One more thing has to be made absolutely clear: it wasn't about the tone. It wasn't about the language. It wasn't about mockery of religion. Those things served as pretext, as a hook for lazy and uninformed reporters, as cover for the gloating jackals on the right, but they were never the point. Donohue would have waged the same scorched earth campaign whoever Edwards hired, as long as they rejected the far-right party line on religion. We know that for a fact because he's done it before:
On Friday, July 23 [2004], Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe announced the appointment of Rev. Brenda Bartella Peterson as the first-ever Senior Advisor for Religious Outreach to the DNC. One week later, on Friday, July 30, we learned of this hire and immediately investigated her.This is why I said Edwards needed to hit back hard. Donohue's jihad extends to anyone who disagrees in any way with his neo-medieval worldview, and nothing short of endorsing that worldview is going to appease him.
On Monday, August 2, we issued a press release noting her support for atheist Michael Newdow in his attempt to get the words “under God” stricken from the Pledge of Allegiance. We issued two more news releases on Peterson on Tuesday and Wednesday. She quit late-day Wednesday, saying she couldn’t take the pressure any more. We declared victory on Thursday.
I don't know about the rest of y'all, but I'm not inclined to do that.
[That's all, folks]
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