze out enough votes" to make states like Nevada competitive again with their flip-flop on passing some sort of immigration reform.

Stewart brought on his correspondent Al Madrigal for his input as to whether the Republicans are going to be successful in their endeavor and Madrigal wasn't too optimistic, given that they appear to be holding their noses while doing what's obviously just politically expedient rather than something they actually support and due to the length of time that "Latinos hold grudges" and who are not going to forget any time soon the way they've been treated by Republicans.

When Stewart asked if there was another demographic they might have any more luck with in the future, like African Americans or women, Madrigal's fellow correspondent Jessica Williams interrupted the segment and put in her two cents about the fact that Republicans aren't going to have any luck there either, especially after remarks like those from "legitimate rape" Todd Akin and the House Republicans deciding to hold their annual retreat -- where they were supposed to be focusing on minority outreach -- at a former slave plantation.

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Now that Saxby Chambliss has decided he doesn't want to have to face a primary race for his Senate seat, Rachel Maddow took her viewers through the list of potential replacements that would like to succeed him, and it's a doozy.

Georgia's Saxby Chambliss to retire:

Just a few months ago, Sen. Saxby Chambliss, a two-term Republican incumbent from Georgia, started facing credible primary threats in advance of his 2014 re-election bid. In a bit of a surprise, the senator has said there won't be a re-election campaign -- Chambliss is retiring at the end of his term (via James Carter). [...]

The news was not widely expected, and Chambliss was expected to win re-election if he sought another term.

What's especially interesting now, however, is the field of Republican candidates who may try to succeed Chambliss in 2014. One of the leading GOP officials to watch is Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.), who said just this week that was considering taking on Chambliss in a primary, and with the incumbent stepping down, the congressman is that much more likely to run himself.

That would set up quite a campaign -- Broun is one of Congress' more ridiculous members, and a Senate campaign would create an Akin-in-Missouri situation in which a candidate may simply be too nutty to compete on a statewide level, even in the South. In this case, Broun is perhaps best known for arguing that that cosmology, biology, and geology are, quite literally, "lies straight from the pit of Hell," and that President Obama only believes in supporting "the Soviet constitution."

In other words, even among loony extremists, Broun is almost a caricature of himself.

This matters because Georgia could prove to be far more interesting than expected. In 2008, when Chambliss sought a second term, he won by a narrow margin after being forced into a runoff when he won 49% of the vote on Election Day. Since then, Georgia's population has only grown more diverse.

If a strong Democratic candidate faced off against a ridiculous right-wing extremist, could this become a blue-to-red pick-up opportunity? Quite possibly, yes.

We've got more on Broun here: Is Paul Broun the dumbest member of Congress? Signs point to Yes and here: Rep. Paul Broun: Evolution, Embryology, and the Big Bang Theory are 'Lies Straight from the Pit of Hell'.

And as Rachel mentioned, another potential candidate is Karen Handel whose anti-abortion views are so extreme they just about took down a cancer charity: Former Susan G. Koman Exec May Run For Senate In Georgia.

And then there's Todd Akin's buddy Phil Gingrey: Republican Congressman Backs Akin’s ‘Legitimate Rape’ Comments: ‘He’s Partly Right’.

Steve Benen's article also mentioned Herman Cain, but Rachel informed her viewers that alas, Cain has said he's not running.

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At least one conservative Fox News commentator isn't blaming Mitt Romney's loss on Hurricane Sandy.

On Thursday, tea party-backed radio host Michael Graham told Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly that President Barack Obama scared voters by claiming that women would be "forced into rape camps" under the Republican presidential nominee.

Graham explained that Obama was not elected with a mandate because "he didn't run on an affirmative campaign."

"He ran on the Republicans are Satan incarnate and if women vote for them, they're going to be forced into rape camps," the radio host insisted. "And when that's your campaign, you can't be surprised when the people you ran against don't want to work with you and you don't have an issue to rally people around."

(h/t: BuzzFeed)

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Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on Sunday insisted that "small brush fires" like former Gov. John Sununu's suggestion that former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed President Barack Obama because he's black were just distractions.

Speaking to CNN last week, Sununu wondered whether Powell's endorsement was "based on issues, or whether he’s got a slightly different reason for preferring President Obama."

"I think when you have somebody of your own race that you’re proud of being President of the United States, I applaud Colin for standing with him," the top Romney surrogate said.

But During a Sunday interview with CNN's Candy Crowley, Priebus dismissed Sununu's comment as a "distraction."

"You want people to be disciplined," the RNC chairman explained. "And obviously if people misspeak and they cause -- for no apparent reason -- small brush fires on their own, that's a distraction. But overall, this is still an election about the economy, about the president's failed broken promises and now we have this issue with Libya."

Crowley also asked Priebus if Republican Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock's assertion that pregnancies from rape were "something that God intended to happen" hurt the GOP brand.

"I promise you, people out there are not talking about what Richard Mourdock said," Priebus replied.

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Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson says that voters in his state are going to vote for GOP hopeful Mitt Romney because they are not "at all" concerned about preserving reproductive rights for women.

On Sunday, Fox News host Chris Wallace asked Johnson why women should vote for Romney after he endorsed Republican Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, who recently said that pregnancy from rape "is something that God intended to happen."

"I've had one person at all talk about the abortion issue during this entire campaign," the tea party-backed senator explained. "It's not even an issue here in Wisconsin. I mean, it doesn't even move the radar at all."

"What people are concerned about is -- it is unbelievable how many people came up to me demanding answers on Benghazi," Johnson added. "That's really the question on the table in the last ten days, is what happened in Benghazi."

"Abortion doesn't even show up."

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In the day after Republican Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock said that pregnancy from rape “is something that God intended to happen," the Fox News Channel only covered the scandal for about 2 minutes, even though Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney refused to rescind his endorsement of Mourdock.

“I believe life begins at conception,” Mourdock explained during a debate Tuesday night. “The only exception I have for to have an abortion is in the case of the life of the mother. I struggled with myself for a long time but I came to realize life is that gift from God, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape. It is something that God intended to happen.”

The liberal watch dog group Media Matters reviewed coverage on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel and found that Mourdock's comments were almost completely ignored by the conservative network.

"Fox News mentioned the comment twice, devoting just over two minutes of coverage to it," Media Matters' Todd Gregory wrote. "Meanwhile, CNN gave the topic an hour and 20 minutes of coverage and MSNBC covered the topic for 2 hours and 7 minutes."

On the Fox News marquee "straight-news" program Special Report, anchor Bret Baier briefly mentioned Mourdock in a 37-second segment about the presidential race in general. The Fox Report later devoted one minute and 37 seconds to the subject.

By contrast, Raw Story calculated that Special Report alone spent about 23 minutes on the Obama administration's response to September attacks in Libya.

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Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's campaign said on Wednesday that they disagreed with Indiana GOP Senate candidate Richard Mourdock's statement that pregnancy from rape "is something that God intended to happen," but the former Massachusetts governor still supports him.

During a debate on Tuesday night, Mourdock had said that he did not support abortion in cases of rape or incest.

“I believe life begins at conception,” he explained. “The only exception I have for to have an abortion is in the case of the life of the mother. I struggled with myself for a long time but I came to realize life is that gift from God, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape. It is something that God intended to happen.”

Romney has endorsed Mourdock and recorded an advertisement personally encouraging voters to support him. Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan's super PAC also donated $5,000 to the tea party-backed candidate in June.

In August, Romney appeared at a campaign event with Mourdock in Evansville, Indiana.

"This is a man that I want to see in Washington to make sure that we cannot just talk about changing things, but actually have the votes to get things changed," Romney said.

Democrats have called on Romney to rescind his endorsement of Mourdock and immediately pull the advertisement.

But Romney campaign spokesperson Andrea Saul insisted on Wednesday that the former governor still backed Mourdock.

"Gov. Romney disagrees with Richard Mourdock, and Mr. Mourdock’s comments do not reflect Gov. Romney’s views," Saul said in a statement. "We disagree on the policy regarding exceptions for rape and incest but still support him."

For his part, Mourdock held a press conference on Wednesday and said his comments had been taken out of context.

"I made a comment that I made, quite honestly, from the deepest roots and the greatest base of my faith," the Senate candidate told reporters. "I'm a much more humble person this morning because so many people mistook, twisted, came to misunderstand the points that I was trying to make."

"I spoke from my heart, I spoke with my principle, I spoke from my faith, and if others wish to turn those words and somehow use them against me, again, that's what's wrong with Washington today," he added. "Anyone who goes to the video tape and views [it] understands fully what I meant."

"I don't think God wants rape, I don't think he wants that at all because rape is evil. I abhor evil. I want to assure every woman who sees this and reads the story that I abhor it and I'm confident God abhors it."

In a conference call with reporters on Wednesday afternoon, Democratic National Committee Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz connected Mourdock's comments to Republican Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin's claim that women could not get pregnant through "legitimate rape."

"Unfortunately, these types of comments have become part and parcel of the modern Republican Party's platform towards women's health," she said. "Congressional Republicans like Mitt Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan, have worked to outlaw all abortions and even narrow the definition of rape."

"Try as he may to distance himself, Mitt Romney has demonstrated time and time again that he is a part of the extreme right wing of the GOP with the likes of Richard Mourdock and Todd Akin, especially when it comes to issues effecting women and their bodies. Just this weekend, Romney endorsee Steve King questioned whether birth control is even legal. There is definitely a pattern here."