It looks like John Edwards is going to be just fine with the deranged, obscene hatred posted at Pandagon.net and ShakespearesSister.blogspot.com by Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan: John Edwards ‘08 Blog.

The tone and the sentiment of some of Amanda Marcotte’s and Melissa McEwan’s posts personally offended me. It’s not how I talk to people, and it’s not how I expect the people who work for me to talk to people. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but that kind of intolerant language will not be permitted from anyone on my campaign, whether it’s intended as satire, humor, or anything else. But I also believe in giving everyone a fair shake. I’ve talked to Amanda and Melissa; they have both assured me that it was never their intention to malign anyone’s faith, and I take them at their word. We’re beginning a great debate about the future of our country, and we can’t let it be hijacked. It will take discipline, focus, and courage to build the America we believe in.

Edwards has clearly decided that pandering to the Nutroots is more important than any negative fallout accruing from hiring two of the sickest ranting moonbats on the web.

UPDATE at 2/8/07 10:17:19 am:

On target.

But lost on these Marcotte supporters—who are cheering on the power of the “netroots” to cow a politician into keeping on an ugly and hateful liability—is that Edwards just showed up Marcotte and McEwan as both frauds and posturing blowhards, writers who have been pulling the wool over their audiences’ eyes by posting vicious “arguments” they never truly believed.  To use the loaded language of establishment feminism—he publicly castrated them—and in so doing, he made fools out of their audiences, to boot.

Further, in doing so, he has shown himself to be nothing more than a calculating political opportunist of the worst sort—one who believes the voting public so daft they might actually buy a statement like the one he just released.

UPDATE at 2/8/07 10:20:44 am:

Hey, Nutroots bloggers! Want to work on a big-time political campaign? All you have to do is publicly repudiate everything you’ve written for the past five years! Edwards’ Bloggers Apologize for Comments.