Parts of the speech urged people to carry on the Wellstones' ideals and to continue to work hard to elect Walter Mondale, who had replaced Paul on the ballot for United States Senator as a last-minute substitute. Rick also pointedly called out some politicians by name, some of them Republicans, and asked if they would continue to support the ideals and legislation some of them had worked on with the Wellstones. There was little question Rick's remarks could be seen as "partisan" and "political," but this was, after all, the funeral of a politician.
Kahn had no sooner finished than the Republican attack dogs, their bloodlines stretching back to the McCarthy era, began putting their well-trained skills to use. A loud cry of "Foul!" erupted, saying that since the service was conducted on local television, the speech was partisan and Republicans deserved equal time. One local GOP commentator even tried to make the ridiculous charge that the closed caption texts of the speeches broadcast during the memorial service (the Wellstones' always insisted on having a translator present for the deaf at all events) gave secret signals to the crowd.
When the reporters went looking for Democrats to defend or at least explain the speech, nobody answered the door. The phones kept ringing or were taken off the hook. Instead, party representatives apologized for the speech, saying they didn't know what the speaker was going to say. Mondale was left twisting in the wind, as a certain Republican said about Watergate.
Only the old warhorse himself, Walter Mondale -- perhaps the last true liberal to run for president -- dared give a measured response that entitled Kahn his moment of grief. The Democrats could have taken a cue from Mondale to go on the offensive. Were the same Republicans who wanted to put a policeman in our offices, living rooms, and bedrooms now going to put one in our coffins? Are not funerals the one occasion where people, especially those grieving the most, are allowed some latitude in what they say and do?
The Republicans had given the Democrats a wonderful opportunity to draw a real contrast between the two parties: one which believed in staying out of people's personal lives and another which was determined that everyone should conform to Jerry Falwell's standards of behavior. Certainly Wellstone himself or Mondale's mentor, Hubert Humphrey, would not have flinched at this flat pitch thrown squarely across the center of the plate.
But the Democrats did flinch, watching the ball land with a rounding strike three bellowing from the umpire's lips. Their gubernatorial candidate, Roger Moe, seemed embarrassed by the whole thing as if he hoped it would go away.
The Edwards campaign had a similar opportunity in the case of Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan. Like Rick Kahn, both suddenly heard the snarls of the old GOP attack dogs snapping at their heels. Given the always available platform of the Raucous Right, these two suddenly found themselves being figuratively burned at the stake, mainly by a right-wing Catholic religious group whose head, William A. Donohue, has an uncanny ability to get himself on television where he utters inanities such as, ""Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular ...Hollywood likes anal sex."
The political reasons for Donohue's diatribe against Marcotte and McEwan are blatantly transparent. The anti-abortion zealots have found that their issue holds no traction for most Americans -- if it ever did. So far it has been a nonissue or minor issue for both Democratic and Republican presidential candidates. Both Marcotte and McEwan have passionately defended a woman's right to choose. So when Edwards chose them here was a chance to once again try to force the abortion issue onto center stage. And the mainstream media fell right into the trap.
When Amanda Marcotte resigned this morning, it brought things full circle for me and I thought of Walter Mondale. Like Mondale, Marcotte had been left to twist in the wind, with no one from the Democratic Party defending her. Her post announcing this is worth quoting at length because it raises some of the mots basic questions one can raise in a democracy:
I was hired by the Edwards campaign for the skills and talents I bring to the table, and my willingness to work hard for what's right. Unfortunately, Bill Donohue and his calvacade of right wing shills don't respect that a mere woman like me could be hired for my skills, and pretended that John Edwards had to be held accountable for some of my personal, non-mainstream views on religious influence on politics (I'm anti-theocracy, for those who were keeping track). Bill Donohue-anti-Semite, right wing lackey whose entire job is to create non-controversies in order to derail liberal politics-has been running a scorched earth campaign to get me fired for my personal beliefs and my writings on this blog.
Regardless, it was creating a situation where I felt that every time I coughed, I was risking the Edwards campaign. No matter what you think about the campaign, I signed on to be a supporter and a tireless employee for them, and if I can't do the job I was hired to do because Bill Donohue doesn't have anything better to do with his time than harass me, then I won't do it. I resigned my position today and they accepted.
Like the Minnesota Democrats, the Edwards' campaign flat out blew it. That is too bad because Edwards had shown signs that he knew how to recover the Democrats' lost moral compass-the value of the level playing field. Edwards' statement needs to be repeated:
The tone and the sentiment of some of Amanda Marcotte's and Melissa McEwan's posts personally offended me. It's not how I talk to people, and it's not how I expect the people who work for me to talk to people. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but that kind of intolerant language will not be permitted from anyone on my campaign, whether it's intended as satire, humor, or anything else. But I also believe in giving everyone a fair shake. I've talked to Amanda and Melissa; they have both assured me that it was never their intention to malign anyone's faith, and I take them at their word. We're beginning a great debate about the future of our country, and we can't let it be hijacked. It will take discipline, focus, and courage to build the America we believe in.
To begin, Edwards admits he had not read either Pandagon or Shakespeare's Sister before hiring Marcotte and McEwan. As one HST once said, "The buck stops here." If a candidate does not check more carefully or have his staff check more carefully on such key appointments, we wander dangerously close to Bush-Reagan Land.
However, this oversight can perhaps be excused, just as can the issue of whether someone should have read Rick Kahn's speech. We'll give a new campaign in the midst of gearing up its efforts the benefit of the doubt.
What remains a great deal more troubling is the fundamental issue-perhaps as fundamental as any right we have-free speech. Both Pandagon and Shakespeare's Sister did not attain their status as blogs by writing potty-mouthed trash. Both have been recognized by their fellow bloggers through awards, nominations and other honors as two of the more literate blogs on the Net.
I have to ruefully admit I am not a regular reader, but what I have read on both blogs resembles nothing like the portrait of these two women being painted by even the mainstream press, which has a nasty habit of dissing blogs before they have all the facts. To verify my memory I went through the archives of both and found some excellent writing coupled with stimulating commentary. Yes, there were some words in a very small number of posts that might not pass the mythical NBC censor and yes there were some angry posts that reminded me of Rick Kahn's anger.
But that is not the issue. Since when has it become wrong in this country to express anger? And why is it OK for Limbaugh, O'Reilly and company to talk like barflies and not for anyone on the left to utter anything not in perfect English? And where were these enforcers of decency when Dick Cheney uttered a four-letter word on the floor of the United States Senate? Since when can free speech be codified like a dictionary of thou-shalt-nots-a list of permitted and banned words-in the manner of some totalitarian dictatorship?
Where again, were the Democrats? In the same place, fumbling around on the ground looking for that compass. Edwards' defense of free speech sounded wimpy and indecisive. His press release had the tone of a father lecturing two wayward daughters. This candidate, who has tried to distance himself from the field by issuing some admirable position papers, failed a crucial test.
According to the New York Times," Kate Bedingfield, a spokeswoman for the Edwards campaign, confirmed that Marcotte was 'no longer working for the campaign.' She declined additional comment." Before posting this I went to the Edwards web site to see if there was anything else about Marcotte. Nothing. It was as if she never existed.
I happen to feel strongly about this because of my family history. My Grandfather was one of the most prominent Germans who spoke out against Adolf Hitler. For that he received a death sentence that he managed to escape in a cloak and dagger operation that spirited my family out of the country before they could put a noose around anyone's neck. My father and my grandfather and my Jewish uncle whose family perished in the Holocaust taught me that if we allow people like Donahue and the Religious Right to dictate what we can say and do we all lose.
Freedom, especially freedom of speech, is never lost in one big Hollywood moment, instead it trickles away, a grain of sand at a time until we suddenly find the vessel of freedom empty. Joe McCarthy knew this as he set about methodically picking away at individuals who were the 1950s equivalent to Amanda Marcotte, ruining their lives--in some cases forever.
Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan have been the victims of a hate campaign as vicious as any Joe McCarthy conducted. They will survive this because they are survivors, but the wounds are deep. If John Edwards will not speak out against this as the Minnesota Democrats failed to defend Rick Kahn, then he may well have derailed his presidential train.
I am sorry for John Edwards, sorry for the Democratic Party and most sorry that as much as I keep hoping the Party will change it seems to keep shooting itself in the foot. There are too many bullets there already, which may be why the party keeps limping along.
Afterward: I maxxed out my pain meds in the middle of posting this, so please excuse any errors of grammar or punctuation. I just felt this needed to be posted as soon as possible.
Coda: I told you I was a bit out of it. Melissa also just resigned. Here is her post:
I regret to say that I have also resigned from the Edwards campaign. In spite of what was widely reported, I was not hired as a blogger, but a part-time technical advisor, which is the role I am vacating.
I would like to make very clear that the campaign did not push me out, nor was my resignation the back-end of some arrangement made last week. This was a decision I made, with the campaign's reluctant support, because my remaining the focus of sustained ideological attacks was inevitably making me a liability to the campaign, and making me increasingly uncomfortable with my and my family's level of exposure.
I understand that there will be progressive bloggers who feel I am making the wrong decision, and I offer my sincerest apologies to them. One of the hardest parts of this decision was feeling as though I'm letting down my peers, who have been so supportive.
There will be some who clamor to claim victory for my resignation, but I caution them that in doing so, they are tacitly accepting responsibility for those who have deluged my blog and my inbox with vitriol and veiled threats. It is not right-wing bloggers, nor people like Bill Donohue or Bill O'Reilly, who prompted nor deserve credit for my resignation, no matter how much they want it, but individuals who used public criticisms of me as an excuse to unleash frightening ugliness, the likes of which anyone with a modicum of respect for responsible discourse would denounce without hesitation.
This is a win for no one.
Crosspost: The Strange Death of Liberal America
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