Second Edwards Blogger Quits

Ed Morrissey is surprised that Marcotte bailed out:

"Let's face it -- this story would not have had much more momentum in any case. Democrats were unlikely to anger the netroots by openly using it against Edwards, for two reasons. One, the eventual nominee will need these activists after the primaries, and secondly, Edwards is no threat to either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama anyway. By next week, no one would have bothered following the Edwards' campaign blog to check for signs of a meltdown."

Betsy Newmark objects to Marcotte's parting shot that "right wing shills don't respect that a mere woman like me could be hired for my skills":

"Why do some women reach for the feminist card when they get in a jam . . . A male blogger who had written some of the things that Marcotte had written, there would have been just as much criticism.

At the Christian Alliance for Progress, the blogger Faithful Progressive says his (or her) side needs to tone it down:

"Little has been written (at least as far as I have seen), about the need for blogs on the left to demonstrate more respect for the majority of Americans who are religious . . .

"I have no reason to think anyone listened to this perspective. Sadly, there is little about the current flap that suggests that the point has been heard now--despite Sen. Edwards' express statement that such language is offensive. The articles below make it clear that many others on the religious left agree with my perspective. I'd like to see blogs move away from offensive Howard Stern-like comments about religion."

The conservative blogger Patterico wanted Marcotte to stay on, just for target practice:

"While some on the left have falsely claimed that I was against her being Edwards's blogger, I was actually very much in favor of it, as the record shows. Crazy lefties liked her in that position because of her inflammatory rhetoric; more rational lefties liked her in that position despite it. I agreed with the crazy lefties . . . just for a different reason.

"But -- assuming that Edwards had something to do with this -- I can't say I'm surprised. I do think the hire calls into question Edwards's judgment, and I think he realized that. While the lefties tended to defend her personal blogging as separate from her campaign blogging, the fact is that they were intimately related. Marcotte was hired to be a campaign blogger on the strength of her blog writings -- and then Edwards turned out to be appalled (or so he claims) by her blog writings. It was enough to make you wonder: what's going to happen if this guy is president and gets a Supreme Court nomination?"

What was the final straw? Blue Mass Group says it was Marcotte's just-published review of the movie "Children of Men," in which she wrote:

" The Christian version of the virgin birth is generally interpreted as super-patriarchal, where god is viewed as so powerful he can impregnate without befouling himself by touching a woman, and women are nothing but vessels.