It’s About That Time...Snowday Blogroll! (Part I)

It's snowing yet again in mid-Missouri (this crap’s getting really old), and since I'm taking the day off, I thought it was time for that age-old tradition...the Blogroll. It's been a while, but as Susie discusses the current state of blogroll flux, it's time for our new & improved blogroll to strut its stuff...and being that the roll has expanded well past the roughly 20 it used to be (we’ve cruised into the mid-30s), expect this post to be, as Avedon would say, quite linky. In fact, I should probably break this up a bit.

Part I: All Things Marcotte

Obviously the big issue of the day in the progressive blogosphere is Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon and her decision to resign from the Edwards campaign in the light of stupid controversy. I have to say, this was pretty predictable (the controversy more than the resignation). Amanda is a pretty well-respected blogger, but she makes some pretty abrasive comments (which is one of the reasons she's admired), and in a world where John Kerry was called "not a good man" for calling Dick Cheney's known-lesbian daughter a lesbian, you'd have to figure they'd raise a stink pretty fast. It's a game to them, and they play it well. And if Edwards didn’t know that a) he was hiring a sometimes harsh blogger, or b) there would be a stink raised about it, then he’s not as attuned to the blogosphere OR the real world as I thought he was.

TBogg says it better than I do:

L’Affaire Marcotte should be a cautionary tale to those bloggers who think that the same people who have no qualms about sending American soldiers to die in Iraq (because their own shadow looks brown) wouldn't think twice about fucking with your life. Attach yourself to a campaign or a cause and they'll do to you and your candidate of choice what they did to Amanda and Jane Hamsher and Steve Gilliard with their manufactured outrage and fainting spells and calls for "civility".

Dana B. pitches in.

Donohue and all the Far Right's other goons now know they have a veto over the Edwards campaign's message. They can be racists, they can be bigots, they can call people names on TV but if anyone working for Edwards ever responded to their bullying in kind they're out.

This might have made some sense when the Political Thesis of the Right, its myths and values, were commonly accepted by the people. But in a time of transformation, with the President's war at 35% approval and the President's even lower, giving such a veto to goons like Donohue is unacceptable.

Avedon adds this to the discussion:

I wish I thought Edwards was smart and brave enough to make lemonade out of this and express outrage that a far-right bigot like Donahue was able to get traction in the press for a hate campaign against one little blogger, but I don't think he will.

Even Joe Klein almost had something prescient to add to the conversation. Almost (FDL). But in a world that is ever-changing, I guess it's reassuring to know that the media is still as slavish as they've ever been. Presumably because "Catholic" is in the title, Bill Donohue and his Catholic League are getting to say whatever they want in regard to Marcotte, no matter how far from mainstream he and his group's worldview really is.

And at least the Crunchy Con is falling in line nicely (Alicublog).