Final observations on the Marcotte/McEwan debacle

The dust is settling on John Edwards' poor hiring decisions, so it's time for one last post on the topic.

Until the news broke in the conservative blogosphere about these two self-absorbed brats, I'd never heard of them. My ignorance of their existence didn't surprise me too much, since I don't read many of the "progressive" blogs. But still, I thought the names of a couple of bloggers important enough to be hired by a presidential candidate would have at least rung some sort of memory bells. But no, nothing.

So after reading some of the posts at Michelle Malkin's blog, Hot Air and a few others, I took a look at Marcotte's and McEwan's blogs. Ugh.

Now, understand that after 27 years in the military, I'm hardly priggish about colorful language. Neither of them use language I myself don't use on a fairly regular basis. I'm just a bit more judicious about where and around whom I use that language. Yes, I drop the "F" bomb here on my own blog from time to time. Six times, to be exact, over the course of over 500 posts. That doesn't include my earlier post on this topic in which I quoted extensively from Ms. Marcotte. But it wasn't the language that turned me off.

Far worse than the language was the bitter hatred directed at Christians, particularly Catholics. I'm not a religious guy (godbag or christofascist in M&M parlance), but it was hard not to take offense at the immaculate conception being referred to as God filling Mary with his "hot, white, sticky holy spirit". But even that didn't bug me that much.

What got me was that they're feminists, and apparently, that's why Edwards hired them. It's like being hired because you're...I don't know...a blacksmith or something. Like blacksmiths, feminists are quaint and evoke a certain nostalgia for days gone by, but these days they're irrelevant. Who needs 'em? In this age, what purpose do they serve?

But in the end, that's what it was all about for Marcotte and McEwan. The patriarchal society felt threatened by a couple of female bloggers (as if!) and they had to be put in their place. Not one moment of introspection over their own acts. Just the Catholic League and the "right-wing noise machine" keeping women in their place.

Pathetic.