Don’t Negotiate With Terrorists
ter·ror – fear [Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French terrour, from Latin terror, from terrEre to frighten; akin to Greek trein to be afraid]
ter·ror·ism – the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion
The Catholic League’s president, William Donohue, has stated on multiple occasions that he has a problem with “secular Jews” in Hollywood, and Michelle Malkin thinks interning the Japanese Americans during World War II was such a great idea, that the camps should be opened for all of the Muslims in the United States.
I don’t know for sure, but Amanda’s last name, Marcotte, and Melissa McEwan’s references to attending Loyola would tend to make me believe that both were raised as Catholics at a minimum.
David Neiwert of Orcinus has extensive archives with detailed discussions of Ms. Malkin in particular, and the right wing movement she and Mr. Donohue represent in general.
Oliver Willis gives the Edwards people some straight ahead advice in Campaign 101. You don’t negotiate, you don’t hesitate: you shove it down their throats.
Mustang Bobby notes in I Am Shakespeare’s Sister that the Edwards campaign doesn’t have to do this alone, if they fight back, and Elayne muses on what she will do if they don’t fight back in Rethinking Edwards, while Charles Kuffner of Off The Kuff lays it out in If you want me to vote for you, here’s what you’ve got to do.
Glenn Greenwald takes A look at John McCain’s blogger-consultant, as a comparison with the supposed “sins” of Amanda and Melissa.
I remember what happened to John Kerry when he failed to respond forcefully to his critics. John Edwards and his campaign need to take that lesson to heart. Edwards has said a lot of the right things, but if he isn’t going to defend himself there is no point to continuing this charade – he isn’t electable. This was just the “street guys” stopping by to mention that he has “a nice store, and it would be a shame if anything happened to it.” It is only going to get worse.
If Edwards backs away from Amanda and Melissa over this, he should just be shunned, because he doesn’t have what it takes to run a campaign. I mean, the man has two people who really understand what this is and know how to respond, let them go after Malkin and Donohue.
5 comments
Well said! Edwards and his campaign need to emphatically dismiss those remarks as nothing more than someone enjoying the sound of his own voice and then back up his statement with examples. If Edwards can’t burst their hot air balloon of self-righteous hypocrisy, then we might as well lump him in with those politicians who so fear alienating anyone, that they end up becoming no one.
If anyone in Edwards campaign thinks that the people who listen to Donohue and Malkin would ever consider voting for any candidate with a D after their name, they are seriously delusional.
If you don’t respond forcibly and quickly, they have time to gather the “pack.”
This is the time for the “Pink Petulance” to spring into action. Loose the Grrrrls and let them do what made them worth hiring in the first place – write. As it stands now, they can’t even defend themselves.
Amen.
So far, the only thing I’ve found especially admirable about Obama (besides his speech at the convention) is his refusal to play ball with Fox “News”.
That’s the ticket.
That’s what you have to do and we know it, Andante. The Democratic politicians had better start learning to react, or they are going to be buried.
Edwards has finally reacted, but he sounds more like Bess Truman, than Harry. Bess was a nice person, but we are well past nice.
This story has issues in addition to the hit job attempted by Donohue, Malkin etc.
* Do campaign workers in general receive background checks? Are writers for a campaign other than bloggers vetted? Should they be? As many have pointed out, if the new standard demands squeaky-clean bloggers and other writers, there are many opportunities for Democrats to shred Republican campaigns on the same basis, and we should not be shy about doing so. Personally, I’m not much interested in anyone other than candidates and their potential appointees, but I’m not a slash-and-burn kind of guy. I can learn, though…
* Edwards’s lukewarm defense of his newly hired bloggers… by one report, he fired and rehired them within hours… raises real concerns in my mind about whether any political operative with the strength to advance a presidential campaign can possibly meet Edwards’s newly discovered standards of “decency” (or whatever you want to call it). There is no political blogger, and probably no political writer of any sort, who has not ranted on something from time to time… and published the rant. If Edwards can’t deal with that, he shouldn’t be running for president. Where will he find the writers he needs, if they all have to have past records free of strong opinions?
I am very sorry Anna Nicole Smith died. But given the media’s fixation on one scandal at a time, I am glad that their focus seems to be shifting away from the non-story of Edwards’s bloggers.