for todd akin leaving the race. there has been some pushback among conservative republicans to watch the rhetoric. i think they're very upset with how the party has reacted to that. >> that was tony perkins from the family research counsel who tweeted that out today. he suggested scott brown should be careful in what he is saying. i read that, i said, holy smokes. these folks, they don't get it at all. they're all about ideology and making sure they get the conservatives in office. sam, do you think this will affect the race to the point where claire mccaskill would retain her seat? >> sure. already, he was the least formidable of the three missouri candidates in the primary. she won out by him losing. and she wants him to stay in the race. there's no other way around it. we did an interview with the senator this morning. she talked about how it wood be terrible if the national republican party would meddle in the senate race and pick a candidate. she wants todd akin in there. to the larger point, you know, this is opening up a real divide