Amanda and Melissa find themselves today with their jobs on the line because some conservatives were offended by a handful of their blog posts, written long before they had any association with any campaign. In the meantime, on the other side of the aisle, there is literally nothing a right-right hate-monger can say to reach pariah status in American society.
Ann Coulter can condemn 9/11 widows, but she’s still in the conservative mainstream. Bill O’Reilly suggested that it’d be fine with him if al Qaeda attacked a major American city, but he suffered no consequences. In 2001, just 48 hours after 9/11, Jerry Falwell said liberal Americans were to blame for the attacks and said the nation “deserved†the terrorism, but Republicans are still reaching out to him for political support.
I don’t know what the Edwards campaign is going to end up doing, but the fact that this is even open to debate suggests the double standard that exists isn’t going anywhere for a while.
Related post of mine from last summer, here. (No, I never did get a response.) And a cartoon on the same general theme, here.