Posted on 02/08/2007 2:08:26 PM PST by Unam Sanctam
Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said Thursday he was personally offended by the provocative messages two of his campaign bloggers wrote criticizing the Catholic church, but he's not firing them.
Edwards issued a written statement about the fate of Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwen, two days after the head of the conservative Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights demanded they be fired for messages they wrote before working on the campaign.
The campaign distributed written apologies from the two women, who stressed they were writing on personal blogs and not on behalf of the campaign. Edwards said he believes in giving everyone a "fair shake."
"I've talked to Amanda and Melissa; they have both assured me that it was never their intention to malign anyone's faith, and I take them at their word," Edwards said.
Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, cited posts that the women made on blogs in the past several months in which they criticized the church's opposition to homosexuality, abortion and contraception, sometimes using profanity.
"The tone and the sentiment of some of Amanda Marcotte's and Melissa McEwen's posts personally offended me," Edwards' statement read. "It's not how I talk to people, and it's not how I expect the people who work for me to talk to people. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but that kind of intolerant language will not be permitted from anyone on my campaign, whether it's intended as satire, humor or anything else."
The Edwards campaign did not immediately respond to requests for further comment beyond the written statement.
Edwards remained silent for two days as he considered whether to keep the bloggers and the controversy grew on the Internet. The pair started working for him last week as part of his outreach to liberal voters and activists on the Internet.
Marcotte also did not comment publicly until the campaign's statement was released. McEwan defended herself Tuesday in a two-sentence posting on her blog, Shakespeare's Sister, that noted her vote for 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.
"I'm not going to say a lot about this right now, but suffice it to say that the fact I cast a vote, without hesitation, for a Catholic during the last presidential election might suggest I'm not anti-Catholic," her post read. "My degree from Loyola University might also suggest the same."
McEwen also posted the statement that the Edwards campaign distributed on Shakespeare's Sister on Thursday. Her portion said that she doesn't expect Edwards to agree with everything she's posted, but they share "an unwavering support of religious freedom and a deep respect for diverse beliefs.
"It has never been my intention to disparage people's individual faith, and I'm sorry if my words were taken in that way," McEwen's statement said.
Marcotte's statement said her writings on religion on her blog, Pandagon, are generally satirical criticisms of public policies and politics.
"My intention is never to offend anyone for his or her personal beliefs, and I am sorry if anyone was personally offended by writings meant only as criticisms of public politics," Marcotte said. "Freedom of religion and freedom of expression are central rights, and the sum of my personal writings is a testament to this fact."
The Catholic League counts its membership at nearly 350,000. Donohue is a frequent critic of those who speak out against the church and what he calls "political correctness run amok," such as the separation of Christmas and the holiday season.
Donohue also doesn't shy away from blunt language sometimes in his criticism of gays, Hollywood's control by "secular Jews who hate Christianity" and even the Edwards bloggers, who he referred to as "brats" in an interview Wednesday on MSNBC.
And the media will continue to give him a pass.
Unfortunately, many Catholics will continue to vote Democratic on the mistaken notion that the Dems are the party of peace and compassion for the poor and downtrodden...
“We will launch a nationwide public relations blitz that will be conducted on the pages of the New York Times, as well as in Catholic newspapers and periodicals. It will be on-going, breaking like a wave, starting next week and continuing through 2007. It will be an education campaign, informing the public of what he did today. We will also reach out to our allies in the Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist communities. They worked with us before on many issues, and are sure to do so again. What Edwards did today will not be forgotten.”
Yes. If they'd been writing posts derogatory to black people or homosexuals, that would have been entirely different.
What the hey, they're just Christians.
As long as they don't start blowing people up, Edwards can insult them all he likes.
Oh, yeah, and that's the moral equivalent of the scatalogical, sacrilegious, obscene rantings of these two harpies . . . right!
He will also regret the decision when these two leave the reservation again, which they will at some point. Whackos always have a problem knowing when they cross the line.
Except, of course, this one time. Looks like the one grope rule is still in effect.
Regards,
TS
I looked up some of those blogs.
These are too very scary far, far, left extremists, with filthy mouths.
Edwards took alot of heat from the Feminists, Progressive Left and other Hard Line left crowd over Amanda Marcotte. I suggest anyone read pandagon.net. If you want to find out just how vile and bigotted the crowd is over there.
Not a very bright move on his part. He is working to get the nomination. This is part of the Democratic base. And if he kicked them to the curb it would severly hurt his chances of getting nominated. On the other hand it says his staff did little or no screening of the content of their sites.
These are Tin Foil hat, Rabid Man Haters, Femifascists. Now having to eat their words. As Blogging becomes more mainstream. Bloggers become more valuable in the New Media. They will have to temper their language.
No. These people are liberals, they can do no wrong. Even if they had made derogatory comments about homosexuals or blacks, they would have been given a pass by the MSM.
Conservatives, OTOH would have been pilloried for this in a nanosecond.
Of course, if either one had used "Barack Obama" and "articulate" in the same sentence, they would have been fired immediately.
You'd think Edwards of all people would understand the effectiveness of a good "swift-boating".
Falling back on it's just satire, it's just a joke or just a mistake. The MSM lets the Democrats get away with that but conservatives must resign.
Exactly why it's great news that Edwards is keeping them as his (nasty) mouthpiece.
Amanda can't be all bad, she has a link to FreeRepublic.
They are entitled to argue with Church teaching but with no direct quotes I can only assume they crossed the line of debate. Sounds like Edwards has that view, *however*, he should've fired them.
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