A conservative fundraising group backed embattled Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin with a much as $290,000 for his campaign Thursday. A few hours later, Akin handed new fundraising fodder to his foes by suggesting that Sen. Claire McCaskill had behaved in a less "ladylike" manner than she has in the past.
"She was very aggressive in the debate, which was quite difference than the way she was when she ran against Jim Talent" in 2006, Akin said during a campaign stop Thursday at the state capitol. At that time, he added, "she had a confidence and was very much more sort of ladylike and all."
Akin's comment came a few hours after he announced the endorsement-and the promise of badly-needed campaign cash-from the Senate Conservatives Fund. It was the highest-profile financial commitment Akin has netted since his campaign lost of millions of dollars of planned advertising by other national groups that aid Republicans. Those groups withdrew their support after Akin remarked last month that women's bodies have ways of averting pregnancy in cases of "legitimate rape."