John Edwards fires Sistah Souljah

Miss Marcotte has left the building.

Not much to add to what's being said other than that I don't think this finishes off Edwards at all. He probably played this pig in a poke about as smart as he could once he realized what he'd bought. By retaining her he got a lot of headlines, and there was always the chance (he thought) that she would straighten up and fly right for a while.

I think the second chance was a good move from Edwards' standpoint. Many bloggers wondered aloud that if he couldn't handle Miss Marcotte, how could Edwards stand up to Ahmedinejad? I didn't think that was a good comparison, because Ahmedinejad isn't an employee. One hopes even Edwards would treat his own employees a little less ruthlessly than he does the fanatical, maniacal president of Iran. Especially to a liberal base, he needed to look like a caring, fair-minded boss, not some out-of-touch Republican plutocratic CEO Especially not that--since he's already taking flack over Plaintiff Manor.

Now Edwards was probably thinking that it would take more than a week before she flamed out again, though, especially after her anodyne apology seemed to suggest she was actually on message. But despite being publicly fired and unfired, she didn't take a hint and crossed the line again really fast. His decision to fire her won't help him with the hardest nutroots but may save him with some liberal donors. He can still say "I gave her another chance", and bite his lip and look regretful.

Does it hurt Edwards? Look, most of America still thinks "blogging" is some kind of euphemism for "barfing". It might slow down his fundraising, which is important, but that's about it. Meanwhile, if anything, Blue America hears about Edwards as someone willing to stand up to the Christian right, a trait which apparently a lot of people admire.

Michelle has a good roundup of reactions. And Ace has some very off-color but on-target observations about Marcotte's third-wave feminism: for those who do want to treat women as objects instead of people, it's the ideological equivalent of Brer Rabbit's Brier Patch.

Big tent, people. That's actually not at all out of line with what much of chastity advocateDawn Eden is saying, though she generally uses the term "monkey-f****ing the oppression out of the patriarchy" somewhat less liberally.