Opinion: Jesus Christ, can’t you just admit you like making fun of Jesus Christ?
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‘The American culturati [are] willing to take any gamble except this one: The open admission that they just like to make fun of Christ.’
So wrote a great man in a more innocent time. Amanda Marcotte, the Pandagon.com administrator and John Edwards web stooge who has caused a continuing meltdown for the presidential hopeless from North Carolina, might want to take note. Here’s what she wrote in her youth:
Q: What if Mary had taken Plan B after the Lord filled her with his hot, white, sticky Holy Spirit? A: You’d have to justify your misogyny with another ancient mythology.
Here’s what she says with the wisdom of age:
My writings on my personal blog, Pandagon on the issue of religion are generally satirical in nature and always intended strictly as a criticism of public policies and politics. My intention is never to offend anyone for his or her personal beliefs, and I am sorry if anyone was personally offended by writings meant only as criticisms of public politics.
Our editorial page comments on the Marcotte/Melissa McEwan dustup and the promised auto-da-fé by Bill Donohue and the Catholic League. Just as an intrusion of common sense, it must be noted that Marcotte’s comments from eight months ago are transparently designed to offend at the level of belief, not public policy. Her non-apology is a lie. I don’t think Marcotte should apologize for this or any other outré comments, but then I’m not dumb enough to care about the fortunes of John Edwards’ political career. Marcotte, a chicken little overpopulationist and Bush-maddened hysteric, is plenty dumb enough, and she’s working for Edwards’ campaign.
In short, Donohue has a strong case against the Edwards campaign, and will press that advantage. Whether the Catholic League still has any muscle is an open question, but when Edwards does the math, he’s going to find that the value proposition of having a hipster blogger on retainer just isn’t worth the tradeoff. (One thing that never gets mentioned in all the breathless reporting about how crucial bloggers are to Democratic campaigns is that even the celebrated Daily Kos is the Sir Thomas Lipton of political consultants, having compiled an uninterrupted string of high-profile failures.) Marcotte’s Sister Souljah moment is still before her.
The myth of anti-Catholicism gets exorcised by Michael McGough here, and by the artist formerly known as Tim Cavanaugh here.