He was also an advisor to Jim Webb and Tom Kaine, and is largely credited for the close win.

As I noted on the earlier thread, it certainly seems weird, given all of Edwards push with netroots.  Of course, I got labeled as a concern troll for my efforts, so whatever.

He was also an advisor to Jim Webb and Tom Kaine, and is largely credited for the close win.

Ahhh, a credit claimer. How can he charge cash if he has to share credit with the great unwashed internets...

The Edwards campaign strikes again.

I hate Opera, for one thing. I love Lynard Skynard.  I also live in the Midwest.

I'm willing to bet ole Mudcat that far more George W. Bush donors from the South attend or enjoy the Opera than liberal bloggers do.

You think it's all them low-income working people who are paying for tickets to all these big opera company performance sin major Southern Cities like Dallas, Charlotte,  and Atlanta?

I suppose 'Metropolitan Opera' in no way, shape or form is meant to conjure images of New York jews and fags.

 I wish someone could explain to me why some of these people choose to identify with the Democratic Party.

 I mean, defending Scooter Libby???? I can't believe that even the most conservative Democrat could possibly justify what Libby did AND WAS CONVICTED IN A COURT OF LAW FOR, and the implications thereof. And yet, "liberal" individuals like James Carville and Joe Klein just can't wait to swoon over the gloriousness of a man partially responsible for the deaths of 3,500 American troops. The mind boggles.

 And I thought Ralph Nader was exaggerating about the rot that had corroded the Democratic Party over the years. Maybe it really is time to blow things up and start over...

I don't want him fired, I just want him to stop being an asshole.

Chris, I don't know why but for some reason your animosity toward Sanders seems much more personal then your animosity toward, say, Klein, Broder or Peretz. I'm all for exposing this guys bullshit but your reaction and subsequent references to it in multiple bb posts strike me as overly sensitive. This isn't the first time I've noticed this attitude in your posts about the guy so I've got to ask:

What did he do to you?

He's not a very good writer, certainly. It's difficult to even tell what he's talking about there.

I read Mudcat's original comment and I read his follow-up. I can't for the life of me understand why anyone was offended by either one, unless of course they feel they resembled those remarks.

His remarks were not anti-blogger. They were calling out a specific attitude of elitism that he perceives among SOME bloggers. There's a big difference.

They were also not bigoted in any way I can fathom. The anti-Mudcat post you linked to, where the poster interprets "Metropolitan Opera" as being a code word for jews and gays seems to reflect more on the person who interpreted it that way than on Mudcat, IMO. When I read "Metropolitan Opera," the only minority group that conjured up for me was rich people, because believe me, opera tickets aren't cheap. (That, and maybe people who pretend to like opera because they think it makes them seem smart.)

So, in other words, I guess my take on it is, unless you feel you are an intolerant pseudo-intellectual elitist, don't take it personally, because he wasn't talking about you.

I think it is quite fair to bring up the fact that there is a small elitist wing of the Democratic party that happen to blog and that they are intolerant to views that don't embrace their views wholly. I have certainly experienced them as I am sure have others.

I'm a natural constituency. I'm a small town small city guy who's spent his life championing greater opportunity to the working class and poor. Class issues always speak to me. But not to the neglect of the law, civil liberties, women's rights and not surrendered in obeisance to stuffed-shirt arrogant religionists.

I don't disdain all Southerners, nor all things Southern. Most of my birth family lives in Florida and I really enjoyed visits I've made to Kentucky.

Yet two things have stood out in my visits to and years spent living in the South:

1) I was distrusted as a Yankee because I was not born there, though my first 21 years, before my first move to there, I thought we were all Americans.

2) The outspoken racism was worse than I'd ever encountered before in the rest of the country. (I've seen it everywhere, but it intensifies south of DC; moreso in the rural areas).

But in politics, my disdain for a significant portion of Southern attitude has not solely been rooted in direct personal experience. It's rooted in the fact that anti-Northern voting patterns became prominently displayed after the Kennedys used federalism in Civil Rights disputes and subsequently LBJ led us to major Civil Rights legislation.

Racial hatred turned Southern Dems Republican and despite sunbelt migration and time's shifting of sentiment, those voting patterns have held.

Which makes me angry, not elitist. I don't think it's up to the North to prove it's tolerant of the South.  I think it behooves that small majority of Southerners to demonstrate they no longer are rooted in racial and regional hatred.

I also find it ironic that a campaign employee of John Edwards is stirring up a hornet's nest like this, as Edwards draws my approval far more than the campaigns of Carter and Clinton did: he walks his talk on my walk.

I could handle the elitist proclamation if I was insisting that Southerners give up those yucky boiled peanuts, those boring NASCAR races or their  preferences for hate-spouting viper televangelist shucksters, but I figure everyone's entitled to their tastes in matters that don't hurt others.

But there's a whole lot of Southerners, and even some westerners in certain states where the hatefulness predominates in spite of growing progressivism. That's my bitch: old, worn Southern hate culture. If we have to compromise with that to proclaim victory, experience says a Democratic DC will only be a tiny hair better than the crap we get from the GOP.

If that's elitism, fine, but I'll pass on the caviar. That shit tastes like salted fish eggs.

A final point: disagreement does not equal intolerance. On blogs, I disagree often with folks from everywhere. I don't ask their location, nor assume they're Southern, when they're not as perfect as me.

;-)~