Edwards Hires Hoax Apologist to Run Campaign Blog

Presidential candidate John Edwards, former law partner of Wade Smith, has hired Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon as his campaign blogmaster.

Blogger News Network reports:

“Left-wing blogger Amanda Marcotte of the vociferously anti-war web site Pandagon has been named by the John Edwards campaign as their new blogmaster.

“The extent of Ms. Marcotte’s responsibilities at the Edwards site, and the nature of the political operations she will be undertaking as a member of the Edwards campaign, have not yet been detailed publicly.”

In her first post at Edward’s blog, Marcotte describes the decision to sign on with the Edwards campaign noting that the candidate shared her political obsessions.

"This is both my first post to the Edwards blog and my announcement that I'm joining the presidential campaign for John Edwards for 2008. I'll be taking over the job of Blogmaster (mistress?) over the course of the month of February.

"The main two questions this brings up are: Why me? And why John Edwards?

"As for me, I run and write for a blog called Pandagon, which is one of the top liberal political blogs on the internet and known mostly for insightful and often humorous political blogging. We pride ourselves on being an issues-oriented blog, instead of a blog that mimics the "horse race" coverage of politics that dominates so much of the mainstream media. Prior to my stint at Pandagon, I was the sole blogger at a blog called Mouse Words, which won the 2004 Koufax award for Best New Blog. My obsessions in politics include women's rights, ending the war in Iraq, environmentalism, and restoring the American dream where climbing out of poverty and having a middle class lifestyle is an option available to everyone.

"Why John Edwards? Well, look again at that list of political obsessions and you have your answer. John Edwards is the only Democrat in the field of potential nominees who is interested in pursuing the right policies in all these areas. Especially important to me is that he is interested in fighting poverty in America and putting that middle class dream in the hands of all Americans.

"This campaign also excited my interests, because we have the goal of making the most out of the untapped resource that is the internet. Already this blog has more interactivity and genuinely interesting and issues-oriented content than any other campaign site I've seen thus far, and with the new staff we're bringing together, we will be able to take it much further in that direction. Internet organizing is still in its infancy as far as I'm concerned and I expect that the presidential election of 2008 will be a major factor in taking internet political organizing to the next level. Of course I want to be a part of that!"

To date, Edwards’ silence on the Hoax has implied either a tacit acceptance of the conduct of disgraced District Attorney Mike Nifong, political cowardice, or indifference to injustice in his home state. His new blogmaster, however, has been anything but silent on the Hoax. As recently as last week, and despite mountains of proof to the contrary, Ms. Marcotte continued to claim, in graphic detail, that a sexual assault had occurred and went so far as to add, “We have conclusive evidence that happened.”

“Naturally, my flight out of Atlanta has been delayed. Let’s hope it takes off when they say it will so I don’t miss my connecting flight home.

“In the meantime, I’ve been sort of casually listening to CNN blaring throughout the waiting area and good fucking god is that channel pure evil. For awhile, I had to listen to how the poor dear lacrosse players at Duke are being persecuted just because they held someone down and fucked her against her will—not rape, of course, because the charges have been thrown out.

"Can’t a few white boys sexually assault a black woman anymore without people getting all wound up about it?

"So unfair.”

"Yes, how dare a rape victim act confused and bewildered like she was raped or something."

"Natalia, do you know the details of the case? If so, why do you think a women enthusiastically jumped into a sexual situation with men making slavery jokes at her? Furthermore, what is your theory on why she supposedly looooooved having sex with guys holding her facedown on the bathroom floor? There’s no “if” they behaved in a disrespectful manner. We have conclusive evidence that happened."

"This is about race and class and gender in every way, and there’s basically no way this woman was going to see justice. In her part of the country, both women and black people are seen as subhuman objects to be used and abused by white men."

"Yeah, I know, Alon. Which is why I’m frustrated that people are pretending “can’t identify which one raped her” somehow equals “wasn’t raped”. I had some initial confusion about exactly who was assaulting me when I was assaulted, but that doesn’t mean that his hands weren’t actually where they were."

"Plus, the media is acting like these men are exonerated!"

Earlier comments by Ms. Marcotte on the Hoax give additional clues to the political obsessions she finds common ground with candidate Edwards.

"At bare minimum, the Duke lacrosse team felt entitled to humiliate the strippers they hired because they were women and they were even paid for. At worst, they felt entitled to gang rape a woman for those reasons." Pandagon 4/19

"The focus on intent is what allows people to reinforce racist structures while denying that they’re doing that. Exhibit #1: LaShawn Barber has an op-ed today where she compares the members of the Duke lacrosse team that are accused of rape to the Scottsboro Boys. The cases don’t have much in common in any social sense. First of all, the Scottsboro Boys were accused in an atmosphere where lynchings were incredibly common in the South, whereas the Duke students are being accused where they are some of the most privileged in society. Second, the Scottsboro defendents had barely any defense at all, especially compared to the first class lawyers the Duke students can hire. The alleged victims in the Scottsboro case didn’t really explain themselves or the charges, and one never testified at all (presumably because she inconveniently refused to play along and pretend she was raped). I could go on, but you get the idea of why Barber’s comparison of the two cases is ridiculous.

"But because the concept of racism has been reduced to intention instead of a systematic societal problem, people like Barber can get away with equating people who are loaded with privilege with victims of a racist system like the Scottsboro Boys. And that’s why it’s so damn frustrating when white liberals insist on making racism about someone’s intentions instead of the effects of their actions." Pandagon 6/23

"There’s just something about this Duke rape case that’s inspiring to rape apologists. The sheer amount of energy that’s going into rape apologies lately, not just for the Duke lacrosse team but in general, is breathtaking. Kathleen Parker has been writing about almost nothing else, but instead building a long case that unless the victim is 9 years old and a virgin and white and blonde and her attacker kills her and he mutiliates her body, then rape isn’t so much a crime as a feminist plot to put all men in jail so that we can, I don’t know, wear sweatpants more or something. If this was indeed our plot, we are some dumb motherfuckers, considering less than 16% of rapes result in charges and less than half of those result in any kind of punishment. We could certainly come up with a more efficient method if we wanted to of getting men in jail besides getting ourselves raped and then raising a fuss as if we had a right not to be raped." Pandagon 5/10

"I’m so glad I started an “Assholes”–epistemology sent me David Brooks’ column today about the Duke rape case and it’s unbelievably evil. Bobo, who writes books that are basically arguments that morality stems from identity, has the nerve today to deny the importance of racial and class issues in the Duke rape case. "

"If you wander through the thicket of commentary that already surrounds the Duke lacrosse scandal, the first thing you notice is how sociological it is. In almost every article and piece of commentary, the event is portrayed not as a crime between individuals but as a clash between classes, races and sexes."

"That might be because the rapists were making jokes about slavery and picking cotton to the victim, which is to say reminding her of their racial privilege by referencing the history that created it. But to Bobo, who thinks that middle Americans are morally superior by virtue of where they live and where they shop, has all of a sudden decided that identity politics should have no bearing on moral discussions." Pandagon 4/09

"Smarty-pants, educated womenz (and one dude who loved the cock) who have sex
with guys who aren’t me raped that stripper at Duke, not a bunch of overly entitled rich white boys making cracks about picking cotton." Pandagon 8/31

Given Edwards' refusal to speak out against the misconduct of Defendant Nifong and the injustice of the Hoax, it is difficult to imagine that the comments of his new blogmaster, will not be taken as a reflection of his view of the Hoax.

LS Forum: Amanda Marcotte, Nifong enabler heads John Edwards' blog