UPDATED: Second blogger quits the Edwards campaign.  See here for more. 

I haven’t covered this story here simply because the blogging saturation has been huge.  But since the story has in a sense come full circle, I might as well offer my summary.

The situation was pretty clear.  John Edwards, Democratic presidential hopeful hired a leftwing blogger to be his blogmistress.

The Chosen One, Amanda Marcotte, has a slightly well known reputation as the bigotted hate spewing anti catholic blogger of Pandagon.

Here is a cute excerpt (content warning):

One thing I vow here and now–you motherfuckers who want to ban birth control will never sleep. I will fuck without making children day in and out and you will know it and you won’t be able to stop it. Toss and turn, you mean, jealous motherfuckers. I’m not going to be “punished” with babies. Which makes all your efforts a failure. Some non-procreating women escaped. So give up now. You’ll never catch all of us. Give up now.

Truly the voice of the Democrat party.

Now let’s clear one thing up:  She doesn’t particularly offend me.  Her posts are juvenile and obviously designed to get attention, in a teenage "your not the boss of me" method.  She honestly bores me with her diatribes and rants about men, white men, white catholic men and anyone else she can attack.

Daily Kos at least has people who are intellectually insulting.

But, I also never forget that free speech is the foundation of the blogosphere, regardless of whether you are left or right or in the middle.  She has every right to posit her inane rantings in her own space.

She should remember that the internet rarely forgets, and anything you post becomes a permanent entry into life in some respects,  Consider that, even as you recall (belatedly) the fact that free speech is not always free, and the right to be able to say anything you want does not retract from sometimes excercising discretion.

Back to Edwards.  By selecting a rabid anti-catholic he has to deal with questions about her views.  Is that right, one might ask?  Should the top dog be so closely tied to the views of his staff, no matter how intolerant?  Well in politics it may not be right, but it is common.  Staffers have taken down candidates before, so it should not be a shock to anyone that some would question Edward’s choice. 

Enter William A. Donohue, president of the conservative Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights who protested her appointment, asking whether Edwards really wants such a negative connection to Catholics.   He was just one of many including many on the left of the blogosphere, as well as the expected outrage on the right.

Who cares you might ask?

Well if this was allowed to spin out of control there about 76 Million Catholics that might.  Edwards cannot casually dismiss the feelings of 26% of the American population.

So when it was announced at salon.com that he had fired her no one was surprised.  But the outcry on the left was also predictible, and no one on the right was shocked when he "unfired her."

I was looking forward to an intriguing pitched battle when Amanda did the unthinkable. 

She quit.  (queue the Sir Robin Ran Away Song from Monty Pythin and The Holy Grail¹)

Brave Amanda ran away.
Bravely ran away, away!
When danger reared its ugly head,
She bravely turned her tail and fled.
Yes, brave Amanda  turned about
And gallantly she chickened out.
Bravely taking to her feet
She beat a very brave retreat,
Bravest of the brave, Amanda!
She is packing it in and packing it up
And sneaking away and buggering up
And chickening out and pissing off home…

What?  Oh sorry, I was not intending to be nice. 

As far as I am concerned she bailed on principle and in turn betrayed her real motives.

As I see it, she had the chance to prove her professionalism, and to make a stand on her ability to operate in a seperate professional space from her own opinions.  All she had to do was BE PROFESSIONAL and allow her work at the blog to display Edwards’ belief and not let her own attitudes color it, something many professional writers are used to.

She had to make a hard choice and she couldn’t do it.

Was her hate spweing agenda so important she could not put it aside to support a candidate she believed in?  Or was Edwards a convenient means to an end, and maybe she doesn’t really support him, she just supports being his blogmistress.  Love the position, not the candidate.

Her concession is a gauntlet.  Rather then continue in any manner of professionalism, she immediate played the gender victim card.

I was hired by the Edwards campaign for the skills and talents I bring to the table, and my willingness to work hard for what’s right. Unfortunately, Bill Donohue and his calvacade of right wing shills don’t respect that a mere woman like me could be hired for my skills, and pretended that John Edwards had to be held accountable for some of my personal, non-mainstream views on religious influence on politics (I’m anti-theocracy, for those who were keeping track).

Other then a few comments on her overt feminism, I never heard anyone use her gender as an issue, except her.

Next she sinks to ad hominem attacks, a few threats and some letters and comments of support.

But she never mentions the fact that she quit before she had started, and it was in essence her own damn fault.  She chose to become the inflamed liberal, the rude and harsh anti theocrat.  And someone called her on it.

Her own words are haunting her and rather then fight for her right to freedom of speech, she bailed.  Sure, she will now claim to be the martyr, but I see her as a coward, afraid of her own words (which have mysteriously vanished from her site in the past) and of her critics (she commonly admits to deleting comments she does not like).

Sister Toldjah sums it up well:

The gal chose to step down herself - and because of a choice she made today, even after Edwards told her she could still stay on the campaign, she’s blaming others for her decision.

What a fitting an end to this controversy and how typically liberal the explanation for her decision: It’s not MY fault I had to do it!

Indeed.

Michelle Malkin and Hot Air has a great round up of reactions.

One final note.  I have often noted how much more likely the left wingers are to spew hate speech and intolerance.

It has to make you wonder, how many more liberal bloggers have hateful skeletons holding them back from positions like this?  Has their love of vitriol made the talent pool a bit shallow?

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