It looks like Amanda and I won’t be able to share war stories over a few cold beers down on 6th St. afterall…

You’ve probably heard by now that the Sen. John Edwards for President of Both Americas in 2008 campaign has not fired Amanda Marcotte and that other blogger chick, despite the fact that Sen. Edwards was “personally offended” by the filth, hatred, and bigotry spewed forth on the pages of Pandagon and that other chick’s blogs.

Only minutes before Sen. Edwards posted about how offended he was (but not that offended) Amanda posted her own bit of backtracking on the Edwards for President of North America Blog:

My writings on my personal blog Pandagon on the issue of religion are generally satirical in nature and always intended strictly as a criticism of public policies and politics. My intention is never to offend anyone for his or her personal beliefs, and I am sorry if anyone was personally offended by writings meant only as criticisms of public politics.

First of all — LIAR!.

You weren’t being “satirical”, and in more than 140 posts making fun of “godbags” and “christofascists”, and “Jeebus” you were trying to offend people of faith in general and Catholics in particular. If you didn’t mean to “offend” anybody, you wouldn’t have been so damn persistent about it.

And secondly, it must have tasted like hot white spunk in your mouth to have the very embodiment of a white-man-of-privilege-and-power make you — a proud little feminist/misandrist — back down and retract your own words.

As Paul at Powerline put it:

The bloggers themselves also seem pretty desperate. Apparently, they need this gig so badly that they don’t mind being told to “shut up and sing.”

Here’s what I think happened: The Edwards campaign was feeling the heat, so early on Wednesday they leaked to the NY Times and the AP that they had fired the bloggers. Or were at least debating the issue. Why’d they leak this info and then wait nearly 18 hours to post an official statement as the firestrom built momentum?

Because they wanted to gauge the reaction from the nutroots. And when they saw the threats of “vicious rants” and “IMPORTANT ACTION ITEMS” being levied at them…well, they knew they had to find a way not to be Joe-Liebermaned.

____________

As predicated the religous-right is not too happy with Edwards decision to align himself with these two anti-Christian bigots. But what’s gonna hurt him in the primaries is that the religious left (yeah, I know…I didn’t know there was such a thing either) is even more unhappy:

As the flap over alleged anti-Catholic writings by two John Edwards campaign bloggers devolves into a shouting match between conservative religious voices and liberal bloggers, some members of the “religious left” say they feel – again – shoved to the margins of the Democratic Party.

“We’re completely invisible to this debate,” said Eduardo Penalver, a Cornell University law professor who writes for the liberal Catholic journal Commonweal. He said he was dissatisfied with the Edwards campaign’s response. “As a constituency, the Christian left isn’t taken all that seriously,” Penalver said.

AND

“We have gone so far to rebuild that coalition [between Democrats and religious Christians] and something like this sets it back,” said Brian O’Dwyer, a New York lawyer and Irish-American leader who chairs the National Democratic Ethnic Leadership Council, a Democratic Party group. O’Dwyer said Edwards should have fired the bloggers. “It’s not only wrong morally – it’s stupid politically.”

O’Dwyer e-mailed a statement to reporters saying: “Senator Edwards is condoning bigotry by keeping the two bloggers on his staff. Playing to the cheap seats with anti-Catholic bigotry has no place in the Democratic Party.”

The best part of this? I had told my wife on Wednesday that there was no chance in hell I could ever be hired to be a candidate’s blogger (and yes, like Amanda and that other chick, my opinions are for sell) because I’ve said some pretty crass, inappropriate, and offensive things on this blog. Hell I’ve said some offensive things just in this post.

But now? I know all of that doesn’t matter. Because I was just being satirical. Or sarcastical. Or ironical. Or something. About everything.