The whole Edwards' blogger affair (just click a link to the right, you'll find something about it) is interesting on several levels. First, it tells us that, despite a certain rhetorical courage (it comes with little political cost as he is out of the Senate and need only appeal to Democratic primary voters for his stance on Iraq), Edwards is, essentially, still a pre-'06 Democrat. He wants to make certain moves to appease more liberal voters, but his eye is still on the money prize (just go and read his televised speech to a conference in Israel; he sounds as much like Joe Lieberman on Iran as anyone), and that means appeasing the DLC types, and bowing under the pressure of the mainstream media. Rather than display the kind of courage that got the Democrats the Senate and House, he is displaying the kind of caution that lost us Congress, and Presidency, for years. Should he fire these bloggers he's hired, he will have proven he is more concerned about the opinion of Michelle Malkin and other truly loony right-wingers than he is with getting out a consistent populist-progressive message.
Another point is the whole brouhaha centers on - what? - the us of foul language? Oh. My. God. Are we in eighth grade here? Ann Coulter calls for the assassination, in turn, of a President, a Supreme Court justice, the fire-bombing of the New York Times building, and harasses 9/11 widows, yet her bony visage is continually corrupting TV networks. Had she called Bill Clinton a motherfucker, or insisted that before he was assassinated, Justice Blackmun should be gang-raped by a bunch of hardened criminals, perhaps she might find her network dance card emptier. And that's just Coulter. Malkin, the one responsible for spreading the nonsense about Edwards' bloggers, is directly responsible for a woman's suicide, has all sorts of ties to racist groups, and spouts off some of the most heinous rhetoric imaginable. Of course, she doesn't use four letter words, so I guess she's OK.
One would have hoped that we could have a more mature conversation in this country, but apparently we are perpetually stuck in Junior High School, where we giggle and clique about, worried over dirty words, and rumors of dirty words. One would have hoped, when the issue exploded over the previous couple days, Edwards would have said, "Yeah, so?" and refused to make another comment. It would have assured at least this blogger that (a) his courage was real, because it came when it counted; and (b) he was more mature than the gaggle of ninnies who want to control our national dialogue, who continually fret over left-wing "foul language" and (gasp!) "incivility". He did not, has not, and most probably will not; like Biden, who managed to mangle his Presidential bid on the same day he declared it, Edwards will most probably find support, espcially out here in the blogs, slipping away. A coward is a coward, and that is as telling as anything.
UPDATE: So Edwards hasn't caved . . . completely. You can see a copy of the press release here at Sadly, No!. I have to admit that I am, well, less than happy, shall we say with the tone and tenor of the statement. Rather than tell the mainstream press and the right-wing bloggers to please, for the love of God and all that is Holy stop, they said, "Gee, you know, maybe I was a bit harsh here and there, and it will never happen again." So, they keep their jobs, but they lose their creative freedom in the process. Sorry, but that's too big a price to pay. I would prefer freelancing for any candidate than whoring under the condition that I dress up nice and play by someone else's rules. That's just me, though.
One lesson we have not learned is to turn a sharp eye to the right-wingers spewing this nonsense; as has been pointed out ad nauseum, they are much worse, and much more consistently worse than anything these supposed "foul mouthed" bloggers have ever posted. Unfortunately, for some reason known only to them, God, and their therapists, the likes of Michelle Malkin and Ann Coulter and (gag!) Glen Beck are still on rolodexes all over the mainstream press. I suppose that is the next important task the progressive blogs need to address - this absolute blackballing of real liberal, progressive, and left-wing views from our national media. Anyh thoughts on how to do so?
Virtual Tin Cup
