UPDATE: First, since Atrios has interpreted this as a comment on Washington journalism, let me clarify that when I said politics I meant politics, not political journalism. My first lesson about just how nasty a place D.C. can be was when the controversy around Bill Lann Lee unfolded right after I arrived in Washington. Shortly thereafter, we got the Monica Lewinsky scandal -- and we all know what a fair and balanced assessment of the issues facing the nation that was. A more recent -- and relevant -- example was when the Kerry-Edwards '04 campaign pushed aside the DNC's religious outreach coordinator in response to pressure from -- wait for it -- Bill Donohue's Catholic League. The National Catholic Reporter's 2004 assessment of that situation:
The Kerry campaign has a gang-that-can�t-shoot-straight quality when it comes to outreach to the religious community, the net result of which is that they hurt their friends and give credibility to their critics.The August 4 resignation of Rev. Brenda Bartella Peterson from her post as Director of Religious Outreach at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the most recent example. Soon after her appointment, the New York-based Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights revealed that Peterson had joined 31 other religious leaders in filing a friend of the court brief in support of removing �under God� from the Pledge of Allegiance. (Kerry, by the way, supports keeping �under God� in the Pledge.)Officially Peterson jumped, telling Religious News Service that it was �no longer possible for me to do my job effectively.� But it sure sounds like she was pushed.Previously, the Kerry campaign silenced religious outreach coordinator Mara Vanderslice after the Catholic League issued press releases which labeled her soft on anti-Catholicism because she had engaged in civil disobedience with, among others, the AIDS activist organization, Act-UP. Perhaps the DNC and the Kerry campaign should have never hired Peterson or Vanderslice. And, God knows, there�s truth to the idea that Kerry doesn�t need more distractions related to religion. But to give the press-release-machine of the Catholic League veto power over Democratic campaign staff strikes some as, at best, an overreaction; to others, it represents a fundamental misunderstanding about the Catholic community and its influential players.No one who signs up for a presidential campaign should be surprised if they get turned into an issue, and no one hiring people for such a campaign should be surprised if staffers get attacked. That's how things roll. Also: No one should be surprised that Donohue is again creating a controversy about a Democratic staffer, since it worked out so well for him just two and a half years ago. The issue is whether Democrats can figure out how to fight off such attacks.
UPDATE II: A quick Nexis scan on past controversies involving the Catholic League, from its opposition to Clinton's first U.S. Surgeon General, Joycelyn Elders, who ultimately resigned, to its concern about George Bush's speech at Bob Jones University, which John McCain helped turn into an issue, shows that the norm for politicians confronted by them is to eventually apologize, make conciliatory moves, or force controversial staffers/appointees aside. The League has been adept at making controversies fester in the absence of such efforts, and so politicians make them. Sad, but true.
--Garance Franke-Ruta
