Josh Marshall has some Bad Stuff Up there for One of Our Candidates

[KoKo]

Edwards Camp, Under Siege, Is In Bunker Mode Over Blogger Story
By Greg Sargent | bio

The John Edwards campaign appears to be in bunker mode over the big blogger controversy. Staffers aren't answering phone calls and emails. The statement on this whole dust-up promised to Salon earlier today has yet to materialize.

Meanwhile, the Edwards camp is under blogospheric siege from some quarters. Chris Bowers of MyDD is threatening not to support Edwards if the two bloggers are fired. He writes:

While there is no way I will support Edwards with Amanda and Melissa...fired, I will immediately become a staunch Edwards supporter if they are not fired. Consider the heinous reporting that is being done in this story, where bigot William Donahue is somehow an authority on what defines hate speech, it is clear that the Edwards campaign will take a lot of flack from outside the netroots if they do not fire Amanda and Melissa. Keeping them on would show a willingness to take risks and stand up to the media in a way that most Democrats just are not, all because the campaign will be doing so in order to defend the netroots.

If someone is willing to stand with us, that should mean something big, and should not go unrewarded.

More as we learn it.

Update: Crooks and Liars has video of a CNN segment on this. First the Times covers it, now CNN. This is really snowballing.

http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/feb/07/edwards_camp_under_siege_is_in_bunker_mode_over_blogger_story

[Justitia]

1. Incoming! "oops." -eom

[David Dunham]

2. Bowers is wrong. No Democrat can afford to be regarded as anti-Catholic.

Booting the bloggers, who should have been screened better in the first place, is not a big deal to most Dems. It's an issue primarily only to other bloggers who now realize that Obama and Hillary will not hire them to avoid precisely this type of problem.

[sandnsea]

5. It's not an issue either way

Bloggers say outrageous things, apologize, move on. I swear, if Edwards can't manage this, he's got no business saying another word about Kerry and a multi-million dollar smear coordinated with one of the biggest media companies in the country.

[madrchsod]

3. i`m waiting to see if he does

i`ll comment about this when he does something

[sandnsea]

4. Whatever Edwards decides, I STAND BEHIND

When in the love of god will we ever fucking learn!!! You stand behind your party when they're under right wing assault. This is small beans stuff. Edwards needs to just make a decision and ride it out. He shouldn't have hired someone who spouts religous bigotry in the first place, but it's done and I'm not going to join the right in any bash-fest.

[David Dunham]

6. Bottom line: bloggers write controversial things, which is good but don't hire them

to work on political campaigns.

[trumad]

7. Bottom line--

Jump at our shadows and fear the repuke noise machine... uh that's what you're saying isn't it?

[David Dunham]

8. No, hire political pros to run your campaign; get bloggers to rally the base

[Redneck Socialist]

9. Who are these people and why should I care? n/t

[Toucano]

10. Me too!

I've been away for 12 hours and suddenly Edwards is "toast" over something I have no clue about.

It's as if everyone suddenly started speaking Russian here and I can't understand a word.

Except "Snickers" :)

[KoKo]

11. The comments in reply over there are worth the read..here's 2 of them!

On February 7, 2007 - 7:19pm philgoblue said:

I agree that Edwards should keep Melissa and Amanda (in that order), but it's not about Donohue and winning him over. It's that he and other conservative Catholics will use this as ammunition to attack Edwards and try to win moderate Catholics back over to Republicanism. The Republicans know that Edwards' populism is just what the doctor ordered to win back Catholic Reagan/2004 Democrats who voted Democratic in 2006, so they're after JRE.

So, there is something to consider is the risk that we might be giving good ammo to the oppo worth keeping Amanda and Melissa? Is it really all that big ammo or an extremely minor thing?

So, they should be thinking and I'm glad they are. Clearly the Online folks hired Amanda and now the non-online folks in the campaign aren't sure that was a good idea. Naturally a young campaign is having its internal struggles and healthy debates.

I hope that they come out for Amanda and Melissa, but I do think they should be thinking about all possibilities. Life is not just the netroots.
login or register to post comments | parent | link |

---------------------------------------------
On February 7, 2007 - 8:20pm Joe Buck said:

Look, almost anyone with any passion at all uses foul language once in a while, or says something some people might not like. If the right forces Edwards to fire Melissa and Amanda, do you think they'll stop? They'll go on, and target his most effective people, and if he tries to fire some and not others, they will exploit divisions between those fired and those not fired.

The primary issue facing the Democrats in the minds of many voters is the wimp factor: are the Democrats tough enough? If Democrats aren't even tough enough to face down right-wing yahoos, how can you trust them to counter foreign threats?

And let's face it: the Republican VP dropped the f-bomb on the floor of the senate, called a leading reporter a major-league asshole, and I didn't hear the right get upset about that.

This is a test of character for John Edwards.

[Redneck Socialist]

13. I gathered that some right-wing nut job was outraged..

by something or other they may have written. I also gathered that they are bloggers (presumably of some repute or Edwards wouldn't have hired them).

I skimmed the comments, but I still don't really know who they are, what they did or even who the right wing nut job who his having his five minute hate is.

Much ado about nothing I'm thinking.

A blogger wrote something controversial? My dogs man that's outrageous! :sarcasm:

If Edwards fires them, that'll be pretty weak, but perhaps his staff could have done a little more research before hiring some internet keyboardists. (That's assuming of course that they actually wrote something outrageous not just something that got a righty's tightie whities in a twist.

[karlrschneider]

12. "a willingness to take risks"??????? Well God forbid we ever support anybody

willing to do THAT!

:eyes: