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Glenn Greenwald delves into the sordid past of John McCain campaign blogger Patrick Hynes. Hynes, it seems, has a history of making anti-Mormon, anti-Semitic, and anti-Democratic comments on his blog Ankle Biting Pundits. Hynes also started working for McCain, but failed to disclose that he was paid by McCain while continuing to blog about the presidential race and McCain’s actions.
Greenwald asks:
Candidates are hiring bloggers. Every blogger out there has probably used foul language or said things that are objectionable to someone at some point. If the right is going to start a witch hunt every time a Democrat hires a blogger, their candidates should expect the same level of scrutiny.Does McCain approve of his consultant’s attempt to use Romney’s Mormonism to scare off Christian evangelicals from supporting Romney and to promote bigoted anti-Mormon accusations that Mormonism is a “cult”? Why would John McCain want someone on his campaign staff who traffics in such ugly, divisive, sectarian-based rhetoric?
These are things that one finds within 60 minutes or so of searching Hynes’ blog. The blog he previously maintained throughout the 2004 election, Kerry Crush, is no longer online. Its archives undoubtedly contain ample content which would generate many more questions for McCain. The ones here are a good start.
Technorati Tags: John McCain, Amanda Marcotte
3 Responses to “Speaking of Campaign Bloggers”
[…] The reason that I think it’s critically important to push back against the Right’s efforts to have veto-power on John Edwards’ personnel decisions is that failing to do so gives the Right a Get Out Of Jail Free card for their own dubious hires. The Catholic League, a right wing pressure group, has taken up the banner of Malkin and Riehl to try to determine how a candidate they would never vote for runs his campaign. This is not to concede Donohue’s claim that the Edwards has hired anyone who isn’t a stellar operative or worthy of helping craft the strategies that will be deployed to help John Edwards win the presidency. Marcotte and McEwan were hired for their skills as bloggers, not in spite of them. I know that I’ve written somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 blog posts in the last two years and I’m sure some people would find some of what I’ve written objectionable - that’s the nature of blogging. Allowing the Right to exert veto power over the movement of our bloggers onto campaigns - a process that democratizes political campaigns and makes them accountable to the base - is simply unacceptable for us as a movement. More precisely, this political moment is not about John Edwards, but about what the liberal netroots will let the Right get away with in their efforts to limit our political power. Democrats hire opinionated, feminist bloggers and the world is apparently coming to an end. Republicans hire racists, anti-Semites, crooks, and alleged crooks and the press does not emit a sound. This free pass has to end and we’re the people who are going to end it. The hypocrisy we see in the sea of criticism surrounding Edwards’ hires plays to one of the greatest challenges Democrats need to confront: the conservative media. An email I received this morning on the subject said: a guy who (no offense, amanda) is a lower-level staffer uses a few dirty words in a previous job, and edwards caves? […]
[…] Speaking of Campaign Bloggers […]
Something to say?
[…] Check out the Spin Zone if you want to drop the Edwards campaign a line. See here for more on this hack attack and here and here and here for some dirt on bad hiring habits of Republican cadidates. […]
Left by A Newer World » Blog Archive » Under Attack, Will John Edwards Fold?
February 7, 2007 at 12:51pm