Here’s what happened, as best as I can tell:
Presidential candidate John Edward’s campaign hired two liberal bloggers, Amanda Marcotte of Pendagon and Melissa McEwan of Shakespeare’s Sister, to help drum up “net-root” support. After they were hired, Bill Donohue (president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights) spearheaded an effort by religious conservatives to paint the two writers as psycho left-wing feministas who hate men in general and Christians in particular. Apparently Donohue took issue with Marcotte’s opinion of the Catholic Church’s stance on contraception, and McEwan’s use of the word “Christofascist” (which happens to be one of my favorite new words this year).
John Edwards’ reaction to the controversy was to ignore it for a few days while the yelling from the right got louder and louder. Then he issued the wussiest statement ever, in which he tried to have it both ways by claiming a personal distaste for the writers’ comments, but also a belief that they deserved a “fair shake.”
Marcotte resigned from the Edwards campaign two days ago, and McEwan followed yesterday.
Until yesterday I had never heard the names Amanda Marcotte or Melissa McEwan. I had not read either of their blogs, although from what I’ve glanced at in the last day or so they both seem like entertaining writers. My first instinct was to blame this Will Donohue person, because I am as guilty of knee-jerk reactions against religious people as many of them are against people like me. However, as I read more about what transpired, I realized that neither the two writers nor Mr. Donohue were to blame. Really, it’s all John Edwards’ fault.
Edwards (or his campaign – if there is a difference) hired Marcotte and McEwan for the wrong reason. He did not hire them because of
what they wrote, or even
how they wrote. He hired them just because of
where they wrote: Online. If Edwards were paying attention, he would have actually read Pandagon and Shakespeare’s Sister before making them representatives of his campaign. If he were the kind of guy I wanted as a President, he would have hired them anyway, and when the CLRCR started howling he would have told them where they can stick it. If Edwards were the strong moderate he wants people to think he is he would never have hired them in the first place.
Instead, Edwards obviously did not read Marcotte or McEwan’s work before he put them on the payroll. When his poor vetting was revealed, he panicked and tried to placate both sides, alienating both. Even if he had fired the writers when the news broke it would have looked better than this. He’d look like a dick, but at least he’d have the balls to admit he’d made a mistake. Now he just looks like a pussy.
I have not really started ranking the current crop of Democratic candidates in my mind. I do know, however, that John Edwards just got bumped to the bottom of the list.
