A slew of nasty conservatives have stirred the pot again, this time by attacking John Edwards for hiring two women bloggers who, these conservatives claim, used obscene language and denigrated the pope and Catholics on their blogs. The whole liberal blogosphere, it seems, erupted in striking back by fiercely attacking in kind these nasty conservatives, and insisting that Edwards dare not give in. When Edwards remained firm, he was applauded by everyone in the liberal blogosphere. Except me.
John Edwards hired Melissa McEwan, from the Shakespeare's Sister blog to be a netroots coordinator; and Amanda Marcotte from the Pandagon blog to be his chief blogger. As soon as he did this, the fierce criticism began from right-wing bloggers: Michelle Malkin, John Locke, Walter Olson, William Donohue, etc, etc. William Donohue, of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights wants Edwards to fire these "trash-talking bigots." Here's what he says about Amanda Marcotte:
Writing on the Pandagon blogsite, December 26, 2006, Amanda Marcotte wrote that "the Catholic church is not about to let something like compassion for girls get in the way of using the state as an instrument to force women to bear more tithing Catholics." On October 9, 2006, she said that "the Pope’s gotta tell women who give birth to stillborns that their babies are cast into Satan’s maw." On the same day she wrote that "it’s going to be bad PR for the church, so you can sort of see why the Pope is dragging ass." And on June 14, 2006, she offered the following Q&A: "What if Mary had taken Plan B after the Lord filled her with his hot, white, sticky Holy Spirit," to which she replied, "You’d have to justify your misogyny with another ancient mythology."
There's no need to quote all the other stuff spewed by conservatives against Marcotte and also McEwan. All the big guns in the liberal blogosphere - DailyKOS, MyDD, Atrios, Unclamed Territory and practically all other liberal blogs I checked with - disregarded the substance of the criticism and fiercely attacked the criticizers. Media Matters correctly displays Donohue's warts as follows:
William A. Donohue, president of the conservative Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, has made 23 guest appearances on TV news programs in 2004. Donohue uses his appearances primarily to attack gays and progressives. He has referred to the "gay death style," remarked, "God forbid we'd run out of little gay kids," claimed that Senator John Kerry "never found an abortion he couldn't justify," and claimed that "Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular ... Hollywood likes anal sex."
Democrats did this because of their previous experience with the Republican noise machine. Every time the Republican noise machine was not answered, the Democrat in question lost. Democratic bloggers decided that this would never happen again. All smears will be answered.
Edwards decided to keep the two women and issued this statement:
The tone and the sentiment of some of Amanda Marcotte's and Melissa McEwan's posts personally offended me. It's not how I talk to people, and it's not how I expect the people who work for me to talk to people. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but that kind of intolerant language will not be permitted from anyone on my campaign, whether it's intended as satire, humor, or anything else. But I also believe in giving everyone a fair shake. I've talked to Amanda and Melissa; they have both assured me that it was never their intention to malign anyone's faith, and I take them at their word. We're beginning a great debate about the future of our country, and we can't let it be hijacked. It will take discipline, focus, and courage to build the America we believe in.
All the liberal blogosphere is in praise of Edwards because he stuck to his guns and was not intimidated by nasty conservatives. But what he did bothers me.
Of course, Democrats must not be intimidated by Republican criticism - if the criticism is not warranted. From the point of view of John Edwards, the criticism IS warranted. He said the tone and sentiment of some of their posts offended him. They may be great liberals, but their language is offensive to a lot of people and that will hurt Edwards' campaign. He needs writers that are more discreet if he wants to win over wavering voters.
Edwards' mistake was to hire these 2 women in the first place. Instead of sticking with them, which I am sure he will regret, he should have stood up and said that he made a big mistake in hiring them because they are not in tune with his approach to politics.
Had he done so, he would have had plenty of opportunities in the future to show that he would not give in when baseless smears are thrown at him by nasty and extremist conservatives.