list of politicians who made reckless remarks about rape this election season, Erin Gloria Ryan declares that "team rape lost big [Tuesday] night". Amy Sullivan says it wasn't so much the messengers as the GOP's underlying message:  Mourdock and Akin lost because they each made the mistake of actually trying to explain an increasingly common position by Republican officer-holders, including Paul Ryan.... It’s not unusual for GOP politicians to oppose rape exceptions. But they haven’t previously had to defend that position—at least not on a big stage. When they are forced to explain themselves, as in the case of Akin and Mourdock, it’s not their words that alienate voters, but the idea of forcing women to carry to term a pregnancy that began in rape. Nona Willis Aronowitz shows why the comments from "team rape" were especially damaging:]]>