This does not speak well of his judgment and doesn't sit well with the Religious Left:
Democrats -- and Edwards in particular -- have embraced the language of faith and the imperative of competing with Republicans for the support of religious voters. His wife, Elizabeth Edwards, even sits on the board of the leading organization of the religious left, Call to Renewal. But in private conversations and careful public statements today, religious Democrats said they felt sidelined by Edwards' decision to stand by his aides.(via)
"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."
[...]
The other Edwards blogger, Melissa McEwan, has come under fire for referring to Christian conservatives as “Christofascists” in her personal blog.
Thursday, the campaign issued a statement from Edwards saying that he had been personally offended by the remarks and that the bloggers "have both assured me that it was never their intention to malign anyone's faith, and I take them at their word."
What???? It was "never the intention to malign anyone's faith?" Is he insane? She calls Christians, "godbags" and Jesus, "Jeebus" (it's amazing to me that he would hire someone this childish, someone whose main form of argumentation is name calling -- how second grade of her). She clearly hates Christians and Catholics because of our stand on abortion and her language was intentionally incendiary and insulting. If he wants to stand by his choice fine but don't insult out intelligence with this lame excuse.
And what kind of feminists are these women who would knowingly lie and say they didn't mean to offend anyone when they knew they did? They talk about empowered women standing up to the man and yet they cower to keep their jobs. They just threw all of their writings under the bus to retain their job. Didn't mean to offend, so everything they've written is meaningless.
Edwards just did the Internet a great service, he demonstrated that these women don't have the courage of their convictions and it was all just posture. If they really were principled in their objection to Christianity, they never would have stood by that statement.
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