My Weekend Crush

You’d have to be living under a very large, very peaceful rock not to know who Rep. Todd Akin is. Mr. Legitimate Rape. Mr. Shutting That Whole Thing Down. Mr. I Misspoke Which Means I Said the Things I Truly Believe in Front of a TV Camera. You know, that guy. But not as many people know his Democratic opponent, incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill. That’s a shame, because Claire is by all accounts a pretty kick-ass lady. She entered the Senate in 2006 as Missouri’s first elected female senator. She previously served as a prosecutor where she handled largely sex crimes, homicides and arson cases. She is one of 17 sitting female U.S. Senators currently, out of 100 total senators. And the Republicans really, really want to win back her seat in November.

Claire is known for being feisty and unwilling to mince words. She has raked the likes of big oil and Wall Street over the proverbial coals during hearing after hearing. She’s taken on earmarks and executive bonuses and veteran benefit cuts. In short, she’s a woman who is more than willing to call a shitty deal a shitty deal on the record. Sure, we may quibble she hasn’t been as progressive as some might like. But she’s running in a state where until this weekend her Republican opponent was beating her by 8 percent and even after the rest of the country realized what a fact-hating, rape-categorizing, slut-shaming, plain old dumbass he was is still leading by 1 percent. (He also hate The Gays and thinks global warming is bunk science, naturally. And he is staying in the race because he says he only misspoke “one word in one sentence on one day.”) So I’ll cut Claire a little slack. Missouri ain’t Berkeley. Claire also happens to be funny, articulate and very, very smart. She is one of the Senate’s most popular and prolific Twitter users. And if you like facts and hate men who make them up in order to control women’s bodies, consider donating to her campaign. And if you live in Missouri, show her the love in the ballot box. Happy weekend, all.