Edwards Advisor To Blogosphere: "You Can Go To Hell"

RamboLiberal

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Mon Jun-11-07 05:38 PM
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Edwards Advisor To Blogosphere: "You Can Go To Hell"

Edited on Mon Jun-11-07 05:54 PM by RamboLiberal

David "Mudcat" Saunders, a longtime Dem consultant who has helped Democrats in rural areas — notable victories include Mark Warner in 2001 and Jim Webb in 2006 — might be causing a bit of a headache for his current client, John Edwards. In his inaugural post on Time's Swampland blog: "So to those bloggers who believe in a straight-forward dialogue and exchange of ideas, God bless you and thank you ... At the same time, those Democratic bloggers, who have appointed themselves as intellectually superior and believe the only way to win an argument is to shot (sic) the loudest with personal attacks, you can go to Hell." Condemnations are already coming in from Duncan "Atrios" Black, Chris Bowers, and the Daily Kos community.

http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/jun/11/happy_hour_roundup

Here's what Saunders wrote:

I woke up this morning and was going to start my stint as a guest correspondent by trying to kick up a dialogue on how my people in rural America are getting screwed into the stone ages. As an inexperienced blogger (I think this is the third time I've posted anything), I thought it prudent to get some tips from the Time staff on what I should be doing. They told me I could write anything I wanted, but I should keep my eye on the site and watch the conversation going on at the time of a post and weigh in.

Well, that's what I'm going to do...weigh in on the current conversation. I've got all week to talk about how Republicans take the rural and southern vote for granted in national elections and how the Democrats, for some insane reason, let'em have it.

I have bitched and moaned for years about the lack of tolerance in the elitist wing of the Democratic Party, or what I refer to as the "Metropolitan Opera Wing". These are the people who talk of tolerance but the only true tolerance they ever exhibit is for their own pseudo-intellectual arrogance.

If you want a perfect example of how this "intolerance" is helping the Democrats lose national elections, check out the responses to Joe Klein's post on Paris and Libby. To be clear, I have no problem with incivility. After all, I'm in the political business. However, as a pilgrim in the blogosphere, I thought blogging was for exchange of ideas, not personal attacks. Like his post or not, Klein in no way compromised the integrity of the fourth estate. This was not a news story. He was simply stating his opinion. Unless fourth estate integrity has been compromised, there is no rationale for calling him a "jackass", "fool", or "elite white guy".

http://time-blog.com/swampland/2007/06/go_ahead_and_shoot_at_me.html?xid=rss-swampland

To be fair Saunders defending his words and response on Daily Kos.

1.-Nowhere in my first post did I say I was "anti-blogging". Quite to the contrary, I said to bloggers who want to take the Democratic Party back into the big tent, "God bless you and thank you." I was quoted saying after the Webb election that the "bloggers" led the way. As Casey Stengel said, "You can look it up." The problem I've got is I'm "anti-losing" and don't like a small group of intolerant, intellectually-elites continuously trying to shape the "Big Tent" into a "Pup Tent". The blogs are the Democratic Party's greatest source of power and unity. Why would I am be anti-blogging? In other words, I wasn't talking to all of you. Just some of you.

That's a damn good summary, but I want to expand on this. I come to this with some built-in sympathy for the defense of the rural South that Mudcat Saunders specializes in. I've spent a lot of time in small-town Alabama and I have friends there who I love, and it pisses me off to see people like them painted as intolerant, ignorant, or just plain stupid. And I do see that, all too often. But presenting it as if it comes mainly from Democrats (without providing any evidence for that, just casually tossing off a smear against your own party) is hellaciously wrong. It's morally wrong and it's politically moronic.

As Bowers notes, the answer to the problem of intolerance is not to reply by directing exactly the same sneering, dismissive tone at a group you're stereotyping into existence. "The Metropolitan Opera wing"? Saunders can parse his original words all he wants - the fact is that those words bought into every single "effete liberal elites" boogyman the Republicans have tried to create and ride to electoral victory over the past 20 years.

If he wants to make a strong argument for why the Democratic party should give respectful attention to rural voters (in any region of the country) I'm all for it. But trying to do so by furthering exactly the kinds of culture wars bull that Republicans specialize in is not ok.

http://www.dailykos.com/

IMHO Joe Klein is a whiney horse's butt and Saunders has just given the Edwards campaign another self-inflicted wound. I'm an Edwards fan, but this campaign needs to get it's damn act together. They are sabotaging themselves. Oh and by the way I like "Mudcat" Saunders, but he really needed to read the crap Joe Klein spouts about liberals and Democrats first before going off on those bloggers who rightly criticize Klein. I do think he has some valid points though about some Democrats, but those Democrats sure aren't bloggers.