Bloggers on staff with Sen. Edwards are giving him a bit of a headache

Two bloggers Sen. Edwards staffed put him in a bit of a sticky spot the other day... WaPo - Former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) condemned comments made by two bloggers on his presidential campaign staff but chose not to fire the women, an incident that exposed the fault lines between the largely unfiltered world of new media and the highly regulated universe of national politics. At the center of the brouhaha are Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwen, both of whom were hired last month by Edwards to oversee his "Net roots" outreach. A loose conglomeration of liberal-minded bloggers have grown increasingly influential in Democratic politics. Before joining the Edwards campaign, Marcotte and McEwen each maintained personal Web logs on which they posted highly critical and profane thoughts about topics including the Roman Catholic Church. Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, called on Edwards to fire the duo, whom he described as "vulgar, trash-talking bigots." Wow... second chances abound for liberals who trash WASPs. Of course we were talking about Mitt Romney and some off his staffers popping off, we'd have a national outcry and the oh-so-tolerant left would demand he withdraw from the race, no matter how many apologies he and the staffers issued. And since the MSM isn't paying attention, this isn't the only issue Edwards has made for himself at the moment. He's getting himself in enough trouble talking out of both sides of his face (after all, he did learn from from the best in the business, John Kerry, who flipped flopped more than a fish out of water). 2 weeks ago, speaking at the Herzliya Conference in Israel Edwards addressed the issue of Iran and their pursuit of nukes quite firmly. "Let me be clear: Under no circumstances can Iran be allowed to have nuclear weapons . . . The vast majority of people are concerned about what is going on in Iraq. This will make the American people reticent toward going for Iran. But I think the American people are smart if they are told the truth, and if they trust their president. So Americans can be educated to come along with what needs to be done with Iran." He then took a page from John Kerry's playbook and proceeded to change his position. Q. Can we live with a nuclear Iran? A. "I'm not ready to cross that bridge yet... When [Bush] uses this kind of language 'options are on the table,' he does it in a very threatening kind of way - with a country that he's not engaging with or making any serious diplomatic proposals to. I mean I think that he's just dead wrong about that." How else should a military threat be made? What option does Edwards mean to leave on the table - a bouquet of flowers? On the February 4 edition of Meet the Press, Edwards was asked, "Would President Edwards allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons?" His response: "There's no answer to that question at this moment... We ought to negotiate directly with the Iranians, which has not been done...." Q. But they may get one. A. "I think we don't know, and you have to make a judgment as you go along." So he's gone from staunch position to a policy of jibberish flexible it's spineless. So Edward has become the protege of John Kerry. Only Edwards has charisma and better hair

Troops send a message to John Kerry

I hope he can read it though... they're so stupid they got stuck in Iraq afterall... Looks like they didn't get Kerry's joke either Olbermann...

Olbermann takes stupid to a whole new level

If you thought Kerry's comments about our troops being stuck in Iraq because they weren't smart enough to do anything else with their lives was bad, you've got to see Keith Olbermann's 10 minute rant that it is President Bush who owes the troops an apology not Senator Kerry. Olbermann takes "stuck on stupid" to a whole new level... AlterNet has the video posted; just look to the right and click on Keith's ugly mug and try not to have anything nearby that might be used as a projectile. I'd hate to get complaints about staplers and tape dispensers being thrown through computer screens. We've also got the transcript up over at the AND Network. Here's some of Keith's commentary that's so brilliant it can only be attributed to an ingenious Karl Rove plot to drum up more anger at liberals... Sen. Kerry, as you well know, spoke at a college in Southern California. With bitter humor he told the students that he had been in Texas the day before, that President Bush used to live in that state, but that now he lives in the state of denial. He said the trip had reminded him about the value of education - that “if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you can get stuck in Iraq. The senator, in essence, called Mr. Bush stupid. The context was unmistakable: Texas; the state of denial; stuck in Iraq. No interpretation required. And Mr. Bush and his minions responded by appearing to be too stupid to realize that they had been called stupid. Context unmistakable, huh? Sure... cause I always assume the joke is about Bush when I hear "you know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq." I think there must be a participle dangling there somewhere... You can only say "you" so many times before you've got to think that all eight "you's" in the sentence refer to the same person... Maybe Keith needs to hear the Kerry clip again.... So, that's either the most complicated joke in the history of the world... ever, or Keith Olbermann is some sort of uber-genius, and somehow I don't think genius takes the path from sports reporting to MSNBC stooge. But then again he's probably from the retarded 1/4 that also believes Bush was behind 9/11 and that Elvis is still alive...

John Kerry says only stupid people end up in our military

And you won't believe how he's trying to spin his way out of this one... First off, the comment came at a campaign stop at Pasadena City College where Kerry stuck his foot into his mouth pretty much all the way up to his knee... While campaigning in California, Kerry told a college crowd on Monday: "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq." Well now... so only the stupid kids get sent to Iraq? Are all military personnel stupid? Having served in the military, does that make you stupid Senator Kerry? Before we start piling on too much, one of his spokespeople offered an explanation: Kerry misread the speech: Kerry's office released his prepared remarks, which said, "Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush." If true, while there's still a nice Freudian slip type feel to the remark, we can't hammer him too badly... It's not like Bush is a perfect orator either. We all make verbal mistakes; no bid deal... But then Kerry goes and opens his big fat mouth some more trying to respond to comments from the White House, specifically Tony Snow, that he ought to apologize. The Massachusetts Democrat and 2004 presidential nominee struck back, although he said that he was making a "botched joke" during a campaign appearance for a Democratic congressional candidate Monday. He said that Snow and the others distorted what he said. "I'm not going to be lectured by a stuffed-suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq," Kerry said in a statement. "It disgusts me that these Republican hacks, who have never worn the uniform of our country lie and distort so blatantly and carelessly about those who have." Oh really? It's a lies, lies, vicious lies! A vast right wing conspiracy! Karl Rove's minions changed my speech at the last minute! Then a little misdirection that has absolutely nothing to do with the issue at hand, and there you have it. The liberal two-step. A simple, "sorry, didn't mean that," or "misread my speech" really could have delfated the whole issue. We'd have snickered over the issue for a day and then forgotten all about it. Now that you've made a huge deal out of the whole thing and insulted Tony Snow and Rush Limbaugh for no reason, it's going to be a topic of conversation for an entire week. The week before the election is going to be spent trying to figure out why John Kerry is so bitter and angry and if it's a symptomatic problem of the Democratic party as a whole. Why can't democrats just simply say "oops... my bad" and move on with their lives. He's taken the focus off of whatever other scandal information they had waiting in the wings and put it on why John Kerry's an idiot. I guess Dennis Prager's right... being a liberal means never having to say you're sorry. UPDATE @ 3:57pm: GOP and the City had the video of John Kerry's idiocy... UPDATE 11/1 @ 4:05pm: Kerry apologizes... In a brief statement, Kerry apologizes to "any service memeber, family member or American who was offended" by remarks he made earlier this week, in which he suggested that those who don't do well in school could "get stuck in Iraq." In the statement, Kerry says he sincerely regrets that his words were, as he put it, "misinterpreted to imply anything negative about those in uniform." Took him long enough. Hell, even Hillary Clinton was out there saying his remarks were "inappropriate."