Oh Those Naughty Bloggers!

(Crossposted from My Left Nutmeg.)

The good nuns and the even better Jesuits taught me that when Satan really wanted to mess with your mind he'd appear in saintly garb. Enter Bill Donohue, head of the Catholic League and the kind of Irish Catholic who makes Irish Catholics like me try to pass themselves off as Hindus.

Donohue, in a brilliant display of religious hypocrisy, has ripped into bloggers hired by the John Edwards campaign.

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, demanded that Edwards fire Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan.

''John Edwards is a decent man who has had his campaign tarnished by two anti-Catholic, vulgar, trash-talking bigots,'' Donohue wrote in a statement. ''He has no choice but to fire them immediately.''

The Edwards campaign declined to comment. McEwan and Marcotte did not respond to e-mails requesting a response.

Donohue cited posts that the women made on blogs in the past several months in which they criticized the pope and the church for its opposition to homosexuality, abortion and contraception, sometimes using profanity.

Donohue, who obviously thinks that when Jesus instructed us to turn the other cheek it was so we could blow it out our ass, is being devilishly clever here. In our culture, you see, it is perfectly alright to espouse your religious view that Jews and Presbyterians, homosexuals and jazz musicians, and indeed all who do not profess their faith in the One True Church will spend eternity in hell while having sulphurous demons shove red hot pokers up their butts. But heaven forfend that one should take a position contrary to the Holy See and use strong language in so doing. That would be offensive!

This is all posturing bullshit, of course, but it puts Edwards in a tricky position. Any guesses on what he will do?

In the meantime, it would behoove Edwards to get right with Jesus and to that end I offer up this hymn. (Fair warning: Don't let impressionable children -- or your boss -- hear this!)

[Note: To avoid running afoul of DK posting rules, I am referring you to the original post.]

•  This doesn't bode well

  From the NYTimes:

  Mr. Edwards’s spokeswoman, Jennifer Palmieri, said Tuesday night that the campaign was weighing the fate of the two bloggers.

  Bad answer.  If the Edwards campaign folds like a cheap tent, that's just wrong.

  by mini mum on Wed Feb 07, 2007 at 08:36:08 AM PDT

  •  But I can understand their dilemma.

    The swift-boating, Republican-American, pres candidate would surely use those words-

    ''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,''

    to tar Edwards.

    I would suspect that his campaign wants to decide if they need distractions like that.

    I personally don't think it should be an issue, but I'm not a Catholic voter that Dems will be working hard to get back.

    by ord avg guy on Wed Feb 07, 2007 at 08:44:50 AM PDT

    •  Courage vs. Popularity

      I think the swiftboaters will find more than that to try to tar Edwards.  Donohue's fussing is nothing; if Edwards can't deflect this bullshit, what's he going to do once the serious campaigning gets underway?

      No, the question here is will the Edwards campaign be courageous and defend the women they hired?  Or will they fire them in an effort to avoid defending hiring them in the first place?

      The point is, Donohue's complaint is bogus and if the campaign cuts these two loose, they're giving Donohue more credibility than he deserves.

      by mini mum on Wed Feb 07, 2007 at 09:18:50 AM PDT

      •  I admit it.

        I totally missed the big picture for what I thought was the big picture.

        I was wrong!

        by ord avg guy on Thu Feb 08, 2007 at 01:13:50 PM PDT

  •  go vote in this edwards site poll

    on how to respond

    http://blog.johnedwards.com/...

    by inevitibility on Wed Feb 07, 2007 at 09:27:36 AM PDT

    •  I did n/t

      by mini mum on Wed Feb 07, 2007 at 09:40:48 AM PDT

•  Bill Donahue

  is a fascist pig.

  http://mediamatters.org/...

  A February 2 article in Women's Wear Daily described Donohue's efforts to "manufacture controversy" -- and, unlike the Times and AP articles, noted that other Catholics disapprove of his antics:

     It's this ability to manufacture controversy that has brought a moribund advocacy group firmly into the black and turned Donohue into catnip for the press. For talk show bookers and reporters on deadline, he's a never-ending sideshow who comes ever ready to hurl expressions of indignation and opprobrium at anyone who might have offended him. As prejudice against individual Catholics has receded, Donohue has simply turned up the volume, taking aim at everyone who questions the church's official positions on homosexuality, abortion and birth control, lapsed Catholics included.

     [...]

     But the same thing that keeps Donohue in the press prevents him from becoming truly respectable within the religious community, where his antics are a source of frequent consternation.

     Mark Silk, director of the Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College said, "He's a thug. He reverts to bullying because he thinks that's what the job entails."

     Rev. Mark Massa, a Jesuit priest and co-director of the Curran Center for American Catholic Studies at Fordham University, accused Donohue of being unable to differentiate between healthy debate and real religious bigotry. "Not everyone who criticizes the church is anti-Catholic," he said.

  by jre2k8 on Wed Feb 07, 2007 at 08:44:53 AM PDT

  •  They should ask Donohue to resign!

    "The gay community has yet to apologize to straight people for all the damage that they have done." [MSNBC's Scarborough Country, 4/11/05]

    Addressing former Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) in a press release, Donohue said: "[W]hy didn't you just smack the clergyman in the face? After all, most 15-year-old teenage boys wouldn't allow themselves to be molested. So why did you?" [10/4/06]

    "I'm saying if a Catholic votes for Kerry because they support him on abortion rights, that is to cooperate in evil." [MSNBC's Hardball, 10/21/04]

    ---Donohue

    by inevitibility on Wed Feb 07, 2007 at 09:20:49 AM PDT

•  speaking of...

  anti-Catholic, vulgar, trash-talking bigots, and i'm talking about donohue. this is why many people, including myself have left religion and see it as a problem not a solution.
  tung sol

  by tung sol on Wed Feb 07, 2007 at 08:53:44 AM PDT

•  It's a tough call

  I'm a huge fan of Marcotte's -- she always has me on the edge of my seat and laughing out loud.  But indeed, her posts can be off-the-charts vulgar.  I like to send my students to blogs when relevant, but Pandagon is one of the only top blogs to which I've never sent them.  I'm as turned off as anyone by the puritan "moral" standards to which candidates and their spokespersons are held -- but it's a reality of contemporary campaigning, and I'm a bit surprised that she was hired in the first place (I guess it was a calculation that the indy cred gained would outweigh any potential negative publicity.  

  by cardinal on Wed Feb 07, 2007 at 09:18:12 AM PDT

•  the Dick Cheney

  told Leahy to go fuck himself ON THE SENATE FLOOR!

  The pious ones didn't seem to think that was so awful.

  by jre2k8 on Wed Feb 07, 2007 at 09:20:09 AM PDT

•  Making lemonade

  Kossack EdwardsRaysofSunshine posted this over at the Edwards blog:

  I think the Edwards campaign can make some lemonaide out of this media coverage.

  1.  Have Kate Michelman, former head of NARAL, release the statements or even give a press conference, with ONLY female members of the Edwards campaign there or quoted e.g. Jennifer Palmeiri and Elizabeth Edwards  (Ms Michelman has incredible street cred as a female activist)

  2.  Emphasize that comments made before the bloggers ever worked for Edwards and done on their own personal sites have no relevance to Edwards' public policy positions

  3. emphasize the largely technical non-policy aspect of the jobs of the bloggers.

  4.  Come out that Edwards will be the 08 candidate that will stand up for women, and women's rights and will certainly not fire women because they express their own personal views on their own time.  Edwards should frame this as  despite Hillary being in the race he's not wishy washy on protecting women like she is.  He realizes some people have issues with modern day feminist opinions.

  5.  most americans don't want the government or other people's religions in their bedrooms or hospital beds and Edwards supports peoples freedoms in their own personal life.

  6. educate the stupid media and emphasize this is what popular bloggers today do, use provocative sometimes over the top language to interest the readers. As someone commented below, the blogs are not tea parties with columbia-trained journalists, but the wild west - the MSM needs an education on this.

  7. Donohue and his group are unlikely to support the democratic nominee regardless of who it is.

  8. McCain has actually hired former staff that he said have run "dishonorable" and "over the line" campaigns to run his campaign. Edwards can pivot back on this pointing out the distinction between hiring dishonest people to run your campaign versus bloggers that have largely technical non-policy jobs in nature.

  Edwards blogger Expo

  Here's the message to John Edwards: there isn't anything to weigh. If you want to have any credibility left in the liberal blogosphere, then you cannot back down. You need to stand-up to this run-of-the-mill right-wing attack and defend your decision to hire Marcotte and McEwan.

  by mini mum on Wed Feb 07, 2007 at 09:27:29 AM PDT

•  Bill Donahue - Man of God

  In his own words...

  Who really cares what Hollywood thinks?  All these hacks come out there.  Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular.  It‘s not a secret, OK?  And I‘m not afraid to say it.  That‘s why they hate this movie.  It‘s about Jesus Christ, and it‘s about truth.  It‘s about the messiah.  

  Hollywood likes anal sex.  They like to see the public square without nativity scenes.  I like families.  I like children.  They like abortions.  I believe in traditional values and restraint.  They believe in libertinism.  We have nothing in common.  But you know what?  The culture war has been ongoing for a long time.  Their side has lost.  

  You have got secular Jews.  You have got embittered ex-Catholics, including a lot of ex-Catholic priests who hate the Catholic Church, wacko Protestants in the same group, and these people are in the margins.  Frankly, Michael Moore represents a cult movie.  Mel Gibson represents the mainstream of America.  

  Who could not help but be in awe of this man?

  by deepfish on Wed Feb 07, 2007 at 10:12:15 AM PDT