If you thought the SECB's joke about "the R-Word" and Republicans was over the top, you probably haven't been paying much attention to national politics.

Of course there's Republican Representative Todd "Legitimate Rape" Akin, running for the US Senate in Missouri. Then there's Republican Richard "God Intended Rape" Mourdock, running for the US Senate in Indiana. And now there's Tom Smith, running for the US Senate in Pennsylvania, who when asked about Akin's comments on rape and pregnancy, chimed in by equating rape with with consensual out-of-wedlock sex:

“I lived something similar to that with my own family,” Smith said. He then described his daughter’s out-of-wedlock pregnancy — from consensual sex.

“She chose life, and I commend her for that. She knew my views but fortunately for me … she chose the way I thought. Now don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t rape.”

Smith affirmed that he believed his daughter’s pregnancy from consensual sex was similar to a rape. “Put yourself in a father’s position, yes, I mean it is similar.”

I'm not sure if Smith is saying that his daughter's out-of-wedlock pregnancy from consensual sex was similar to her getting raped or similar to him getting raped, but either way it presents a rather twisted conflation of the two acts.

The fact that so many Republicans support outlawing abortion even in the case of rape is disturbing enough. But the fact that so many of them feel comfortable talking openly about their bizarre views on sexuality, conception, and God's will, should be taken as a warning shot about what the Republicans really intend to do should they control Congress and the next couple appointments to the Supreme Court.

These aren't fringe legislative candidates from Podunk, Alabama. These are Republican US Senate nominees. Possible national GOP leaders. Leaders who believe that some rape is legitimate, that conception from rape is God's will, and who can't tell the difference between forced and consensual sex, even when it involves their own daughter! To be clear, when Republicans talk about outlawing abortion, it's not simply an effort to appease their base. This is what they intend to do. And they intend to do it based on their own medieval views about human sexuality.

In that context, I think it is past time for all Republican candidates, regardless of the office being sought, to speak frankly about their own views on birth control, abortion, rape, conception, and God's will. It ought to make for some frightening comedy.