DSCC Compares Saxby Chambliss, Erick Erickson To Todd Akin

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee sent an open letter to current and potential 2014 Republican Senate candidates on Thursday, declaring that the GOP's "war on women" is back and saying they must denounce recent sexist remarks by Republican pundits and lawmakers.

"Republican leaders' extreme, anti-women comments are despicable and offensive to women in Arkansas and across the country," the DSCC wrote in one letter to a possible GOP Senate candidate in that state. "[Rep.] Tom Cotton must immediately condemn Saxby Chambliss and Erick Erickson's comments. When Republican leaders say working women were hurting children and marriages, and now are claiming hormones are causing the sexual assault crisis in the military, it's obvious the Republican party didn't learn anything from their failures with women in 2012."

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) said at a congressional hearing this week that the military's sexual assault problem stems in part from young men's "hormone level created by nature." Fox News pundit Erick Erickson argued last week that working mothers are detrimental to children and families .

Chambliss and Erickson were not the only prominent Republicans to make eyebrow-raising comments recently. Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) said on Tuesday that America's education system began declining when "the mom is in the workplace."

In its letter, the DSCC invoked the tale of former Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), the onetime Senate candidate who said women cannot become pregnant from "legitimate rape."

"In 2012, the GOP drove women away with Todd Akins 'legitimate rape' comments, Foster Friess recommending 'aspirin between the knees' for birth control, and Mitt Romney's 'binders full of women,'" the DSCC wrote. "Republican Senate candidates fully embraced the GOP's agenda that would set women back decades and drove women away in record numbers, creating the largest gender gap in history. Republican leaders' comments this week are yet another example of the GOP turning their back on women across the country."