If you want me to vote for you, here's what you've got to do

I've already said that I'm not terribly interested in obsessing over the Presidential primaries right now. I have, however, figured out what my minimum requirement is for being considered worthy for my vote.

Two bloggers hired by John Edwards to reach out to liberals in the online world have landed his presidential campaign in hot water for doing what bloggers do -- expressing their opinions in provocative and often crude language.

The Catholic League, a conservative religious group, is demanding that Mr. Edwards dismiss the two, Amanda Marcotte of the Pandagon blog site and Melissa McEwan, who writes on her blog, Shakespeare's Sister, for expressing anti-Catholic opinions.

Mr. Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, is among the leading Democratic presidential candidates.

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, said in a statement on Tuesday, "John Edwards is a decent man who has had his campaign tarnished by two anti-Catholic vulgar trash-talking bigots."

Mr. Edwards's spokeswoman, Jennifer Palmieri, said Tuesday night that the campaign was weighing the fate of the two bloggers.

If you want my vote, the bare minimum that I expect of you is that when a two-bit thug like Bill Donahue threatens you, you fight back instead of handing over your lunch money like a little weak-kneed fraidy cat. Anybody who tries to appease the likes of William Donahue instead of standing up for himself or herself is not going to be able to survive the general election, so I'll be looking for someone else to represent the Democratic ticket. You would think that John Kerry's running mate would understand that.

Now, I don't want to jump the gun here. No decision has been made yet, so John Edwards hasn't lost me yet. But the fact that they're publicly "weighing the fate" of their bloggers instead of telling Donahue to go pound sand means they've lost some measure of my respect. What they do from here is up to them.

And on a side note, will the people associated with other candidates' campaigns get this kind of scrutiny, or only those who William Donahue disapproves of? John McCain has a blogger with a foul mouth, for example, not to mention a campaign manager with an extremely spotty history. If we're going to engage in this exercise, I say let's go all out.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on February 07, 2007 to The making of the President