When a shitstorm starts, it sure takes a while for things to calm down, doesn’t it? Today, the NRO continued the mountain-out-of-less-than-a-molehill attacks on Amanda being named to John Edwards’ staff by calling her anti-Catholic and claiming Edwards ought to be alarmed by this.
For the last several days, the Right has done everything it could to smear her name. Why? Petty jealousy, sure. Boredom, probably. But it’s also because she makes them nervous, and not just because she’s really good at poking holes in their elaborately constructed false myths.
I think the Republicans are desperate to reverse this bold hire by the Edwards campaign because they’re terrified Democrats are about to awaken the slumbering giant of liberalism on the political landscape. We’ve discussed the enormous popularity of liberal ideas many times in this space. If the Democrats decide to embrace real liberal political thought again, Republicans won’t be able to hang back and wait for the Dems to paint themselves into their typical bland, uncompelling corner. And that’ll make it much harder for Republicans to win elections.
All Amanda did was call out some official policies of the Catholic Church for their systemic oppression of women. That such a defense of basic human rights would be held against her by anyone — even the fascist apologists at the NRO — is a depressing statement on where we stand as a society.
Ilyka has more on the manufactured outrage.
Jealousy too, I’m sure. After all I don’t see any of the Republican candidates snapping up…? Instapundit? LGF? Anyone else? Nope….
I’m absolutely fascinated by Edward’s move here and want to see where it will go…
Amanda has just ascended to the tiny, tiny blogular elite of people who managed to turn their opinions into jobs/book deals/minor fame or prestige of any sort, as opposed to the rest of us who are far more likely to be fired for blogging if we’re noticed at all. And she didn’t have to blog about fucking famous people to do it.
I can see where that sort of success would turn a person green with envy, especially if they’re looking back in their own archives with the sinking feeling that maybe those years of following the standard Republican talking points has become the blogging equivalent of cooties- Republicans will be trying to distance themselves from the current admin and won’t be swooping into blogland to pluck another Bush/Iraq cheerleader out of obscurity.
This groundless attacking of Amanda has really made me wonder a lot of things…
What if you apply for a job and every comment you’ve made on a blog can be reviewed for ideological purity? What if the contents of every email you’ve sent or received are archived for public access? What if your browsing history were available?
The analog for this, IMO, would be having public access to everyone’s DNA. There has always been a group of people who are certain nothing bad would result from this. The rest of us see it an endless source of pain, grief, and mischief.
I hope Amanda retains her job, and I hope these desperate attacks don’t get her down. I’ve honestly been shocked by the virulence, the pettiness, and the childishness of the whole thing…
Thanks for the link!
You know, all K-Lo’s loony column does is reinforce what I already knew anyway: It doesn’t matter what the subject is, whether it’s Duke or Catholicism or mice or disco balls, so long as it can be used to point fingers and shriek, “Ewwww, feminist!” at Amanda.
All the wingnut players in this one know exactly how sunk they are if a Democrat hopeful not only wins, but wins on the support of feminists. “Pants-shitting terror” doesn’t begin to describe how they feel about that possibility. See, they thought they’d only have Hillary to worry about. They were (continuing the streak they’ve been on since I can’t count back that far) wrong.
I agree with all the other motives that have been suggested, envy and so forth, but the sheer fugliness of it all, the pettiness and nasty personal animosity, the attempt to get her fired, can only be explained by raging misogyny (and no doubt by fools rocking a teeny peeny). If anyone doubts that we live in a misogynist society, I’d say this should clear it up for them.
Meanwhile, if Edwards even thought about firing her, I’d have to think that would be the end for him. The rap he has to overcome is that he’s too green and too soft, and if he caved to the ten most unhinged people on the planet over this, he’d clearly be a joke. Michelle Malkin and her epigones are calling the shots for his campaign? I realize he’s not showing any signs of mistakenly believing these peoople are sane or otherwise worth listening to, I’m just saying.
Surely I made a joke about burquas at some point in time that could be misconstrued as anti-Muslim. Wonder why that hasn’t gotten any play.
Amanda, they would have, but they haven’t found a burqua-wearing Muslim woman willing to shill for the Reichwing yet.
As soon as they find the Muslim Malkin (hey, that sorta sounds good…), you can be sure they’ll be throwing crap from the Quran at you and anyone else who dares to avoid drinking the Kool Aid…
Amanda Marcotte
Feb 7th, 2007 at 6:46 am
“Surely I made a joke about burquas at some point in time that could be misconstrued as anti-Muslim. Wonder why that hasn’t gotten any play.”
Was it that joke where you say, “Surely I made a joke about burkahs and then Shirley asked me not to call her Surely”?
Surely, you aren’t serious, because Cirius hates that, Shirley.
While I applaud Edwards recognition of class struggle in the US, I think it’s a stretch (especially now) to think of him as liberal, much less progressive. He might be a populist, in the old-fashioned farms-and-unions sense.
Unfortunately, I don’t think this knee-jerk reaction from Edwards is surprising, given his history of courting some imagined Christian center (as I recall, he tried playing to the Christians last time around, too).
Not surprising, but certainly offensive. At best, the Edwards campaign is being ineffectually managed, with either poorly considered decision-making or low confidence in decision-making delegates. At worst, the campaign is poorly managed *and* Edwards regards freedom of speech issues as a political convenience. Somewhere between these ignoble poles navigates the campaign, firing two bloggers for the same reason they hired them, then encouraging the media to wait and see if they’re rehired after some token capitulation to the religious right. Edwards must be frustrated that he hasn’t been able to deliver an “I voted against them before I voted for them” speech yet.
For my part: I was someone principally interested in a single issue in the 90’s: healthcare. Now, despite his campaign focus on domestic issues, I have to toss out any notions that Edwards can effectively serve the nation’s healthcare interests,
since the dogma of the Christian right runs rather specifically contra sound practice in health and medicine. If this is the kind of cowing the Edwards campaign is capable of regarding their bloggers (with all due respect to our national decentralized media), I shudder to think what this type of rectitude (or lack thereof) would yield in a high stakes executive or judicial nomination process post-election.
In any case, I wish the Panda the best luck possible in all this. She’s better than they seem to think (and I’ll come up with a few more direct communiqués as per P.A.M.’s generous recommendations).
“All that jealousy and envy comin from my enemies” – Tupac Shakur