Amanda and Shakes rock!

[Placed on top for updates...]

I think that the whole brouhaha that the extreme wingers are raising about new Edwards bloggers will have a) no effect on Democratic primary voters a year from now, b) no effect on national voters two years from now, and c) negative effect on the wingnutosphere as they are getting more and more obviously unhinged, and thus marginalized.

Edwards did a fantastic scoop with these hires and the outcry from the extreme Right was surely expected. He has now positioned himself as more woman-friendly and more netroots-friendly than Hillary and Obama combined. And the fact that this has touched such a raw nerve on the edge of the Right abyss just confirms that this was a brilliant move.

I suggest not to bother actually going to myriads of inconsequential Wingnut blogs (like Malkin or Protein Wisdom) to defend the hires there (though a sharp letter of rebuke to WaPo, NYTimes and ABC for publishing the atrocious AP hit-job by the certified nutter Nedra Pickler may be in order). Let them enjoy their own echo-chamber. Instead, join the growing chorus of smart bloggers who are coming out in support of Edwards, Marcotte and McEwen, for instance:

Major Danby on DKos
Kagro X on DKos
Expo on DKos and on JRE08
EdwardsRayOfSunshine
Chris Clarke on Pandagon
Sadly No
Majikthise
Misty on Shakespeare's Sister
Pharyngula
Tom Watson

Update:

Alex Koppelman and Rebecca Traister posted another hit-job with unnamed sources and nasty speculation. The Right wing must be very worried.

Check the comments.

Also see commentary by:

Atrios
Atrios
Media Matters
Chris Bowers
Chris Bowers
Wilbur on DKos
Liza Sabater
Phoenix Woman
Phoenix Woman on DKos
Thirdestate on DKos
Melissa
The Heretik
Waveflux
Paul The Spud
All Spin Zone

...and the Diaries on the Edwards blog:
Expo
EdwardsRayOfSunshine
EdwardsRayOfSunshine
EdwardsRayOfSunshine
TehipiteTom
Rooktoven
Suswah
AdamMarin19

There has been no message from the campaign yet so all rumors are unfounded until they say something, and they promise to say something later today. Stay tuned....I hope they do the right thing and use this opportunity to hit the slimeballs back and hit them HARD!

And some more:
Zuzu
Glenn Greenwald
Pam's House Blend (also here)
Mahablog
The Carpetbagger Report
Corrent Wire
Pharyngula

Even more....

Hotline:Blogometer
Kevin Drum
Ed Cone
Ed Cone
Ed Cone
Ed Cone
Ezra Klein
Ezra Klein
BooMan
Mike the Mad Biologist
Mike the Mad Biologist
Mike the Mad Biologist
Abstract Nonsense
Matt Stoller (not him, but the commenters)
Deborah Lipp
August J. Pollak
Think Progress
Culture Kitchen
Jill (Feministe)
Mcjoan on DKos
Scott Lemieux
Scott Lemieux
Ilyka Damen
First Draft
Sadly, No!
Tbogg
Crooks and Liars
Crooks and Liars
Crooks and Liars
Digby
Crooks and Liars
Crooks and Liars
Punkass Marc
The Liberal Avenger
Feministing
Feministing
Hugo Schwyzer
Echidne of the Snakes
Echidne of the Snakes
Rising Hegemon
The Heretic
Josh Marshall
Steve Gilliard
TPM Cafe
Pen-Elayne
Suswah
JosephGarcia
AdamMartin19
FunLuvn1
Garance Franke-Ruta (not him, the commenters)
Ilyka Damen
Thoughts From Kansas
Publius

Addendum

Ilyka (in that last link) puts in words what I've been thinking throughout this two-day saga. This is an effort of the power elites: politicians, old-timer internet-illiterate campaign managers, and MSM to eliminate bloggers from teh conversaiton and influence. Not just Amanda and Shakes but ALL bloggers, Left or Right. All the Rightwing bloggers who jumped on this story with glee are, due to partisan blindness, underminining their own cause.

The way the MSM is framing this is as if bloggers are ALIENES!!!!

Somebody did a quick, back-of-the-envelope calculation of the traffic of the blogs linked in this post - together they reach over 20 million people. The operative word is PEOPLE!!!!!!

The bloggers, the commenters (some of those posts have several hundreds of comments!), and the readers.

They are people. Flesh and blood. Every single one of them.

Almost all of them are American citizens. Eligible to vote.

Almost all of them are voters. People who exercise their right to vote.

Almost all of them are Democrats. People who vote in primaries.

Almost all of them are party activists. People who travel to Iowa in January to knock on doors.

Almost all of them are 'influentials' - people who are hyperiformed about politics and cannot keep their mouths shut about politics when talking to everyone they meet.

Almost all of them are internet savvy and can influence many others through their online writings, exponentialy increasing their influence.

A concerted and persistent efforts of bloggers has before, and will in the future, force MSM to take up stories or to change their tone.

You can't just nonchalantly dismiss all those people.

People will not be dissed.

Cross-posted