Marcotte is special kind of idiot not to recognize the link between a personal blog and a professional political blog.

Marcotte is special kind of idiot not to realize that to poke fun at religion is to assault religo-crazed sociopaths people like Donahue.

Exactly what was she thinking when she wrote the "Sticky spirit" comment???

I'm not particularly religious, but the comment is both vulgar, and disrespectful. How could one NOT see the trouble with this??

The person on the Edwards' campaign that picked this tin-eared dolt--deserves a sacking.

And then there's this little self-realization:

"...it helps if she's young and female and doesn't know her place..."

When taken with the "Sticky spirit" comment--I see a strident feminist challenging the patriarch. Then with the "...young and female.." comment--the feminist retreats in to saftey of "I'm only a little girl who doesn't know any better..." (girly giggles ensue).

Disengenuous at best....

Wah, I got picked on.

I couldn't stand the heat.

The world is unfair.

Well, goodbye. You'll be missed.

Not!

Wuss!

Go cry over how Edwards didn't protect a girl.

Your goodbye was just like your blogs, overwinded and overlong and boring and overly self-important.

So, you think that you merely "stuck out" and "didn't fit the image"? Just a step in the "direction of diversity." Well, you poor victim of the right-wing smear machine, it's sad that you can't acknowledge the truth of the controversy: you are a pathetically ungifted, vicious, antireligious nut. If that makes you a "stand-out feminist," more's the pity. Please spare us the self-congratulatory hype that you're just too darn hip to be Edwards' blogger.

Pathetic.

Q: What if Mary had taken Plan B after the Lord filled her with his hot, white, sticky Holy Spirit?

A: You'd have to justify your misogyny with another ancient mythology.

"...this was just the first sign that the established media and political circles will not be letting the blog-writing rabble into the circle without a fight."

I hope I'm not the first to point this out, but, in this final sentence lies the crux of this whole flare-up. THEY brought the fight, as you point out. YOU left it, and so are just an early casualty in this game, like a pawn.

This is how the extreme right works: by intimidation and threats of violence. Don't think you can reason with them, change their minds get along with them; reason is not in their reality, but bullying is. There are two ways to deal with this: hit back HARD by going directly to the people they are trying to sway (e.g. Catholics who lean Democrat) so they lose support quickly; or let their strike move past you, ignore their "commentary" and continue to speak loudly and clearly— though perhaps with less satire which can be lost and twisted too easily– about the issues you live for.

Face it: they won this time. Next time, if you're lucky enough to get another shot, YOU MUST WIN.

I'm not at all surprised by the self-righteous tone of the response submitted by Amanda Marcotte. One of the problems Amanda Marcotte should consider is that her remarks about Plan B and Christofascists (other posts)

ridicule and mock people of Christian faith in a very hostile and unapologetic manner. It demonstrates a clear contempt for their beliefs and views and register a lack of shame for attacking them in such a bigoted manner. Colin Powell noted several years ago the trend of many Americans have lost their sense of shame.

Within the blog reply of why she resigned, there are

attacks about various right-wing groups who exhibited

anti-feminist hostility and bigotry amidst their baseless claims. Perhaps if Amanda Marcotte had submitted remarks which mocked the prophet Mohammed

and ridiculed Islam, she might recognize just how provocative and bigoted her remarks actually were.

I detested the violent reactions by Muslims across Europe and especially in Denmark as excessive.

It is also reasonable and likely bloggers from Democratic candidates could carefully join the negative response to the "anti-Catholic" themes of your blog posts in a shrewd effort to boost the fortunes of their candidates at the expense of John Edwards.

It's obvious, to me, that you feel being vulgar is OK.

Any point you had cared to make could have been more forcefully made without resorting to the type of language you admit to.

You made a mistake and now wish to blame others for your error.

Sid Smith

Too bad Amanda's coarse language offers a big juicy target to everyone who wants to take a shot at her. She is obviously a highly intelligent person whose strong opinions I (mainly) share. Which makes me wonder why she doesn't realize that her gutter language, which lives forever in print, can only damage her causes and her candidates.

I am not familiar with what Ms. Marcotte has written in the past, but she had a right to say what she wanted to on her own blog. The beauty of blogs is that you DON'T have to read them if you disagree with the comments or points of view of the blogger.

Having read some snippets of what Ms. Marcotte has had to say in the past, yes it made me cringe a bit. However, I would not take away her right to say it or penalize her for it. Why is it okay to penallize someone for exercising their right to free speech?

To those who villified Ms. Marcotte because of her opinions on religion, you are entitled to your opinion as well. Not everyone will share either your, or my, view on religion. That being said, how can some of you believe in freedom of speech on one hand and want to shut down Ms. Marcotte and those who share her views on the other? You cannot have it both ways. If you don't like her or what she has had to say in the past, bypass her blog. How is it okay for the likes of Ann Coulter to thrive in spite of so many hating her and Ms. Marcotte has to back down, soft peddle and be told to be silent?

In the past few years the constitution has come under constant attack by the right wing and those who want to clamp down on our freedoms and they have succeeded. Many times, over the last 7 years especially, those who have expressed opinions that differ from the manufactured status quo have been accused of all sorts of crimes and punished severely for their individuality and courage in speaking their mind. That should give us pause because the cost is too high.

Also, if they wanted to avoid any kind of issues from the religious wingnuts, maybe the Edwards campaign should have done more research into Ms. Marcotte's work before they hired her. Yet again, a Democrat bows to the bullying of a right wing psycho instead of telling the bully to get a life and continue with the messages of their campaign until the craziness has died down. What the country needs now are leaders with strength of character and a strong backbone to stand up to the Donohues of this world and sadly, with very few exceptions, I don't see that with the presidential candidates that we have today.