I know this is the dead horse that's been flogged until it is nothing but an indistinguishable mass of blood and bones, but there is one angle that hasn't been discussed much: reactions from the Religious Left. (Via GetReligion).
The story is at The Politico.com by Ben Smith, and discusses the reactions of religious people who actually might vote for Edwards (or might not).
As the flap over alleged anti-Catholic writings by two John Edwards campaign bloggers devolves into a shouting match between conservative religious voices and liberal bloggers, some members of the "religious left" say they feel – again – shoved to the margins of the Democratic Party.
"We're completely invisible to this debate," said Eduardo Penalver, a Cornell University law professor who writes for the liberal Catholic journal Commonweal. He said he was dissatisfied with the Edwards campaign's response. "As a constituency, the Christian left isn't taken all that seriously," Penalver said.
Democrats -- and Edwards in particular -- have embraced the language of faith and the imperative of competing with Republicans for the support of religious voters. His wife, Elizabeth Edwards, even sits on the board of the leading organization of the religious left, Call to Renewal. But in private conversations and careful public statements today, religious Democrats said they felt sidelined by Edwards' decision to stand by his aides.
"We have gone so far to rebuild that coalition [between Democrats and religious Christians] and something like this sets it back," said Brian O'Dwyer, a New York lawyer and Irish-American leader who chairs the National Democratic Ethnic Leadership Council, a Democratic Party group. O'Dwyer said Edwards should have fired the bloggers. "It's not only wrong morally – it's stupid politically."
These guys make the point I tried to make the other day: there are moderates (and, in this case, religious people) who take Edwards' defense of the trash-talk twins as an insult to them and their beliefs. That's just not what you want in any political campaign.
And so religious liberals find themselves in a quandary. They have no interest in associating with the likes of William Donohue, the Catholic League president who is closely aligned with the GOP and led the charge against Edwards' aides. Donohue said Thursday he would take out newspaper advertisements attacking Edwards as anti-Catholic. But religious liberals also think Edwards' aides merit more than a slap on the wrist.
"I thought his explanation was not satisfying," said Cornell's Penalver. "It's obvious that they did mean to give offense."
"You imagine a similar kind of comment directed at the Jewish community or at the gay community – something at this level of intentional offensiveness -- and I have a hard time believing it gets resolved in the same way," he said.
It certainly puts religious voters in a quandary. With his folksy, populist, preacheresque style, Edwards was probably more appealing to religious lefties than, say, Hillary Clinton.
|