Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

The national Catholic based advocacy group Fidelis has called on Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards to dismiss his campaign's blogmaster, Amanda Marcotte, because of her "long record of anti-Catholic bigotry," the organization announced today.

"John Edwards seems to be level-headed enough to realize it is in the best interest of his presidential campaign to immediately dismiss Amanda Marcotte from his staff given her history of vicious attacks on Catholics and the Catholic Church, and cut all ties to her," said Fidelis President Joseph Cella in a news release.

The Edwards campaign recently hired Marcotte to coordinate his outreach to voters and activists through the internet. It's a hire that has generated criticism from both the Left and Right because of a variety of things she has written on her blog, Pandagon.

Fidelis says Marcotte used vulgar and profane laden language to describe the church doctrine of the Immaculate Conception and the Holy Spirit, and derisively referred to Pope Benedict XVI as a "dictator," and has made other anti-Catholic  statements.

"Keeping such a anti-Catholic staffer on his payroll will do significant damage to John Edwards as he seeks to court voters in the heavily Catholic states like Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Michigan," Cella said.

Anti-Catholic bigotry isn't the only problem with Marcotte. As ABC News reporter Terry Moran points out on his blog, Marcotte's blog is replete with "strident and profanity-laced writing" about conservative Christians, the Duke University (non)rape case, and more. "Her comments about other people's faiths could well be construed as hate speech," Moran says.

Of course, Marcotte (pictured) has freedom of speech to write and say what she wishes to write and say, no matter how offensive and bigoted it is. That's not the issue. Moran says the issue is, what does her hiring by Sen. Edwards say about Edwards?

Moran:

What, if anything, does it tell us about Edwards that he's joined up with this blogger? Is Edwards' association with a person who has written these things a legitimate issue for voters, as they wonder--among other things--whom he might appoint to high office if he's elected? If a Republican candidate teamed up with a right-wing blogger who spewed this kind of venom, how would people react? Is the mere raising of this issue a kind of underhanded censorship, a way of ruling out of bounds some kinds of opinion? Are we all just going to have to get used to a more rough-and-tumble, profane, and even hate-filled public arena in the age of the blogosphere?

As Fidelis showed today, the answer is that some of us aren't willing to accept Marcotte's bigotry as acceptable discourse. Sen. Edwards ought to send her packing. She can spew her hatred on her own blog to her heart's content.

Related: Michelle Malkin has several excellent posts and a hilarious video parody of the intemperate Ms. Marcotte, all here.

Photo: Amanda Marcotte. Credit: Pandagon.