Second Edwards Blogger Quits

"Tame stuff, by comparison to what she had published before. Problem is, this time she published it while she was on Edwards' payroll. Predictably, that sent Bill Donohue into another tizzy, and this time Marcotte decided to bolt . . .

"The lesson here seems pretty straightforward to me: if a blogger gets hired to work on a political campaign, that blogger should cease personal blogging. Just don't do it. If you're blogging for a candidate, there's nothing you can say on your own blog that is anything but a liability for your candidate, so you're just hurting the person you presumably want to win."

Kos has been trying to track down the source of a quote in Slate--attributed to "a top adviser to a rival campaign"--critical of the Edwards camp: "Apparently they're more afraid of the bloggers than they are the Catholics."

"I've asked the author of the Slate piece, John Dickerson, if he can specify whether the campaign is Democratic or Republican. The common usage of the word 'rival' in a primary means a campaign of the same party, but I think confirmation would be nice.

"I have also emailed most of the campaigns, asking them if they were the ones offering that quote to Slate. I have gotten denials from the Clinton, Dodd, Biden, Vilsack, and Obama campaigns. I'll update this list as I hear back from the others. I don't know anyone at the Gravel or Kucinich camps, so if they're reading, they should drop me a line. So all that's left are Richardson, Clark, Kucinich, and Gravel.

"Of course, a campaign might not know which of its 'top advisors' are talking to the press (that's the stuff of unauthorized leaks). But it's telling that whoever offered that blind quote to Slate was clearly more afraid of the bloggers than the Catholics that his or her campaign would supposedly win over by bashing Edwards.

"Update II: And the Richardson camp has chimed in with a denial as well. And honestly, does Kucinich and Gravel even have 'top advisors' that Dickerson would seek out? So it's either a Republican campaign or a rogue advisor. Either way, my point still stands -- it's hypocritical to attack the Edwards campaign for 'being afraid of bloggers' when this person was obviously too afraid of bloggers to put his or her name on the quote.

"Update III: I have confirmed with Slate's John Dickerson that his source was with a Democratic campaign. Also, Clark's camp has responded with a denial."

Good luck getting someone to fess up.

Bill O'Reilly is now talking about the "demise" of the Edwards campaign. But it remains to be seen how much the incident will hurt him at this early stage of the game.

How is the Mitt Romney candidacy playing?

"As Romney attempts to cast himself as an outsider not beholden to the ways of Washington," says the Chicago Tribune, "he also finds his candidacy questioned by some on the Republican right who ask whether he has become a recent convert to conservatism on social issues such as abortion and gay rights after previously holding more moderate positions. "Romney's religious faith, Mormonism, also may prove to be an issue for some voters, according to a new survey on religion, race and gender issues."