and it turns out that s really important. because the rules in washington state say, if you want to be considered an official major party in the state, and thereby earn the right to have your candidates on the ballot, just by asking, because after all, you re a major party, in order to qualify for that, you ve got to have your party s official candidates running and winning at least 5% of the vote, in a whole bunch of statewide contests, including the one for u.s. senator. technically, the republicans did not have a candidate for u.s. senator in 2010. they never technically nominated dino rossi. and so, technically, the republican party is no longer a major party in washington state. which means, technically, they are not allowed to have their presidential nominee on the ballot in november, just by asking. the republicans, because they aren t a major party, will have to do what all the other minor parties have to do, which means they have to hold a minor party convention. they have to
include rape victims among the american women he would force to give birth against their will, mr. romney would not include rape victims in that, but it is a weird answer, though, right? his answer is essentially, you know, he is running for president, not me. paul ryan s argument there, as a candidate for vice president, is i realize my position sounds a little crazy, but don t worry about that. i m only trying to be vice president. and what are the chances that a vice president will ever be president? don t worry about my policies, i m just some guy. see, this kind of thing is why this story is not going away. it s not going away in politics and it s not going away in the real world and real people s lives. that story is ahead.
the press who do get an interview with mr. ryan, can i suggest asking him about the rape is rape comment? there s no need to split hairs. obviously, definitely, right? ask him about that. there s no explanation for that that makes sense. also ask him about the whole dr. willke thing. really, you have never heard anyone else espouse this that has no connection to your campaign. and he also said, quoting from the same interview he did today, nobody is proposing trying to deny birth control to anybody. we re going to be dealing with that walk later on in the show, but the broader issue here is this. this is a test for the american press. paul ryan and mitt romney are actively trying to rewrite and distort their own record on the issue of abortion and rape and pregnancy at a time when the country is focused like a laser on this issue and the republican party is trying to distance itself from its own members and their policy positions on this subject. this is just like the medicare issue. p
there is one other element of what congressman paul ryan is going through right now that has not gotten a ton of attention but it strikes me as strange. at first i thought he had misspoken, but he said it again almost verbatim on the campaign plane today. apparently, this was not a misstatement. this is part of a standard canned rehearsed argument. and if that is the case, it s a very strange argument for somebody running for what he is running for. watch this. should abortions be available to women who are raped? well, look, i am proud of my pro life record and i stand by my pro life record in congress. it s something i m proud of, but mitt romney is the top of the ticket and mitt romney will be president and he will set the policy of the romney administration. mr. ryan further clarified on the campaign plane when he reiterated the same point and further clarified while he would include rape victims among the american women he would force to
now, caveats here, this is the telegraph, which is, a, the british press, which is not what it used to be, and b, it s the telegraph, which even for the british press is not all that confidence inspiring, but it is supposedly not a paraphrased quote but a direct quote from this person who is very, very important in this national issue and it would be good to hear directly from the romney campaign if this is true or if they re denying if this took place. so far, they re refusing to answer any questions about this. we asked yesterday whether he has met with dr. john willke to discuss these issues given how important romney said he was to the campaign last time he ran. they have not responded to our questions. they have not said no. they have blanked us. these are questions that deserve answers. you re throwing todd akin essentially out of the party for this, but he s your guy, too? the romney campaign has also refused to make paul ryan available for an interview with us, surprise. but fo