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When Angry German Boy met Angry Edwards' Blogger
Michelle Malkin

Hot Air Theater presents a second dramatic interpretation of official John Edwards' blogmaster Amanda Marcotte's wit and wisdom: [video link]

The New York Times reports this morning:

Two bloggers hired by John Edwards to reach out to liberals in the online world have landed his presidential campaign in hot water for doing what bloggers do — expressing their opinions in provocative and often crude language.

The Catholic League, a conservative religious group, is demanding that Mr. Edwards dismiss the two, Amanda Marcotte of the Pandagon blog site and Melissa McEwan, who writes on her blog, Shakespeare’s Sister, for expressing anti-Catholic opinions.

Mr. Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, is among the leading Democratic presidential candidates.

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, said in a statement on Tuesday, “John Edwards is a decent man who has had his campaign tarnished by two anti-Catholic vulgar trash-talking bigots.”

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

The two women brought to the Edwards campaign long cyber trails in the incendiary language of the blogosphere. Other campaigns are likely to face similar controversies as they try to court voters using the latest techniques of online communication.

Ms. Marcotte wrote in December that the Roman Catholic Church’s opposition to the use of contraception forced women “to bear more tithing Catholics.” In another posting last year, she used vulgar language to describe the church doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.

She has also written sarcastically about the news media coverage of the three Duke lacrosse players accused of sexual assault, saying: “Can’t a few white boys sexually assault a black woman anymore without people getting all wound up about it? So unfair.”

Ms. Marcotte joined the Edwards campaign at the end of January in the new post of blogmaster. She has lived in Austin, Tex., for the past 11 years and wrote on her blog that she was planning to move to Chapel Hill, N.C., in February to work full-time on the campaign.

Read the whole thing. Michelle has this covered like dumb on Democrats.

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Edwards Campaign Reconsidering Blogger Hires
Ed Morrissey

The campaign of John Edwards, hailed for hiring two progressive bloggers for his 2008 Presidential campaign, has now said they will reconsider that decision in light of the blogging history of Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan. The episode reveals the lack of vetting done by the Edwards campaign before hiring the two bloggers, and sets back the ability of bloggers to mainstream themselves into traditional political roles:

[...]

The New York Times gives a rather dispassionate description of the posts in question. In the case of Marcotte, her anti-Catholic screeds would make Jack Chick blush with embarrassment; the woman is an anti-Catholic bigot. Her posts on Catholicism venture far from rational opposition to its dogma and policies into screeching, obscene hatred. The examples given by the Times for McEwan appear to be of the same tenor. ...

Unfortunately, we can expect this incident to make it harder for bloggers to make the transition into traditional political roles on campaigns. We already have a Wild West reputation for shooting off our mouths and thinking later, which I believe is mostly undeserved; the media will use this to reinforce that impression of the blogosphere. The truth is that the Edwards campaign didn't work very hard to keep a couple of Catholic-haters out of their payroll, and while the media will also report that, that will get missed for the more sensational story of those bloggers and the liability they represent. ...

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John Edwards's New Bloggers Causing Him Trouble 
Greg Tinti

After several days of coverage by the wingnutosphere, The New York Times has picked up the controversy surrounding John Edwards's hiring of two foul-mouthed bloggers due to a complaint made by Bill Donohue of The Catholic League.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 — Two bloggers hired by John Edwards to reach out to liberals in the online world have landed his presidential campaign in hot water for doing what bloggers do — expressing their opinions in provocative and often crude language.

[...]

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

Prediction: they'll get the boot before this time tomorrow.

The people in the Edwards's campaign--if they learned anything about crisis management from their experience in '04--know that other MSM outlets are bound to follow the NYT's lead and pick up this story soon if they don't diffuse the situation. And considering the filth spewed by these ladies, I'm pretty sure Edwards's people don't want any more coverage than that which they've already received.

Second prediction: after Marcotte and McEwan are fired, the nutroots will go, er, nuts. ...

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Crashing And Burning
Rick Moran

Watching the destruction of Amanda Marcotte, Pandagon blogger and soon-to-be-ex “Blogmaster” for the Edwards campaign, has been one of the few bright spots in this otherwise dreary and depressing new year.

If ever there was a left wing hysteric who deserved to be tarred, feathered, and dragged through the mud and slime of their own writings, it is Marcotte. She is a perfect illustration of the liberal mindset that posits the notion of a relative moral code when it comes to racial, ethnic, religious, and gender semantics. For her, anything goes. No characterization of her political opponents is too vile. No racist, sexist, or bigoted thought is out of bounds.

This is because the left has insulated itself from such mundane considerations as good manners and decorous language by elevating themselves to what they consider to be a higher moral plane than the rest of us. Simply because they mean well, they are vouchsafed all manner of perfidious name calling and calumnious charges directed against their opponents.

The fact that Marcotte sees the world through the prism of post-modern feminism makes her impossible to take seriously on any level. Her writing is full of so many half truths, manufactured criticisms, dead-wrong assumptions, and a child like ignorance of the emotional universe inhabited by normal men and women that trying to decipher her scribblings – once you can get by the obscenities and work your way through the incoherence – is a task best left to a psychiatrist. ...

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Edwards’s Bloggers Making More News Than Candidate 
James Joyner

After several days of criticism from the right side of the blogosphere, John Edwards’ blog outreach team is now coming under fire from the Catholic League, which is demanding that Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan be fired for anti-Catholic comments written on their blogs, Pandagon and Shakespeare’s Sister. Bill Donohue issued a statement saying, “John Edwards is a decent man who has had his campaign tarnished by two anti-Catholic vulgar trash-talking bigots.”

As more campaigns (and corporations and PR firms) get aboard the “blogger relations” bandwagon, the natural impulse is to hire established bloggers. Hillary Clinton has hired Peter Daou, John McCain has Patrick Hynes, Rudy Giuliani has Patrick Ruffini, and the Senate Republicans have hired Jon Henke, who was also brought on too late to do George Allen much good.

Having top bloggers on the staff makes sense, because these people have demonstrated not only that they have the ability to express themselves in writing but that they “get” blogging. As a bonus, they probably have a network of other bloggers that they can reach out to with more credibility than some flack on the communications staff.

At the same time, however, there is a serious downside that Edwards is now discovering: ...

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Patriarchy nearly done crushing Edwards blogger’s dissent
Allahpundit

I haven’t written about this yet because I still can’t quite believe it. Marcotte’s been a punchline on Goldstein’s site for years; to see her suddenly materialize as lead blogger for a major presidential candidate is like the cat lady from the Simpsons being hired as White House press secretary. To call her a caricature of a doctrinaire feminist doesn’t even scratch the surface. Imagine a vicious parody of a vicious parody of a doctrinaire feminist and you’re at the appropriate remove of cartoonishness.

The Catholic League took it mainstream yesterday and now the buzzards are circling. Quote: “Mr. Edwards’s spokeswoman, Jennifer Palmieri, said Tuesday night that the campaign was weighing the fate of the two bloggers.” (The other is Melissa McEwan, a.k.a. Shakespeare’s Sister, a.k.a. “Queen C— of F–k Mountain.”) Picture poor Citizen John, glumly pondering his options while he stares vacantly through one of Xanadu’s many, many picture windows. If he keeps them on staff, he accepts their bigotry by implication. If he lets them go, he alienates the nutroots cretins he’s counting on to push him over the top — and at the very moment he’s taken the lead in their straw poll, too.

*** Update and bump. Original timestamp 12:10

Edwards fires blogmasters? & Other stories of suppression
The Anchoress

One of the paradoxes of free speech is that while you and I are (mostly, for the time being) free to say what we wish in this country, our words are not sacrosanct and untouchable - other free people are (mostly, for the time being) free to say what they wish in response. No one has to listen to anyone and accept their opinion as the final word. Hence, the Dixie Chicks are free to say “we hate that Bush is from Texas” and others are free to say, “okay, and I hate that opinion, so I won’t buy your records.”

It’s not censorship. It’s simply another opinion. The Chicks are no martyrs to free speech, they simply came to the uncomfortable conclusion of that free speech paradox: you can say what you want, but you have to be willing to take the consequences for it.

So now, the story is breaking at Salon.com that Sen. John Edwards has fired one or both (at this moment it is not clear) of his campaign blogmasters, because…well frankly because Edwards or his handlers did a lousy job of vetting the bloggers to determine whether their sentiments were in full alignment with the candidate’s views. Make no mistake, for all that Salon is writing this as “the right wing blogosphere collecting scalps” this firing is not the fault of “right wing nutjobs” who demanded it (I, btw, hoped they would not be fired, as I wrote here).

No, this firing has occured because it was a sloppy hiring to start. John Edwards can only blame himself. ...

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Hatergate
Confederate Yankee

The blogger dust-up over John Edwards choice of campaign bloggers has hit the mainstream media, as at least one radio station in Raleigh has pounced upon the foul language and anti-Catholic rants of Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan, of liberal blogs Pandagon and Shakespeare's Sister, respectively.

John M. Broder of the NY Times is on the case as well:

Two bloggers hired by John Edwards to reach out to liberals in the online world have landed his presidential campaign in hot water for doing what bloggers do — expressing their opinions in provocative and often crude language.

The Catholic League, a conservative religious group, is demanding that Mr. Edwards dismiss the two, Amanda Marcotte of the Pandagon blog site and Melissa McEwan, who writes on her blog, Shakespeare’s Sister, for expressing anti-Catholic opinions.

Mr. Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, is among the leading Democratic presidential candidates.

That last sentence is sure to elicit a giggle here in North Carolina, where Edwards is widely reviled by many. But I digress.

Why are these two bloggers under fire? In Marcotte's case specifically, it is for her stupifyingly ignorant and inflammatory remarks about the lacrosse rape case in particular, along with a general predisposition towards profanity-laced, intolerant rants on various subjects. For McEwan, it seems directed at her profanity-laced intolerant rants in general.

The Times article again, talking about Marcotte: ...

Liberal bloggers seem to be approaching this story as a tempest in a teapot. In general, they seem to be taking the position that a compliant media is doing the will of the conservative and libertarian blogosphere ("swiftboating", a term the left uses to disparage those who dare look at someone's track record of past performance), that the profanity issued forth on Pandagon, Shakespeare's Sister, and other liberal blogs is the main issue and really, no big deal; it isn't like those christofascist fringe right fundamentalists that consider women brood animals would vote for Edwards anyway. ...

At best, a campaign blog can moderately help a candidate. At worst, it can be a debilitating side issue detracting from overall message discipline, and making people focus on rhetorical garbage and hatred that the candidate (rightly or wrongly) seems to condone.

Edwards made a bad choice in hiring McEwan and Marcotte, and is now reaping a media firestorm for not properly vetting his potential blogging staff. There are certainly articulate, thoughtful bloggers bloggers on the left far better qualified to hold these positions. Dave Johnson, I think, at Seeing the Forest may fit the bill for this kind of position, and I'm sure there is at least one other liberal blogger out there capable of holding a position without harboring such hate in their hearts.

Let me know when they find 'em.  ...

*** Update and bump. Previous timestamp 15:44

Marcotte Fired?
Patterico

Amanda Marcotte has been fired as John Edwards’s blogger [link requires sitting through an annoying ad — Ed.]:

The right-wing blogosphere has gotten its scalps — John Edwards has fired the two controversial bloggers he recently hired to do liberal blogger outreach, Salon has learned.

Or has she? Two paragraphs later, the Salon piece says:

Speculation from sources that the two bloggers might be rehired was bolstered by Jennifer Palmieri, a spokeswoman for the Edwards campaign, who said in an e-mail that she would “caution [Salon] against reporting that they have been fired. We will have something to say later.”

Let’s proceed on the assumption that she has indeed been fired, which I think is more likely. A few observations. ...

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The Pandagon Papers
Iowahawk (Hat tip: Michelle)

[Strong content warning - ed.] ...

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Exposed: The Pandagon Papers
Michelle Malkin

Smile, nutroots, it's just a joke.

***

Related: CNN covers the Pandagonization of the Edwards campaign.

Bryan has an IMPORTANT ACTION ALERT about the leftosphere's IMPORTANT ACTION ALERT.

Danny Glover notes that it is not at all clear whether Edwards has fired his pair of BDS-suffering bloggerettes.

Blogger Jason Clarke:

Something else beyond Ms. Marcotte’s comments really bothers me here, and that is the way in which many liberal bloggers have chosen to defend Ms. Marcotte. ...

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Missing The Point Twice Over
Ed Morrissey

The apparent firing of two bloggers by the John Edwards campaign has generated a predictable debate in the blogosphere. Those who find themselves in sympathy with Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan, either because or in spite of their inflammatory attacks on Christians in general and Catholics in particular, claim that the Edwards campaign surrendered to right-wing attacks. ...

Now Marcotte's sympathizers complain that mean conservatives have tried to silence Marcotte and McEwan and intruded on her right to free speech, which is ludicrous. Neither of them have their hands tied, and I'm sure both can access their blogs. No one has argued that they didn't have a right to publish their rather rancid opinions, and I'd be the first to defend their right to do so. What commentators questioned was the decision by the Edwards campaign to associate themselves with political activists that demonstrated that much hostility to a large sector of the electorate that Edwards supposedly would like to court. ...

Chris Bowers and a few others make a good point about the initial hiring decision. If the Edwards campaign hired them for their bombast and inflammatory rhetoric, knowing full well of their history of attacking people for their religious beliefs, then the Edwards campaign really did take a cowardly way out of their own stupid decision by firing the two bloggers. However, it seems much more likely that someone in the campaign hired them on the basis of their name recognition without doing much research into their blogs.

The outrage misses two points. ...

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Salon Reporting that Edwards Has Fired Bloggers 
Lorie Byrd

The Anchroress links to this Salon story reporting that John Edwards' campaign has fired the two bloggers recently hired to work for his presidential campaign.. The Salon report says the bloggers were fired, but also includes this quote from Jennifer Palmieri saying she would "caution [Salon] against reporting that they have been fired. We will have something to say later." I will update as new information is available. ...

Update II: Pam Spaulding blogging at Pandagon says that the Edwards bloggers were "swiftboated" and smeared and that the Edwards campaign should not have caved in to the rightwingers. If "swiftboating" means getting the truth out to the public, then Marcotte was swiftboated, but liberals using that term generally use it to describe a coordinated smear campaign. If Marcotte's blog post had been fabricated by political opponents (ala Mary Mapes' magic memos) or misinterpreted, that would be one thing.  ...

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Edwards About To Become Nutroots' New Hate Object?
Greg Tinti

If Salon's right that Edwards canned Crazy McPottymouth, he sure is.

I have a pretty vicious rant and an important action alert lined up, but I am waiting to hear from the Edwards camp about the fate of Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan before doing anything. The Salon story is not credible and cannot be verified at this time. The campaign is still involved in internal discussions.

The Edwards camp faces a series simple choices right now:

* Are you with the people who work their asses for you, or are you with right-wing extremists who hate you?

* ...

Right after the election in November, we saw the gals at firedoglake go nuclear on Rahm Emanuel for making a comment about how Democrats had to be careful not to "allow the party's liberal wing to dominate the agenda" in the House. This quote from Christy Hardin Blah Blah Blah on Emanuel sums up nicely, I think, the attitude the nutroots have in general about their vast importance and power in the grand scheme of things.

"If you think for a moment that those of us who just worked our asses off for a win are simply going to roll over and say thank you when you spit on us, you can think again."

I have no doubt we'll see numerous lefties repeat this threat in some form or another towards Edwards if it turns out that Salon was right.

But it still shocks me--believe it or not--that the nutroots really, truly, sincerely believe that they're that powerful. And it's this perpetual Do-you-know-who-I-am??? attitude, based on practically nothing, that's earned them their derisive nickname on our side of the blogosphere. ...

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Q: What does Amanda Marcotte use for contraception? A: Her personality.