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Edwards Bloggers: And Then There Were None

Yesterday, blogger Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon shocked the political blogosphere with her resignation from the presidential campaign of Democrat John Edwards just days after Edward had stood by her and resisted pressure to fire her. Today, Melissa McEwan of Shakespeare's Sister, quickly followed Marcotte out the revolving netroots door at the Edwards campaign.

Like Marcotte, McEwan blamed her abrupt departure on "sustained ideological attacks" and on people " who used public criticisms of me as an excuse to unleash frightening ugliness, the likes of which anyone with a modicum of respect for responsible discourse would denounce without hesitation." Here's more from her statement:

I would like to make very clear that the campaign did not push me out, nor was my resignation the back-end of some arrangement made last week. This was a decision I made, with the campaign's reluctant support, because my remaining the focus of sustained ideological attacks was inevitably making me a liability to the campaign, and making me increasingly uncomfortable with my and my family's level of exposure.

I understand that there will be progressive bloggers who feel I am making the wrong decision, and I offer my sincerest apologies to them. ... There will be some who clamor to claim victory for my resignation, but I caution them that in doing so, they are tacitly accepting responsibility for those who have deluged my blog and my inbox with vitriol and veiled threats. ... This is a win for no one.

So the two bloggers who for the past week have generated more headlines than the candidate who hired them are now gone.

My headline may be a bit misleading, though. William Beutler of Blog P.I. notes that at least one other blogger is still on the Edwards campaign: Matt Gross, Edwards' "senior adviser for online communications/chief Internet strategist/general adviser on all things bloggy." But Beutler wonders whether Gross, who ostensibly had a role in hiring Marcotte and McEwan, might be the next to go.

UPDATE: Now for the roundup of reactions from the blogosphere:

-- Chris Bowers of MyDD: "I think someone, maybe BlogPac, should produce some sort of guide for independent bloggers with no experience working on statewide or presidential campaigns both what they should expect and what they should demand when they are first hired. Clearly, this wasn't something that Amanda and Melissa wanted to do. Then again, this entire experience might make such a guide moot, considering how much publicity this received online."

-- Confederate Yankee: McEwan "exhibited more class and dignity than Marcotte, even as I find it somewhat ironic that someone who calls my fellow Christians "christofascists" accuses others of unleashing "frightening ugliness, the likes of which anyone with a modicum of respect for responsible discourse would denounce without hesitation."

Posted by Danny | 08:05 PM

Comments

How sad for them both...that Christians who were the targets of their spew should actually defend themselves from such bigotry....we are obligated to turn the other cheek,...ONCE

Robbins Mitchell | 02.13.07 09:01 PM

TO: Danny Glover
RE: This....

....is SOOOOO 'staged' it's ridiculous to consider this as anything more, nor less, than Edwards giving them their packing orders last week, then standing by them as they were cleaning out their desk. All so they could leave as quietly as possible.

Too bad that the blogosphere does not allow for that....for Edwards, that is.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[There is nothing that is done in secret that shall not be shouted from the roof tops. -- some Wag, around 2000 years ago]

Chuck Pelto | 02.13.07 09:23 PM

Turning the other cheek is something to aspire to. Sometimes a good return slap is so much more fun it is worth the penance. Let he who is without sin turn the other cheek.

Peter | 02.13.07 09:44 PM

Good riddance to bad rubbish. It would be nice to know that lessons were learned from this fiasco, but I won't hold my breath.

RebeccaH | 02.13.07 10:29 PM

Anyone with any brains knows this is all Bush's fault.

Terrence | 02.13.07 11:53 PM

How stupid do you have to be to think you can send death threats via e mail and no get them tracked back to their source?
Hope you find them Shakespear.

Papertiger | 02.14.07 12:15 AM

Robbins Mitchell: Not once, but 490 times (Matt 18:22).

Not that I come anywhere close to that...half the time I don't even feel bad about failing....

bristlecone | 02.14.07 12:23 AM

Such a pity.

And they seemed like such NICE little girls, the sort you'd take home to meet Mom.

Well, if your Mom worked in a bawdy-house down by the docks, maybe.

;-)

Jim Addison | 02.14.07 02:16 AM

Well Danny, I guess you can go back into hibernation again until Malkin needs you to lead the baying hounds of civilty after the "wrong-thinkers"

A job well done, though. Don't forget to get your scratch behind the ear...

tbogg | 02.14.07 03:54 AM

Cookie for tbogg for throwing props to the Rovian Message Machine! Good monkey!!!

Leftists = Cicrus Monkeys | 02.14.07 07:56 AM

"...lead the baying hounds of civilty after the "wrong-thinkers"

That's rich...Galileo, Marcotte, McEwan...when will it end......we're destroying our best & brightest...

thanks for the wake-up call...hehehe

Tom G. | 02.14.07 08:32 AM

Edwards for Presidentr....ya know.

Les Taylor | 02.14.07 08:33 AM

Actually, it's Edwards who's gonna be scratching behind his ears. You sleep with fleas, you better wear a flea collar.

samiam | 02.14.07 08:54 AM

So. These two can dish out the vitriol, but they can't take it. If they really believed in all their vile spew, they should stay and defend it. So either they don't actually believe it, or they're cowards who won't stand their ground and fight for what they believe in. Either way, the guy that hired them ends up looking like a putz.

tom swift | 02.14.07 09:19 AM

tbogg;

Speaking of things canine, don't forget your extra helping of kibble from Kos and Huff!

I suggest you get used to your authority being questioned by those you have been slandering for far too long. There is an old Chinese saying that if you tweak the nose of the dragon enough times he/she will rise up and you will not like it, not one bit! Or words to that effect.

The first amendment, that you think only applies to people who think like you, is a sword that cuts both ways. Live by the sword, die by the sword, rhetorically speaking. The blogsphere is your worst nightmare come true.

Consider the "dogs of war" unleashed on multiple fronts.

vet66 | 02.14.07 10:15 AM

They never should have accepted Edwards’ offer, the offers never should have been made in the first place, and the fact either happened shows the extent to which they were all either living in an echo chamber or just totally failed to consider the consequences of their actions. It should have been obvious to all parties involved that her prior statements were going to cause enormous problems for the campaign.

Ace has it about right: if you want to swear and write deliberately vicious, offensive things about people you disagree with, you’re certainly entitled to, but you shouldn’t expect that everyone is going to forgive and forget if you accept a very public position with a mainstream campaign. No matter what your ideology, if you want that kind of career, you’d best keep a civil tongue... er, keyboard.

TallDave | 02.14.07 10:47 AM

Ace has it about right: if you want to swear and write deliberately vicious, offensive things about people you disagree with, you’re certainly entitled to, but you shouldn’t expect that everyone is going to forgive and forget if you accept a very public position with a mainstream campaign. No matter what your ideology, if you want that kind of career, you’d best keep a civil tongue... er, keyboard.
You're absolutely right, of course. the best way to prove people who suggest that some catholics are creepy misogynists wrong is to threaten to rape them.

Grendel72 | 02.14.07 12:00 PM

"people who *suggest* that some catholics are creepy misogynists "

Could you provide the actual quote where she makes the subtle, civil, 'suggestion'?

How do you lefties control your thoughts so well. The self discipline it must take to actually defend her words without reading them is incredible. The girls language was so clean and above reproach, it surely was only their right wing troglidyte critics who brought rape into the discussion, I am sure.

GrendelsMother | 02.14.07 01:29 PM

No, the best way is to simply point out their creepy vulgar Christian-bashing statements. Which is exactly what happened, and why they were fired... I mean, "resigned."

Nowhere did I suggest threatening rape was appropriate. Accusing people who disagree with you of threatening rape is exactly the sort of delusional, vicious behavior that got those two bloggers removed.

TallDave | 02.14.07 02:05 PM

TO: tbogg
RE: The Dogs of Blogs

"A job well done, though. Don't forget to get your scratch behind the ear..." -- tbogg [to Danny Glover]

Is that the 'BEST' you can do? To someone who uses the blog in the same, albeit more genteel, manner as the objects of this discussion?

Being a newshound is nothing to be ashamed of. But you seem to think that one should be ashamed of telling the truth.

So be it, buckie.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[Whose side are you one?

The Truth. Is there another?]

Chuck Pelto | 02.14.07 02:27 PM

Ah, Grendel,

"some Catholics"? Marcotte's brush is alot broader than that and creepy misogynists is the least of the slanders.

Nice try though.

Taleena | 02.14.07 04:34 PM

How do you lefties control your thoughts so well. The self discipline it must take to actually defend her words without reading them is incredible. The girls language was so clean and above reproach, it surely was only their right wing troglidyte critics who brought rape into the discussion, I am sure.
So clearly she deserves to be raped. What would Jesus do, after all, if not sexually harass people he disagrees with?

Grendel72 | 02.14.07 05:28 PM

Grendel72:

You're right; whoever threatened to rape her should lose his job with whatever political campaign he's affiliated with.

Just like Edwards bigoted bloggers lost theirs.

I don't know why, but I suspect that's not what you're driving at, is it?

BD | 02.14.07 08:59 PM

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