Catholic group calls on Edwards to fire 'bigots' on staff

Associated Press ^ | February 7, 2007

[presidio9]

Two bloggers hired recently by Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards were criticized Tuesday by a Catholic group for posts they had written elsewhere on the Internet.

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, demanded that Edwards fire Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan.

"John Edwards is a decent man who has had his campaign tarnished by two anti-Catholic, vulgar, trash-talking bigots," Donohue wrote in a statement. "He has no choice but to fire them immediately."

The Edwards campaign declined to comment. McEwan and Marcotte did not respond to e-mails requesting a response.

Donohue cited posts that the women made on blogs in the past several months in which they criticized the pope and the church for its opposition to homosexuality, abortion and contraception, sometimes using profanity.

"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," Marcotte wrote on the blog Pandagon on December 26, in an excerpt cited by Donohue.

Among the McEwan posts that Donohue listed was one she posted on February 21, 2006, on her site, Shakespeare's Sister. She questioned what religious conservatives don't understand about "keeping your noses out of our britches, our beds and our families?"

Edwards put both bloggers on his payroll

[NOLA_homebrewer]

This would've been in the early 70s, I have no idea when Vatican II was or what it was about.

I haven't considered myself Catholic for over 15 yrs now. Thanks for the update.

[fatima]

I just saw Bill on TV.There was much worst.Rumor has it they were fired.

[presidio9]

I have no idea when Vatican II was or what it was about.

Sounds like you were never much of a Catholic to begin with. I mean no insult, but going to Catholic school, or even attending Church regularly doesn't make you one.

[NOLA_homebrewer]

"Sounds like you were never much of a Catholic to begin with. I mean no insult, but going to Catholic school, or even attending Church regularly doesn't make you one"

I don't mean to insult you or your faith either, but where I came from, yes it does.

As long as you went to church and dropped your envelope in the basket, you were considered a good catholic.

There are several reasons why I'm not Catholic anymore and I don't feel like anything is missing in my life, but for those that find something meaningful in whatever religious convictions they have, I'm happy for them.

[steve-b]

Now if only Jim and his staffers would get serious about ridding FR of all the anti-Catholic biggots who hang out on this site.

Yep -- I see posts on FR each and every day that are much worse than what these two bozos wrote.

And, let's be honest, Bill Donohue is really no different from Al Sharpton -- both of them are on a mission (would that it were only five years long) to seek out new slights and new provocations, to boldly be offended by things that never offended anybody before.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Jack Kemp had the good sense to fire Tim LaHaye - yes that Tim LaHaye - from his campaign staff in 1987 when LaHaye's anti-Catholic comments were made public. The Breck Girl doesn't possess any good sense.