Second blogger quits John Edwards campaign
February 13, 2007 
Blogger Melissa McEwan quit her job writing for the John Edwards campaign after being criticized by Bill Donohue and the Catholic League over past postings they considered 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. […]
Donohue had promised a nationwide public relations campaign in newspapers, magazines and Catholic publications in an effort to rid the Edwards campaign of the two bloggers. The Catholic League counts 350,000 members.
Here’s how McEwan explained her decision on her blog:
I regret to say that I have also resigned from the Edwards campaign. In spite of what was widely reported, I was not hired as a blogger, but a part-time technical advisor, which is the role I am vacating.
I would like to make very clear that the campaign did not push me out, nor was my resignation the back-end of some arrangement made last week. 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, and making me increasingly uncomfortable with my and my family’s level of exposure. […]
There will be some who clamor to claim victory for my resignation, but I caution them that in doing so, they are tacitly accepting responsibility for those who have deluged my blog and my inbox with vitriol and veiled threats. It is not right-wing bloggers, nor people like Bill Donohue or Bill O’Reilly, who prompted nor deserve credit for my resignation, no matter how much they want it, but individuals who used public criticisms of me as an excuse to unleash frightening ugliness, the likes of which anyone with a modicum of respect for responsible discourse would denounce without hesitation.
This is a win for no one.
This was a big blow for the whole blogging community. Hopefully the Edwards’ campaign can get past this and get back on track…
UPDATE: Its important to point out that McEwan was actually hired as a technical advisor, seemingly to offer advice on blogging for the campaign, as opposed to her being hired to blog.
