The Other Edwards Blogmistress Resigns

So let me get this straight. Edwards first fired them, then, under threats of "pretty vicious rants and important action alerts," un-fired them and/or re-hired them.

And then, within days, both independently and of their own accord decide to resign, thus sparing Edwards those pretty vicious rants and important action alerts.

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.

In related news, there's a bridge connecting the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn I'm selling on eBay, pre-war construction, sunny views, high ceilings, a real fixer-upper opportunity.

She blames "her" decision to "resign" on "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."

I'll take her at her word that she's getting a lot of ugly emails. The internet encourages such unhinged rants; it's easier to get vicious when you're not looking into the face of a real, living human being (and also not worried about being punched or slapped).

She says "veiled threats" were made against her, something I don't doubt for a second, because I've seen that sort of thing myself. There are a lot of people who would, prior to the Internet, never have had their dark threats broadcast about, but simply muttered them to themselves as they watched TV; now a threat against someone is just a mouse-click away.

Which is why I'm so paranoid about my anonymity, of course.

And that's a nasty part of this thing, and one I wish would stop. There really are a lot of people who don't seem to get this whole "free speech" thing, and believe the proper response to speech you despise is to threaten them into silence.

That said, I don't for a second buy that Edwards didn't throw, or at least nudge, and her buddy Amanda Marcotte under the bus.

Yes, veiled threats against you and so forth, but it's not coincidence that Marcotte and McEwan give up jobs they obviously really wanted at the same time John Edwards doesn't want them to have those jobs, but doesn't want to antagonize the nutroots by firing them.

Edited: I took out a whine about nasty emails being used as a cudgel to pound those making legitimate criticisms because McEwan really doesn't do that here, and also because the "velied threats" thing rings true enough to me that it hardly seems necessary to invoke ulterior motives for her complaints about this. Such things are worth complaining about on their own, no hidden agenda needed.

UPDATE! The real reason they resigned/were asked to resign?

Bill O'Reilly.

He just said so.

posted by Ace at 09:15 PM

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