In a moment that will give critics of Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin yet one more reason to bemoan his seemingly perpetual foot-in-mouth disease, the congressman has likened his opponent Claire McCaskill to a dog. In audio from a fundraiser captured by PoliticMo, Akin makes the following odd remarks:

“She goes to Washington, D.C., it’s a little bit like one of those dogs, you know ‘fetch.’ She goes to Washington, D.C., and get all of these taxes and red tape and bureaucracy and executive orders and agencies and she brings all of this stuff and dumps it on us in Missouri.”

Fairly or not, the analogy has landed Akin in hot water. From PoliticMo’s writeup of the remarks:

The remark was another in a series of quotes that could place more distance between Akin and female voters. Earlier this year, Akin questioned whether McCaskill was “lady-like” during their first debate, and during their second debate was criticized by McCaskill for his opposition to “equal pay” laws for women.

Akin, speaking to the audience Saturday evening, said the focus on issues other than the economy is a “distraction” by the McCaskill campaign from her tenure in office, and encouraged voter to compare her six years as a senator with his 12 years in the House.

Given Akin’s prominence as seemingly the poster boy for the left’s “war on women” (a resemblance that many conservatives admit has merit), expect to see these remarks used by Democrats on the stump over the next few weeks.

This is the second in a series of comments captured at closed-door fundraiser for GOP candidates – the first being Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” remarks – that has made news. Evidently, “closed door” does not mean what one would assume it means.