Journalism!

****UPDATE: Welcome NRO readers! Yes, the "nutroots" hate the Religious Left! Now, go away, your prejudices confirmed. Everyone else, I'll have a new post on this stuff soon.****

I've seen this article cited a lot by wingnuts eager to screech that even much of The Left is Horribly Offended by stuff Amanda Marcotte has written on Pandagon. I have some issues with it:

"We have gone so far to rebuild that coalition [between Democrats and religious Christians] and something like this sets it back," said Brian O'Dwyer, a New York lawyer and Irish-American leader who chairs the National Democratic Ethnic Leadership Council, a Democratic Party group. O'Dwyer said Edwards should have fired the bloggers. "It's not only wrong morally – it's stupid politically."

O'Dwyer e-mailed a statement to reporters saying: "Senator Edwards is condoning bigotry by keeping the two bloggers on his staff. Playing to the cheap seats with anti-Catholic bigotry has no place in the Democratic Party."

Ahem.

MEMO TO ARTICLE WRITER BEN SMITH AND HIS EDITORS AT POLITICO -- your piece would have been perhaps improved by including this information:

2 .	O'DWYER, BRIAN
	12/2/2005	$4,100.00
	NEW YORK, NY 10025
	O'DWYER & BERNSTEIN/ATTORNEY	[Contribution]
	FRIENDS OF HILLARY
[View Image]

Maybe it's just me, but I think that might have legitimately put his remarks in some other perspective. (No insult of course intended to Mr. O'Dwyer, but please...) You'll note also that O'Dwyer was not asked for his opinion -- he circulated it himself in a press release.

(More brilliant online journalism, here and here. Dopey right wing pile-on here. There's a certain very exquisite bit of political irony involved in how eagerly all of these sharp-as-a-bowling-ball Citizen Journalist wingnut bloggers picked up and ran with O'Dwyer's press release. See if you can spot it!)

Moving on.

As the flap over alleged anti-Catholic writings by two John Edwards campaign bloggers devolves into a shouting match between conservative religious voices and liberal bloggers, some members of the "religious left" say they feel – again – shoved to the margins of the Democratic Party.

"We're completely invisible to this debate," said Eduardo Penalver, a Cornell University law professor who writes for the liberal Catholic journal Commonweal. He said he was dissatisfied with the Edwards campaign's response. "As a constituency, the Christian left isn't taken all that seriously," Penalver said....

But religious liberals also think Edwards' aides merit more than a slap on the wrist. “I thought his explanation was not satisfying," said Cornell's Penalver. "It's obvious that they did mean to give offense."

A few things. First, this wasn't a "debate," and to characterize it as such is ludicrous. It was a "fight." 

Second, nobody was handing out invitations. I'm sorry if Penalver felt invisible, but if he was waiting for someone in the Office of Democratic Party Coordination of Responses to Crap Spewed By Lunatics Like Michelle Malkin and Bill Donahue to give him a call, he seems to have a pretty strange conception of how internet wars and the wingnut noise machine work. If the Religious Left wants to play a constructive role in these sorts of conflicts, might I suggest that waiting for a reporter to get you on the line so you can complain how you feel "invisible" is not a helpful approach. How about writing, oh, a thoughtful blog post somewhere?

Third, relatedly -- how, exactly, does allowing William frickin' Donahue act as the "decider" of what American Catholics ought consider legitimate and illegitimate discourse  serve to further the ends of the Catholic Left? Or the Left? Or even Roman Catholicism, for that matter?

Comments

[Danny Guam]

So, people that stand to gain from sliming Edwards are doing it? Slimimg, I mean.
Well duh.(I say to myself)

You didn't say fuck in this post so I guess I can take you seriously. I guess I'm going to have to go back and read those links now. It's like homework.

[Eli]

You didn't say fuck in this post so I guess I can take you seriously.

No, he said it in previous posts, so it's still safe to ignore him. Hey, where am I?

[Jay C.]

As a matter of shorthand, I blame the Clenis.

And those damn Ethnic-Americans.

[Mr.Murder]

Chronologically sort O'Dwyer's stuff. He did some hit pieces against Dems before.

He's a ratfucker.

He was one of the concern trolls of the '02 and '04 races...

[Ruth]

Personally, I represent the left wing that absolutely will not tolerate those nasty words all you bloggers use. And I am canceling your account, too.

[The Left]

Thou Shalt Have No Other False Lefts Before Me.

[Fledermaus]

O'DWYER, BRIAN
12/2/2005 $4,100.00
NEW YORK, NY 10025 [Contribution]
FRIENDS OF HILLARY

My that's a mighty big glass house you're living in, Mr. O'Dwyer. Hope no one comes by and accuses your favorite candidate of of being anti-catholic

But nah, the right wing would never make stuff up against Clinton.

[R. Manhammer: 100% Straight!]

Can I love on Thers here, or do I have to go back to Eschaton? Bastard. Never know where he is except by the missing bacon and spilled whiskey.