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Hillary And Hamsher, Blogging And Blackface

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton caused a minor stir this week with her guest-blogging appearance at Firedoglake, a site where one of the lead bloggers last year painted Sen. Joseph Lieberman in blackface before apologizing and removing the entry at the behest of Lieberman's opponent.

Clinton, D-N.Y., posted an entry at Firedoglake on Tuesday to mark Equal Pay Day and to tout her legislation aimed at guaranteeing women the same pay as men when they do the same work. Clinton also briefly engaged the blog's readers in the comments at the bottom of her post.

Mary Ann Akers, who writes The Sleuth blog for The Washington Post, reported that Democratic activists privately questioned Clinton's decision to appear on Firedoglake because of the tarnished reputation of Jane Hamsher, one of its chief bloggers.

Last summer, while following Democrat Ned Lamont of Connecticut in his bid to unseat fellow Democrat Lieberman, Hamsher posted an image of Lieberman in blackface at The Huffington Post. Although Hamsher never worked in a paid capacity for Lamont's campaign, she did produce a video for the campaign. Her close connections to Lamont prompted the campaign to contact her about the image.

She deleted it and apologized, but according to Akers, the incident is fresh enough in the minds of some Democrats that they think Clinton should have kept her distance from Firedoglake. Dan Gerstein, who worked for Lieberman's campaign last year and was reviled by bloggers like Hamsher, was among those who questioned Clinton's decision.

"Just as pure strategy," Gerstein said, "why would you want to take a risk and invite scorn and controversy and an accusation of hypocrisy when you don't have to?"

Peter Daou, a blog adviser for Clinton's campaign has not responded to my e-mail for comment.

The questions about Clinton's choice of blog venues comes less than three months after a higher-profile controversy involving the campaign of fellow Democrat John Edwards.

The Edwards brouhaha occurred when his campaign hired Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwen, two bloggers whose anti-religious writing enraged Catholics and others. Edwards resisted calls to fire them, but both Marcotte and McEwen quit on their own within days of being hired.

Clinton's decision to appear at Firedoglake doesn't seem likely to snowball into that same kind of full-blown blog swarm. For starters, Clinton didn't hire Hamsher, and as Ann Althouse noted, it's a stretch to "pin that blackface nonsense" on Clinton.

What's more, Clinton ironically is now the victim of some blackface nonsense directed at her. Today, conservative cartoonist Chris Muir painted Clinton in blackface in a "Day By Day" strip that pokes fun at her recent attempts to speak in a Southern accent.

Even so, the Clinton-Firedoglake connection revives questions about whether direct interaction with the top liberal bloggers poses a greater risk to Democratic candidates than potential benefit -- and also whether bloggers are letting themselves be co-opted by campaigns.

Although she won't blame Clinton for Hamsher's blackface disgrace, Althouse criticized Clinton's decision to blog at Hamsher's site. "Firedoglake is a hardcore place, and Clinton doesn't belong there," Althouse said. She also scoffed at the suggestion that Clinton guest-blogged. "The blog is publishing a press release."

One commenter at Firedoglake agreed: "Forgive me, but maybe someone can tell me exactly what was accomplished by having Hilary as a 'guest?' ... [S]he didn't say one thing that wasn't part of her campaign talking points and managed to duck answering any of the more pointed questions."

Several readers also complained that Clinton had dodged a question from netroots star Matt Stoller of MyDD.

Jeralyn Merritt of TalkLeft applauded Clinton's appearance. But her praise gets to the other concern of co-opting. "I hope you do it again on other issues," she wrote. "It's a great way for the candidates to make our acquaintance and strengthen our working relationship with them."

The problem is that the pursuit of a "working relationship" with campaigns can undermine the very spirit of the blogosphere. As one Firedoglake reader noted: "Senator Clinton is very on message. I don't think of a blog as a place to focus on just one subject. I can understand a candidate insisting on this as a requirement for appearing, but, on the other hand, it just doesn't seem bloggish."

Critical readers seemed most annoyed by the fact that Firedoglake limited the questions asked of Clinton to the equal pay topic she chose to discuss. Here are some their reactions:

-- "I found it discouraging that the questions here turned into the softballs we rip on the press pool for asking."

-- "You can’t ask for commentors to keep it on topic here and then criticize Beltway journalists for having cozy relationships with politicians. Why should it be cozy for Senator Clinton here or in D.C.?"

-- "Is it really a democratic kinda thing to limit discussion to one issue? Was she REALLY only prepared to discuss ONE issue? Hmmm."

-- "[T]hese kinds of cameo appearances are of very little use, other than enabling the candidate to hype her talking points."

-- "I think you guys made a mistake, believing that you could INCREASE your blog power, or readership, or whatever, by bringing Hillary in here, having her field a few sweetheart questions, and then having her waltz out with credit for making a 'tough blogsite' appearance."

Posted by Danny | 06:24 PM

Comments

I'm glad you spent several paragraphs on the past controversy surrounding Jane Hamsher using blackface and just mentioned as an aside in one short paragraph the fact that yesterday hundreds of conservative blogs featured Hillary in blackface. This is the kind of balance conservatives have been looking for in the media.
http://jonswift.blogspot.com/2007/04/day-by-days-chris-muir-gives-hillary.html

Jon Swift | 04.27.07 08:36 AM

OMG! A member of the MSM that may not have a Liberal bias, Jon! I guess it's time to shut them down. I mean, God forbid, that someone in the MSM present something other than a Liberal perspective beside Fox. We need more MSMs like CNN, who can honestly present the Liberal talking points.

Ben | 04.27.07 09:03 AM

mentioned as an aside in one short paragraph the fact that yesterday hundreds of conservative blogs featured Hillary in blackface.

Weasel words. "Hundreds" of blogs have Chris linked as a cartonist, not a blogger like Jane Hamsher. Your issue, if any, is with him. But like a typical liberal, you must distort and exagerate to play your little Tu Quoque fallacy.

Fen | 04.27.07 09:23 AM

Dan Gerstein, who worked for Lieberman's campaign last year and was reviled by bloggers like Hamsher, was among those who questioned Clinton's decision.

As Glenn Greenwald points out, Gerstein continues even now to be paid by Joe Lieberman. It is disingenuous at best not to point this out, giving the impression that Gerstein is now some total independent. And who is Gerstein's constituency? Who does he represent? FDL has about 100,000 regular readers who are committed and active Democrats. Gerstein seems to have a constituency of exactly 1 (Lieberman), yet for some reason he is paid attention to as some kind of mainstream figure, while the many, many committed people who read FDL are painted as few radical weirdos on mountaintop.

Rheinhard | 04.27.07 11:34 AM

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton caused a minor stir this week with her guest-blogging appearance at Firedoglake

Since the only "stir" it caused was in Gerstein it was, indeed, "minor."

Brautigan | 04.27.07 11:40 AM

try reading Glenn Greenwald's post, you'll learn a lot.

Althouse is a notorious Clinton hater and general liberal blog hater. Nice "sources" you have there.

what crap.

ana3 | 04.27.07 12:51 PM

Now, if we could just find one more Lieberman employee to echo Gerstein's very objective analysis, maybe we could elevate the whole thing to a "major scandal"

Dr Rick | 04.27.07 02:29 PM

Apparently none of you read what I wrote. I was applauding the editorial balance of this fine journal. If you read my blog, you will see that I am a conservative.

Jon Swift | 04.27.07 03:35 PM

Reading some of the comments above, you'd never know that Lieberman got re-elected (or that Ann Althouse is a Democrat). Having said that, something about this whole affair causes me to perceive it as Mary Ann Akers slipping a dagger between Jane Hamsher's shoulder blades. Has anyone looked into why she might want to do that?

Jay Manifold | 04.27.07 05:19 PM

Reading some of the comments above, you'd never know that Lieberman got re-elected

by Republicans and their money.

(or that Ann Althouse is a Democrat).

Riiiiight. M'kay.

Having said that, something about this whole affair causes me to perceive it as Mary Ann Akers slipping a dagger between Jane Hamsher's shoulder blades. Has anyone looked into why she might want to do that?

Jay Manifold | 04.27.07 05:19 PM

Weel. See, laddie, she's (Mary Ann) married to one Mike Isikoff, and he no like Clintons. So it's not really Jane's lovely shoulder-blade for which the dagger is intended, gedditt??!!

Now, Glover on the other hand loathes Marcotte, so this also gives him a chance to smear her again, too. I suspect his own lack of ethics in dealing with the Edwards bloggers, and that he got publically called out and had to apologize still chafes his diaper.

And Glover? You remain a hack of the first order.

Max Renn | 04.27.07 06:34 PM

Mary Ann Akers and her obsessive Clinton-hating hubby Mike Isikoff are typical specimens of the media-Republican DC-establishment social milieu (of which this blog is yet another lovely representative). Riven with conflicts of interest, incompetence, laziness, nepotism, and morally rotten to the core. Even if they were made to sit through 10 screenings of Moyers' documentary in a row, alternating with raw footage of war casualties, not a hint of self-examination would stirr in their hearts. Their souls are morally dead. Thank God all these good Bushies are slowly but surely losing their choke-hold on our national political discourse. No wonder that blogs as alternative ways for politicians to communicate with voters bypassing their little cartel bring out such a frightened and vicious response from them.

mz | 04.27.07 10:23 PM

Hey Danny!

Grow up!

Je support les troops | 04.27.07 11:02 PM

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