Democratic contender John Edwards should have been reading the Northern Valley Beacon. He might then have been forewarned about the dangers inherent in the blogosphere. Here is Howard Kurtz (hat tip to Michelle Malkin):
Days after Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards decided against firing two liberal bloggers with a history of inflammatory writing, one resigned last night with a blast at "right wing shills" for driving her out of the campaign. Amanda Marcotte, whose writings were assailed as anti-Catholic, wrote yesterday on her blog that the Edwards camp had accepted her resignation.
One of the problems with blogging is that you have no editor to forcefully point out when you have crossed the line. Ms. Marcotte probably crossed it:
Among other things, Marcotte had written: "The Catholic church is not about to let something like compassion for girls get in the way of using the state as an instrument to force women to bear more tithing Catholics." She also questioned, in explicit language, what would have happened if the Virgin Mary had taken the emergency contraceptive called Plan B.
Last month, Marcotte wrote of the Duke University rape case: "Can't a few white boys sexually assault a black woman anymore without people getting all wound up about it? So unfair."
Now this is nasty stuff, but political discourse is a rough business and the history of political letters is full of things as bad or worse. The problem is that the Edwards campaign just can't be associated with such sentiments. So candidate Edwards refused to fire the two bloggers. But the one resigned yesterday, and the other, Melissa McEwan, resigned from the Edward's campaign today. Both insisted that the weren't fired, but voluntarily stepped down to protect the campaign and to spend time on other things. That's what you get to say when your boss has decided you must go, but doesn't want to take responsibility for it.
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