To those commenters here who say that they will not vote for John Edwards because of the Marcotte/McEwan situation:

That is precisely what Donohue and his dittoheads intended with their attacks. Causing pain to two progressive, feminist women is surely a bonus for these misogynist creeps, but Marcotte and McEwan were clearly not themselves the primary targets. The real target is the presidential candidate: John Edwards was gaining momentum, is an appealing candidate, and is thus threatening to right-wingers. There is no question but that Donohue's goal was to try to embroil him in a nasty scandal in an effort to slow his campaign's momentum.

It is beyond unfortunate that Marcotte and McEwan were harassed and attacked by Donohue et al., but let's not kid ourselves about the real motivation for the attack. It was to try to destroy Edwards' candidacy.

I find this defense of Marcotte to be nauseating. If soothing her feelings is some kind of great Liberal cause now, it is a truly pathetic one.

Here are the facts: Marcotte was quoted accurately, in-context and she obviously meant every word of what she said. HOW is this a "smear"?

It isn't. It's a clear case of being hoisted by one's own petard. You live by identity politics, you die by identity politics.

So a character assassin gets hateful e-mail? This is supposed to shock and dismay us? Is this supposed to evoke pity? She takes pleasure in hurting others. How am I supposed to feel sorry for such a person?

She assails "bigots" while spouting raw bigotry herself. Her main mode of discourse is to put her words in other people's mouths (the dishonest "shorter" shtick) where she crafts not mere straw-men but whole straw- populations. This is truly malevolent projection elevated to an art-form. She loudly proclaims the Duke lacrosse team to be rapists whatever the facts, she maligns white North Carolinans (ironic, considering her former employer) and insulted Catholics in a way that'd be considered vile if it were directed at Jews or Muslims. And as sexists go, she's a doozy; she's the kind of creepy man-hater-in-denial who gives feminism a bad name.

Her ugly little fantasy world at Pandagon was held-up by deleting dissenters and banning anyone who spoke the truth; it collapsed upon confronting the real world where real people can't be silenced with a keystroke. Her "just kidding" retraction was truly pathetic and now she's gone back to doing exactly what she did pre-retraction. This makes her a out-and-out liar, a demagogue, an opportunist and a coward. Anyone who believes her to be some kind of brave "truth teller" is a dupe or too embarassed to admit the obvious.

And now she's a victim. It's because she's a woman. Her detractors have tiny penises. What the hell ever.

She has learned NOTHING from this experience. Not. A. Damned. Thing. She hasn't grown a whit. Why is this individual being treated like a child? Why is she to be shielded from the results of her own nastiness? What is with this failure to call a spade a spade? Because she calls herself a "feminist"? Because she's supposedly on our side? Hah.

Would it embarass too many of her fans to admit that she's a hate-filled hack and, let's be honest here, not terribly bright?

Let's stop this sickening game. She's a loser who inherited a high-traffic blog and much of the praise heaped on her was undeserved from the beginning.

Hey, Mandy: If you want find someone to blame, look in the damned mirror. And if you want to make it in grown-up land, stop acting like a 10-year old.

Upon reading many of the responses to Marcotte, I am sickened. Who are these people who think that anyone might deserve murder and rape threats for something "offensive" they wrote? Marcotte did not advocate banning the Catholic Church, she attacked it. I suspect that those of you who are writing in with the "she deserved it" line have never been subject to threats such as these or physical assault. Be careful, because you are morally completely at sea here.

As for offending "people of faith" or the Catholic Church, who cares. I am not an atheist, but I have to say that doubt looks a lot better than "faith" to me. "Faith" is given a free pass as something positive in American political discourse today. Yet "faith" often means "Damn you, I believe what I believe, I won't debate it, don't offend me." As such "faith" is often just an insult to an interlocutor, a declaration that I won't debate rationally with you. As I am sure most of the commenters on this thread are aware, the greatest mass crimes in human history have been committed in the name of "faith" - heretics burned, crusades embarked on, Bolshevik faith that collectivization and five million dead was necessary for the coming utopia, Osama bin Laden's deep faith etc.

As for the Catholic Church hierarchy (I have great respect for the Catholic laypersons I know), once they acknowledge women's equality by allowing them to be priests, and once they stop propagandizing against birth control in poor overpopulated societies, and once senior officials in the church stop covering up the rape of children by priests, then I'll think about giving them some respect. The stance against birth control is particularly disgusting. Plenty of evidence indicates that fertility control is CENTRAL to women's liberation. No birth control, no women's equality.

The thin skinned are those whose faith is so weak and fears so great that they think someone who attacks their church's policies "deserve" death and rape threats.

Matthew Lenoe

This passage was insightful:

I was aware that I didn't exactly fit the image people have of bloggers who join campaigns -- the stereotype being 30-something nerdy young white men who wear khakis and obsess over crafting their Act Blue lists. I wasn't aware that not fitting the image would attract so much negative attention. In fact, I mostly saw this all as a baby step in the direction of diversity, since McEwan and I differed from the stereotype mostly by being female and by being outspoken feminists.

She blames the fact that she has a vagina for receiving "negative attention." Goddamn, that is some sweet delusion! And, ironically, for being such a tough-talkin' mamma-jamma, she bent over pretty quickly. I think a strong, confident woman would have given a better account of herself.

Marcotte's a poseur.