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We all knew this was coming. Never mind Republicans with their threats that none of them were going to support "legitimate rape" Senate candidate Todd Akin. Now that he's stuck to his guns and decided to stay in the race, they're starting to line up behind him anyway.

Sen. Blunt: Missouri Senate Race Will Be About Party Control:

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) said that Todd Akin, whose Senate bid he is now backing, can defeat incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill in November during an interview on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday. Blunt said that rather than have a race about the candidate, Akin can win even after his "legitimate rape" comments because the race will be about which party controls the Senate.

Sadly he's right when it comes to just how important control of the Congress is and what direction this country is going to be headed, but of course just prior to these remarks, Blunt had the gall to blame the gridlock in the Senate on the Democrats. Blunt needs to go take a look in the mirror if he wants a look at who is responsible for being more worried about blocking a president's agenda for political purposes than the good of the people he's supposed to be representing or the economy improving.

Transcript via CNN below the fold:

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Earlier in the day on MSNBC, Andrea Mitchell allowed Sen. Roy Blunt to come on the air and tell this whopper:

‘Romney’s Man In Congress’ Falsely Blames Obamacare For High Student Loan Rates:

If Congress doesn’t act, the interest rates on government-backed student loan will jump in July, so President Obama has made a big push this week to prevent that from happening. Republicans have thus far held up the extension, though presumed GOP nominee Mitt Romney called for preserving the lower rates Monday.

But Romney’s “man in Congress,” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), seems to misunderstand the issue. In an interview on MSNBC this afternoon, Blunt blamed high student loan rates on the Affordable Care Act [...]

In fact, the rate was set back in 2007, when President Bush signed a Democratic-backed law to lower the rate from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent. That law expires on July 1 of this year, and the lower rates end along with it. The Affordable Care Act and President Obama are entirely irrelevant.

Blunt is likely thinking of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA), a bill that was attached to the Affordable Care Act. And while it did not affect loan rates, it did remove banker middlemen from the student loan process, which will save taxpayers millions of dollars.

Mitchell gave Blunt a complete pass when he made that statement during her show, and Ed Schultz was ready to call him out for lying before he even got on the air this evening on MSNBC. He played part of the interview on his radio show shortly after it aired and vowed to do more reporting on it during the evening, which is exactly what he did in the segment above. Rep. George Miller joined Ed to discuss Blunt's statement to Andrea Mitchell and how the Republicans are proposing to pay for the reduced interest rates now.

Here's more on that from Ed Kilgore -- House GOP Tries New Gambit on Student Loans:

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The Republican Party decided to bring out the author of the controversial Blunt Amendment, that thankfully was killed in the Senate last month, which would have allowed employers to deny coverage of health services to their employees on the basis of personal moral objections, to give their weekly address this Saturday.

Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt continued with the GOP's series of attacks on the Obama administration for the rising price of gas, of course conveniently omitting the fact that they soared to record heights after Republicans deregulated oil speculation back in 2008.

Blunt was also still flogging the Keystone pipeline project as some great "job creator" even though, as Media Matters' Political Correction noted, the numbers given by Republicans on the number of jobs created have been highly inflated and a lot of those jobs would be temporary or go to workers in other countries.

And like his buddy John Boehner over in the House, Blunt was calling the Buffett rule a "gimmick" because we all know that anything a Democrat proposes that might lower our deficit but doesn't fix the problem completely is a cheap trick, but when Republicans propose to go after the funding for Planned Parenthood, they're being completely serious about reducing the deficit and not just playing partisan politics.

Transcript of Blunt's remarks below the fold.

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Multiple-choice Mitt is at it again, this time flip flopping on whether he's in support of the Blunt amendment which is likely to be voted on in the Senate this Thursday -- Romney Comes Out In Support Of Controversial Birth Control Bill:

One day before a critical Senate vote that could loom large as a 2012 election issue, Mitt Romney came out for a congressional Republican measure designed to roll back the Obama administration’s requirement that employer health plans cover birth control.

“Governor Romney supports the Blunt Bill because he believes in a conscience exemption in health care for religious institutions and people of faith,” Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul told TPM.

The Blunt amendment, which is scheduled for a Senate vote on Thursday, would permit employers to deny coverage of birth control or other services they deem morally objectionable.

Romney’s position had been brought into doubt after tweets from a local TV station reporter suggested the candidate had objected to the proposed bill. The candidate’s campaign released a statement saying, “Regarding the Blunt bill, the way the question was asked was confusing.”

To clear up any confusion, Romney himself weighed in, telling radio host Howie Carr, “I didn’t understand the question. Of course, I support the Blunt amendment. I thought he was talking about some state law that prevented people from getting contraception.”

But team Obama didn’t buy his explanation, accusing him of a “flip-flop” and fiercely denouncing his ultimate position.

“In one hour, Mitt Romney showed why women don’t trust him for one minute. It took little more than an hour for him to commit his latest flip-flop. Even worse, he ended up on the wrong side of an issue of critical importance to women,” said Stephanie Cutter, the deputy campaign manager of Obama For America.

Cutter said Romney is “in a race to the bottom with Rick Santorum to see who can pander most to the far right-wing.”

What's really pathetic as Melissa Harris-Perry noted in the clip above is that when Romney was probably telling the truth, as he did in the interview with the local reporter, he was on the right side of the issue, but he'd rather pander to the right to try to win the Republican nomination even though it's going to cost him in the general election.

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In the wake of a controversy over a requirement that religious institutions provide contraceptive coverage, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) now supports a bill that gives any employer the right to exclude any type health service that they find objectionable.

Speaking to CBS host Bob Schieffer on Sunday, McConnell said that he wasn't satisfied with the way that the Obama administration had mandated health insurance companies cover birth control, even though Catholic hospitals and universities will no longer have to provide the services directly.

"The fact that the White House thinks this is about contraception is the whole problem," the Kentucky Republican explained. "This is about freedom of religion. It's right there in the First Amendment. You can't miss it right there in the very First Amendment to our Constitution. And the government doesn't get to decide for religious people what their religious beliefs are."

"The [Catholic] Bishops came back and said they want to push now for stronger legislation to extend this ban on religious institutions having to buy these things," Schieffer noted. "And Sen. [Roy] Blunt from Missouri -- one of your Republican colleagues -- he wants an amendment now that would allow any group that had a moral objection to this to not have to pay for birth control pills. Are you willing to go as far a Sen. Blunt?"

"This issue will not go away until the administration simply backs down," McConnell replied.

Schieffer pressed: "Are you willing to go as far as Sen. Blunt now wants to go and just write in legislation that would ban any group that had just a -- quote -- moral objection, not just a religious group, but just any group. Would you be willing to push that in the Senate?"

"Yeah," McConnell admitted. "If we end up having to overcome the president's opposition by legislation then, of course, I'd be happy to support it and intend to support it. It will be difficult as long as the president is rigid in his view that he gets to decide what somebody else's religion is."

According to the National Women's Law Center, Blunt's amendment (PDF) actually goes a lot farther than contraception, creating a loophole that allows any employer to exclude any health service.

"For example, any corporation whose CEO opposes contraception based on his 'moral convictions' could deny all coverage of contraception or any other service to the company’s employees," the center observed. "Even more disturbing, a CEO’s view of 'morality' could potentially include concern for the cost of a particular benefit. Such broad, undefined refusals (without any protections for the insured) would result in millions of individuals losing vital health service coverage."

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Fox news has sued the Robin Carnahan campaign in some sort of spurious lawsuit about compromising their objectivity (Ha!). Carnahan is facing off against Roy Blunt in Missouri for the seat being vacated by the retiring Kit Bond. Blunt was one of the most corrupt ethically challenged in congress, frequently on CREW's list. Apparently Fox News does not want anyone reminded of that fact. Strike a nerve much?

Via The Hollywood Reporter:

Fox News and one of its top journalists have filed a lawsuit against the campaign of Missouri senate candidate Robin Carnahan, alleging that the Democrat used proprietary footage in a campaign advertisement to make it appear that the network was endorsing her.

The lawsuit, filed late yesterday in U.S. District Court in Missouri, claims copyright infringement, invasion of privacy and misappropriation of likeness. Fox News and on-air newsman Chris Wallace are demanding an injunction against further use of the campaign commercial and unspecified monetary damages.

Fox News often has been criticized for its political leanings. The cable news network has recently been charged with getting too close to the Republican party by making monetary contributions to the party's gubernatorial candidates. Now, the Rupert Murdoch-controlled company is breaking new ground, filing a lawsuit against a prominent Democratic politician targeting a practice that has long been common in the political world.

According to the complaint, the commercial was a "smear ad" against Roy Blunt, the Republican nominee for the Missouri senate seat. The spot (entitled "Clean up the House") used footage in a June 15, 2006 interview conducted with Blunt by "Fox News Sunday" host Wallace.
...

The ad has already been taken down from of Carnahan's website with the message: "The interview with Roy Blunt that Fox News doesn't want you to see has been temporarily removed."

YouTube has also pulled the advertisement after being served a takedown notice by Fox.

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Rachel Maddow and Sen. Bernie Sanders discuss the GOP's hypocrisy when now claiming to be the great champions of Medicare after years of railing against it.

MADDOW: Belated salvo in the scare the bejesus out of elderly voters so they‘ll put you back in power regardless of whether you‘re telling the truth war is an editorial in the conservative newspaper, “The Washington Times,” and it screams “Death Panels by Proxy”—ostensibly argues that the so-called Baucus bill on health reform encourages doctors to withhold health care from Medicare patients. Health care reform is a secret plot to kill people on Medicare.

This is now become an ongoing strategic conundrum. How do you plan to win an argument with opponents who are undeterred by being disproven? Undeterred by the facts, when you don‘t even believe that they believe what they‘re arguing anymore?

It‘s not even just the “death panels” nonsense now. Take Medicare itself, a program Republicans have railed against since before President Johnson signed it into law in 1965. They railed against it since then until—well, until now.

Now, in the Senate Finance Committee, Republicans are trying to portray themselves as the champions of Medicare. They‘re fighting hard to kill any bill that contains any cuts in Medicare, even though people who support Medicare like, say, the AARP, say those cuts won‘t affect care.

Republicans defending Medicare. What would Ronald Reagan say? These guys do remember Ronald Reagan, don‘t they?

Here‘s what he did say about Medicare when it was just a twinkle in some socialist, fascist, freedom-hating, community-organizing Democrat‘s eye.

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Rachel Maddow talks to the Washington Independent's Dave Weigel about the crazy train that was this week's Values Voters Summit.

MADDOW: Behold, a Missouri congressman, candidate for U.S. Senate, until recently, the number three Republican in the House, telling what seems to be a really long, meandering, gut-churning racist joke.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ROY BLUNT ®, MISSOURI: Supposedly it‘s the turn of the 19th century, the end of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th century, there was a group of British occupiers in a very lush, very quiet, very peaceful, very uneventful part of India. And this group of British soldiers who were occupying that part of India decided they‘d carve a golf course out of the jungle of India. And there was really not much else to do. So, for over a year, this was the biggest event going on getting this golf course created.

And they got the golf course done and almost from the day the first ball was hit on this golf course, something happened they didn‘t anticipate. Monkeys would come running out of the jungle and they would grab the golf balls. And if it was in the fairway, they might throw it in the rough. If it was in the rough, they might throw—they might throw it back at you.

And I can go into great and long detail about how many things they did to try to eliminate the monkey problem, but they never got it done. So finally, for this golf course and this golf course only, they passed a rule, and the rule was you have to play the ball where the monkey throws it. And that is the rule in Washington all the time.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: Well, who does what? So, who‘s the—who‘s the monkey in Washington in this story? It‘s Republican Congressman Roy Blunt who wants to be the next Republican senator from the great state of Missouri. Mr. Blunt performed his lamentation of Washington monkey at this weekend‘s Values Voter Summit in Washington—which in addition to hosting much of the Republican congressional leadership and most of the probable Republican candidates for president in 2012, it also had some kind of strange stuff going on.

You might recall on Friday‘s show, we warned you there was going to be a breakout session at the summit to define what they called a new masculinism, like feminism but for guys.

Here‘s how that went.

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Ed Schultz talks to The HuffPo's Ryan Grim about Sam Stein's recent article there GOPers Decrying "Socialized Medicine" Go To Govt. Hospital For Surgeries:

Republicans in Congress have raised the specter of a bloated, "socialized," bureaucrat-run nightmare of a health care system as a means of undermining the White House's effort at a systematic overhaul. And yet, as Democratic sources are now pointing out, when medical crisis hit close to home, many of these same officials turned to a government-run hospital for their own intensive care and difficult surgeries.

So apparently in Mitch McConnell, John McCain, Kit Bond, Roy Blunt and George Voinovich's worlds, what's good for me is not good for thee. More compassionate conservatism at its finest.

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CNN's Rick Sanchez brings in Michael Moore basher Sanjay Gupta and Rep. Roy Blunt to lament the horrors of private insurance companies no longer being able to reap massive profits on the backs of United States citizens. If we did by some miracle actually ever get to universal health care in the U.S., it would not mean these companies are out of business completely. They would still be offering supplemental insurance to compliment the government plan. In the world of the Gupta's and Blunt's out there, that would be a tragedy.

Blunt goes so far as to cite Medicare Part D as an example of just how well Republican health care reform has worked with giving consumers "choices". Yeah, the "choice" to line the pharmaceutical industry's pocket.

SANCHEZ: Roy Blunt is joining us now. He is a congressman from Missouri. He is good enough to talk to us now.

Congressman, thanks for being with us. I imagine the news that you are hearing, that there are problems here in the city, are ones you would have expected. But let me start you somewhere else and ask you, OK, what would your plan be?

BLUNT: Actually, that's the interesting thing about this debate, I think, Rick, is everybody agrees on the top line issues. We believe, I believe, as the leader of our group on our side that's tried to bring our committees together to work on this, I think we are in generally broad agreement.

We need a plan that has -- we need a health care system that has access for everybody regardless of preexisting conditions, one that has more competition, more choice in a way that would make it more affordable, and one that ensures that people have the maximum opportunity to make their own choices about their doctor and their health care.

So we agree on the goals, and our biggest disagreements are how you get there. And probably the biggest disagreement of how you get there is whether the government is going to run a plan that doesn't broaden competition, but actually eventually eliminates all the competition.

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