Edwards Blogger Heads for the Door
BY Nancy Scola | Tuesday, February 13 2007
John Edwards' blogger Amanda Marcotte has left his campaign staff, effective yesterday. The great deal of negative attention paid to her by the Catholic League's Bill Donohue, she says, made it impossible for her to keep serving her candidate effectively:
[H]e's made no bones about the fact that his intent is to "silence" me, as if he—a perfect stranger—should have a right to curtail my freedom of speech. Why? Because I'm a woman? Because I'm pro-choice? Because I'm not religious? All of the above, it seems.Regardless, it was creating a situation where I felt that every time I coughed, I was risking the Edwards campaign. No matter what you think about the campaign, I signed on to be a supporter and a tireless employee for them, and if I can't do the job I was hired to do because Bill Donohue doesn't have anything better to do with his time than harass me, then I won't do it. I resigned my position today and they accepted.There is good news. The main good news is that I don't have a conflict of interest issue anymore that was preventing me from defending myself against these baseless accusations. So it's on. The other good news is that the blogosphere has risen as one and protested, loudly, the influence a handful of well-financed right wing shills have on the public discourse.At the risk of seeming dramatic, the resignation of a mid-level campaign staffer at the end of a pitched battle might signify a pretty big shift in the political landscape. More and more, campaigns are bringing on staffers with reputations and profiles already firmly established via blogging or other online work. Maybe Marcotte's is an isolated case. But it's not hard to imagine that in 2008, staffers with a high-profile digital life being subject to some measure of the scrutiny reserved in recent cycles for James Carville/Karl Rove-level aides or the candidate him/herself.