Catholics and religious organizations are organizing and they’re not going to hold back on the vile comments made by Leftist bloggers Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan-
…Nothing will be censored!
The Catholic League and several other organizations such as the “Fidelis” and the “Blue Dog Democrats” have joined to protest the “incredible double standard that exists regarding bigotry in American life” that was ignited this week by the hiring of two controversial anti-Christian bloggers by John Edwards.
The Catholic League put out this press release this morning:
“Over the next week, we will contact hundreds of organizations throughout the nation informing them of the kind of people that John Edwards is proud to have on his payroll. We will give them the exact comments made by Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan—nothing will be censored.
They will read for themselves the most hate-filled, blasphemous and obscene remarks—all of which were brought to the attention of Edwards—that have ever been written by any employee of a presidential candidate.
The purpose of this communication is to ignite a national discussion on the incredible double standard that exists regarding bigotry in American life.
“We have a core list of approximately 150 Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu organizations that we have previously allied with on several issues. We are now in the process of expanding this list by adding at least another 600 organizations, many of which are non-sectarian; we feel certain that they will be as outraged as we are about this mind-boggling development. In fact we know so: We have already received support from such groups as:
The Blue Dog Democrats
Family Research Council
Fidelis
National Democratic Ethnic Leadership Council…as well as from individuals like Howard Teich, former official with the American Jewish Congress.
This is just the beginning.
Edwardo Panalver from the liberal lay Catholic Commonweal had this to say about the flap today:
I don’t think Marcotte’s non-apology apology and Edwards’s statement that he takes her at her word that she didn’t mean to malign anyone’s faith failed on that score. The way in which this was handled makes me wonder who is advising Edwards on Catholic outreach and whether we can look forward to a replay of the 2004 fiasco when it comes to religious voters.
Finally, and perhaps most interestingly, this episode points up to a real problem in how the left blogosphere relates to people of faith. There seems to be an emerging consensus among liberal bloggers that this is a nothing story and that only folks in the thralls of Donohue and Malkin‘s demagoguery would be even remotely troubled by Marcotte’s posts, folks who would never vote for Edwards anyway. Hence, they have generally responded by trying to discredit Donohue and Malkin (and, now, the Catholic left). I think that’s a childish way to approach this, and one that is utterly out of touch with the reality of the situation.
Charles Johnson points to The Politico article today that describes the frustration of Catholic Democrats over Edward’s decision and response.
The Christian Fidelis Organization came out with this yesterday: “Hate Speech Tolerated, Fidelis Decries Double Standard”
HotAir has more on “Smearing and Godbags.”
Update: It’s not just the Godbags the democrats are picking on.
Update 2: The Left does what it does best…
Think Progress lashes out at Catholic leader.
And, on… And, on it goes.
Update 3: Democrats smell Pony blood… attack.
