More on Edwards' Whopping Mistake

So, Edwards refuses to fire Amanda Marcotte, a blogger who has viciously mocked Catholic beliefs in the past (see the previous post) after she issues a mealy-mouthed non-apology. And it seems that massive pressure from left-wing bloggers, outraged that Edwards would cave to the likes of Bill Donohue, saved their jobs. What the liberal bloggers fail to understand is that the only people outraged here are not merely conservative blowhards, but Catholics in general, including those closer to the Democratic end of the spectrum. Eduardo Peñalver over at Commonweal gets it just right, when he notes:

"Look, I can understand that we shouldn't let Donohue set the agenda for our discussion, but it makes no sense to take the reactionary stance that if a charge comes from a hypocritical thug like Donohue that it has no merit whatsoever and is not worthy of discussion. You can admit that the blog posts in question gratuitously evinced overt hostility to Catholics, and were therefore at least problematic for someone attached to a presidential campaign in a communications capacity, without crediting Donohue's idiocy. Reacting as the liberal blogosphere has, by simply closing ranks and denying that there is anything wrong with defaming the religious symbols of the largest (and most Democratic) Christian constituency in the country simply feeds into the stereotypes that keeps people like Donohue in business."

But does anybody see this? A few bloggers do, as noted by Penalver. Nancy Scola from MyDD asks if "we [have] made the Democratic tent big enough to welcome religious activists without constantly snickering behind their backs?". And the influential Huffington Post fronts a piece by Melinda Henneberger noting that Marcotte's comments are harmful to liberal Catholics as well, as evidenced by Commonweal's reaction. She draws attention to a comment at the Commonweal blog noting that "Marcotte's comments were viciously anti-Catholic. The fact that many on the left failed to realize that explains very clearly why the GOP (a party that violates Catholic social theory over 90 percent of the time) seems to attract legions of Catholics." Who wrote that last comment? Why, a commentator named Morning's Minion!

But these observations are few and far between. The liberal blogsophere is content to stand by Edwards and downplay any sense of offense, secure that its honor has been maintained. Is the liberal blogosphere so trapped in its own self-congratulatory and narcissistic worldview that it fails to see the harm done? Is the loathing of Catholicism so great that they are quite happy to see a natural constituency enter the arms of the Republicans rather than show them a modicum of respect? This issue goes way beyond Donohue. It even goes way beyond Edwards. It gets right to the heart of how many on the secular left regard religion.