Updated: John Edwards campaign deciding fate of bloggers

If John Edwards stands any chance of becoming the next president of the US he's going to endure -- with grace -- a boatload of abuse, manipulation, lies, character assassination, dirty campaigning and poking at soft spots.

Each decision speaks volumes about his campaign.

Having hired two smart and witty bloggers, Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon and Melissa McEwan of Shakespeare's Sister (and PEEK), the campaign has signed on two extensively archived critics who've drawn fire immediately.

And Spring follows Winter.

The first issue arose earlier in the week when the National Journal's Danny Glover (no relation) blogged about Marcotte's archives having been erased. It turned out to be just a technical problem -- something he would've known had he actually asked her about it. Glover was forced to issue an addendum which effectively nullified most of his post and he did apologize in the end, to his credit.

Now the Jew-hating Republican partisan president of the Catholic League, William Donahue, has a problem with the two bloggers working for a Democrat. Donahue is an unabashed partisan who told Kerry-voting Catholics that they were "cooperating with evil." Who gives a flying fuck what he thinks? D'oh! I can't blog for a Democratic presidential candidate without incurring the wrath of Republican pit bulls anymore.... damn.

Silly, right? Somehow the point has yet to be made clearly enough to Democrats so I'll make it here:THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING THAT A DEMOCRAT OR ANYONE WORKING FOR A DEMOCRAT CAN DO TO FORESTALL THE WRATH AND DIRTY TRICKS OF THE REPUBLICAN MOB. DO YOUR THING, DO WHAT'S RIGHT, JUDGE YOURSELF BY THE APPROBATIONS OF YOUR ALLIES AND NOT THE ASSASSINATIONS OF YOUR OPPONENTS.

Edwards should calmly disagree with Donahue, saying that we all have disagreements and the most Godly thing we can do is disagree respectfully. For example, I disagree with Donahue's assessment that: "Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. It's not a secret, okay? And I'm not afraid to say it. ... Hollywood likes anal sex. They like to see the public square without nativity scenes. I like families. I like children. They like abortions."

Not so hard, is it?

It's also worth more than a passing mention that when candidate George W. Bush spoke at the racist and explicitly anti-Catholic Bob Jones University in Feb. 2000, Donahue was somewhat less fiery: "The evidence is in: Bush and his friends find it difficult to condemn the anti-Catholicism that marks Bob Jones University. We need to know why."

Or perhaps we could look at Donahue as apologist for sexual harassment. Like his questioning Mark Foley on whether he wanted to be groped by a Priest when he was 15: "

As for the alleged abuse, it's time to ask some tough questions. First, there is a huge difference between being groped and being raped, so which was it Mr. Foley? Second, why didn't you just smack the clergyman in the face? After all, most 15-year-old teenage boys wouldn't allow themselves to be molested. So why did you?"

UPDATE: Glenn Greenwald has explored the bloggers of other candidates and lo! they're not immaculately conceived either...

Go HERE.