NYT/AP: Second Blogger Quits Edwards Campaign

[DeepModem Mom]

Second Blogger Quits Edwards Campaign
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 13, 2007
Filed at 11:58 p.m. ET

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- A second blogger working for Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards quit Tuesday under pressure from conservative critics who said her previous online messages were anti-Catholic.

Melissa McEwan wrote on her personal blog, Shakespeare's Sister, that she left the campaign because she was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the level of attention focused on her and her family.

''This was a decision I made, with the campaign's reluctant support, because my remaining the focus of sustained ideological attacks was inevitably making me a liability to the campaign,'' McEwan said Tuesday night.

Kate Bedingfield, a spokeswoman for the Edwards campaign, said McEwan left the campaign under her own terms. Both Bedingfield and McEwan declined additional comment.

McEwan's resignation came just one day after another blogger, Amanda Marcotte, left the Edwards staff for similar reasons.

Both had become a flashpoint for conservative critics. Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, called Marcotte and McEwan ''foul-mouthed bigots'' for remarks he deemed anti-Catholic. Last week, Donohue called on Edwards to fire both bloggers.

Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, responded that he considered the bloggers' past writings personally offensive and added that similar content would not be tolerated. But he decided to keep Marcotte and McEwan on staff to give them ''a fair shake.''...

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-On-the-2008-Trail.html