Cardin Staffer Fired for Blogging While Stupid

Hopefully this doesn't set the tone for the fall campaign:

Rep. Benjamin Cardin has fired a campaign staffer who wrote racially charged comments on an Internet blog against his opponent, Republican Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, who is black, Cardin's campaign confirmed Saturday.

[snip]

In a statement, Cardin also condemned "anti-Semitic" comments written by the female staffer on her own Internet blog.

The blog in question, Road Diaries of the Persuasionatrix (which appears to have been deleted even as I'm writing this post) is a pretty amateur effort. And the two offending posts do indeed qualify as racist and anti-Semitic, respectively, though I think it's the bigotry of ignorance, not malice. Russ Louch is right: A blog is as public as anything you can find at a newsstand; act appropriately. Blogger is even kind enough to offer advice on how not to be fired for blogging; did the erstwhile Persuasionatrix read it?

More consequential, however, is the response from the Steele campaign, which predictably wasted no time in playing the concern troll:

"It is deeply disturbing to learn that a staff member of ten-term Congressman Ben Cardin would keep a blog chronicling racial prejudices toward Lt. Gov. Steele and others," [Melissa] Sellers [Steele spokeswoman] said. "This is the kind of attitude and gutter politics that Marylanders are sick of and why they are ready for change."

[snip]

Steele, who attended a fundraiser near Centreville for Rep. Wayne Gilchrest on Saturday, called the comments "very shocking."

"That it exists in a national campaign is very disappointing," Steele told The (Easton) Star Democrat.

I find this reaction to be a little rich, given Steele's history of manufacturing outrage in order to draw attention to his campaign and paint Democrats as "racist". It's especially galling, as always, to hear denunciations of "gutter politics" from Republicans. Which party, after all, plans to spend unprecendented amounts of money this fall on personal attacks of their opponents? But I guess for Steele, faking outrage about race beats having actually having a serious debate about the issues.

Tags: md-sen ben cardin michael steele democrats republicans race blogging