From Michelle Malkin's lips...

Michelle Malkin has no idea how smart Amanda Marcotte is.

If she did she wouldn't volunteer to read Amanda's brilliant New Orleans post. Watch the video.
 

Comments

[PR]

How did you find them shut?

[aeroman]

This whole kerfuffle is a silly waste of time that means nothing outside the world of right wing bloggers and sensible civil pundits who benefit professionally from anti-netroots hysteria.

That said, it isn't exactly unexpected. I know that I was surprised when Amanda announced this. I don't doubt that it's a job she can do well. She's obviously smart and hard-working, and has a strong grasp of what the blogosphere responds to. That said, a political movement needs lots of different voices, and some are much more effective when not attached to a campaign. Amanda provides red meat to people, and she does so in a way that, while entertaining, can come off as over the top, especially if you're not used to reading her work and taking some statements with a grain of salt. The post she scrubbed, about the Duke case, strikes me as an example of that.

It's not exactly compatible with the sound-bite-happy, gotcha atmosphere that dominates campaign reporting.

[Julian Elson]

Michelle Malkin displays the level of dignity, integrity, and honesty that we've come to expect from the rest of her oeuvre.

[porgy tirebiter]

Oy oy oy ...

[Chris O.]

This is truly one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen.

[DJA]

Aeroman, Amanda did not "scrub" anything. There was a block of archived posts that were lost in to Pandagon's server troubles, but that ain't scrubbing.

[aeroman]

DJA, we're thinking about different posts. You are, I'm guessing, thinking of the post about Jesse's leaving to work for the Strickland campaign, which some people had falsely and irresponsibly claimed was scrubbed. I'm talking about this one, originally about the Duke lacrosse player controversy, which currently reads:

UPDATE: Since people are determined to make hay over this quick shot of a post, I’m deleting it and here’s my official stance. The prosecution in the Duke case fumbled the ball. The prosecutor was too eager to get a speedy case and make a name for himself. That is my final word.

So, what, it was a server error that created a false message from Amanda explicitly saying that she personally replaced the post in response to criticism?

Charming "ain't" aside, yeah, Darcy, she did scrub something. I don't actually think there's anything wrong with her scrubbing the post. She didn't conceal it. She didn't deny it. I've scrubbed two blogs myself because I figured I'd just prefer not worrying about them anymore and not having them floating dead on the internet forever. There's nothing wrong with that, as far as I'm concerned. Though it's a little disappointing that you'd just assume that I was either lying or mistaken.

[DJA]

Aeroman,

I'm afraid I'm behind the curve on this one. I assumed you were talking about one of the other posts which were widely, but falsely, alleged to have been scrubbed. I didn't know about this one. Last time I checked, the original version of the Jan. 21 post was still up -- though obviously at some point Amanda actually did replace the original post with the updated statement you cite above.

My bad, clearly, and I apologize if I caused any offense -- I don't keep up with this stuff like I once did.

[Roxanne]

One could spend the weekend making this piece (which incidentally makes that shit on current.TV look entertaining) or one could spend the weekend playing with their kids. Where are the family values?

[Chris]

Ho-ly shit! That is one of the most bizarre things I've ever watched. Malkin really, really hates Amanda.

[togolosh]

I imagine that the wingnut hiveneuron spent much of the weekend trying to find material that can be used to frag Amanda and (by association) Edwards. Any blogger who is hired by a campaign is going to go throught the same thing.

The basic wingnut operating principle of throwing so much BS that it's impossible to rebut it all is in operation here.

[Mnemosyne]

It's not exactly compatible with the sound-bite-happy, gotcha atmosphere that dominates campaign reporting.

I think that's kind of the point. Did you ever see The War Room, where James Carville hashes out an attack ad on HW Bush in a matter of about 15 minutes?

I think Edwards decided he wanted to get his very own attack dog, and it only helps that she has a lot of defenders (including me). Trying to offer the Republican attack dogs a biscuit when they're ripping out your throat isn't working anymore.

And maybe I misunderstand the word "scrub," but doesn't that mean deleting a post and pretending it never existed at all? I've seen other people note that they've deleted posts and this kind of shitstorm hasn't descended on them.

[Anthony Damiani]

....My God, that woman is offensive.
Surely we're in Ann Coulter it's-all-an-act self-parody territory here?

[aeroman]

Don't worry about it, Darcy. There's little or nothing to be gained from actually following any of this very closely. I'm just addicted to the crazy freak-outs of the wingnutosphere.

Mnemosyne, I don't know the thought processes of the Edwards people. But the hire has a long way to go if it's going to end in an improvement in the Edwards campaign's attacks-waged to attacks-fielded ratio.

[Doyle Saylor]

Michelle relishes the drama provided by biting into a tasty liberal sandwich. Which I think is the fun part of the blogosphere. I'm not too worried about the sound bites gotcha world of the big media. The blogosphere so rapidly evolves it is unlikely the swift boat tactic can shoot a torpedo into the side of Amanda. It's all a move from static trench warfare to blitzkrieg style Blogosphere, where wit wins and elephants fear to step.

Michelle has a bit of high school air about her performing. I think American Idol is looking for try outs. Send her a note telling where to sign up.
Doyle

[voxpopuli]

Who is Michelle Malkin??
I have to admit that once I grew so incensed at something those lips uttered I actually sat down and emailed her skankish self and then published her email on truthout -- a colossal waste of time if I had spent any on it. Just a brief diatribe that I am sure she will use in a book one day and then I will OWN her. hehe
I bet KGB saves that pic to his hard-drive.

[voxpopuli]

Who is Michelle Malkin??
I have to admit that once I grew so incensed at something those lips uttered I actually sat down and emailed her skankish self and then published her email on truthout -- a colossal waste of time if I had spent any on it. Just a brief diatribe that I am sure she will use in a book one day and then I will OWN her. hehe
I bet KGB saves that pic to his hard-drive.

[zuzu]

Any blogger who is hired by a campaign is going to go throught the same thing.

They're not doing it to Shakespeare's Sister.

I think it's very definitely Amanda-specific. The most laughable part is the assumption that the Edwards campaign has somehow never bothered to read anything Amanda has written, and they don't know about her penchant for profanity.

People, Elizabeth Edwards is EVERYWHERE.

[Chris]

They're not doing it to Shakespeare's Sister.

I think that, for one, they recognize that Amanda is smarter, more mature, and more effective than Shakepeare's Sister. She can be a very big plus for the Edwards campaign, and thus getting her fired, or at least smearing her relentlessly, can harm the Edwards campaign. What's more, Amanda's certainly a bit to the left of Edwards, or any politically viable Democratic presidential candidate. The fact that such a candidate has hired her, then, has to be extremely threatening to the right wing hacks who feel their ideological and rhetorical dominance slipping through their hands even as they film their cable access news programs.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

Zuzu's right, Elizabeth Edwards knows what's what online. So do a lot of the other non-blogging campaign staffers.

The Edwards campaign is really internet savvy. They're putting a lot of resources into the web side of their operation.

I would be shocked if this right wing bleating had any effect on Amanda's future with the campaign.

[DaveW]

At least Malkin spelled Pandagon correctly*. That should help drive up traffic there as people click over to see what the fuss is all about, and in the process, get to read a lot more of what Amanda has written.

*From the old line about the politician who wanted to make sure that the newspapers attacking him spelled his name correctly.

[Aaron Baker]

At the risk of bucking a trend, I think the Marcotte posting is overheated and over the top, and that it deserves a good parody. But it takes breath-stoppingly unadulterated gall for Michelle Malkin (Michelle Malkin!) to attempt ridicule here.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

Overheated, about BushCo's handling of the Katrina debacle and the loss of New Orleans? It's a pretty incensed post, but over twelve hundred people died and an entire American city was lost.

Amanda's post was written while hundreds of thousands of Americans were displaced within their own country. Amanda was helping to take care of some of the evacuees who fled to Texas.

[Robert O'Brien]

As I've written elsewhere, I hope Amanda serves as a millstone around Edwards' neck.

[Aaron Baker]

So her heart's in the right place. A good heart doesn't guarantee good writing.