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XXXX DRUDGE RETORT XXXX 20:09:05 EST APR 04 2004 XXXX
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ECHO << By Rogers Cadenhead In a move comparable to Bill Clinton's condemnation of Sister Souljah in 1992, John Kerry's presidential campaign has publicly repudiated the Daily Kos weblog over remarks publisher Markos Zuniga made about the contractors killed in Iraq.
"In light of the unacceptable statement about the death of Americans made by Daily Kos, we have removed the link to this blog from our website," Kerry's weblog announced late Saturday night.
Zuniga, a 32-year-old attorney and political consultant whose weblog receives in excess of 90,000 hits a day, wrote on his site April 1 that he was indifferent to the deaths of the four security contractors ambushed in Fallujah and mutilated by a mob.
"I feel nothing over the death of merceneries [sic]," he wrote. "They aren't in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them."
Shortly after Zuniga posted the remark in a discussion at another weblogger's site on Daily Kos, Michael Friedman orchestrated a campaign to persuade Zuniga's advertisers to drop their sponsorship of the site.
Several Democratic Congressional candidates quickly pulled their ads in response to Friedman's campaign: U.S. Reps. Martin Frost (D.-Tx.) and Joe Hoeffel (D.-Pa.) and House candidates Joe Donnelly in Indiana and Jane Mitakides in Ohio.
"As a former Army Reserves member, spouse of an Army General on active duty and an American, Martin finds these words extremely irresponsible and highly offensive," Frost Campaign Manager Jess Fassler e-mailed Friedman. "As soon as this posting was brought to our attention we immediately severed any tie to the website."
Zuniga, a military veteran who served in the U.S. Army from 1989 to 1992, expressed contrition the next day in a post on the front page of his site. He said his remarks were borne of anger fueled by murders he witnessed during his childhood in El Salvador.
"I actually grew up in a war zone," he wrote. "I witnessed communist guerillas execute students accused of being government collaborators. I was 8 years old, and I remember stepping over a dead body, warm blood flowing from a fresh wound. ...
"[N]ot only was I wrong to say I felt nothing over their deaths, I was lying. I felt way too much. Nobody deserves to die. But in the greater scheme of things, there are a lot of greater tragedies going on in Iraq (51 last month, plus countless civilians and Iraqi police)."
[Because the Daily Kos weblog is presently offline, the Drudge Retort offers a full transcript of his remarks.]
To no surprise, the controversy has been warmly received by right-wing writers in the "blogosphere," the raucous community of weblogs. InstaPundit author Glenn Reynolds wrote: "Kos -- who I used to think of as a reasonable if partisan lefty -- seems to be infested with a degree of hatred that I previously associated with the Democratic Underground and other fringe sites."
Support was hard to come by among left-wing bloggers as well. "I wish Kos would just step up to the plate and apologize," wrote Kevin Drum on his Washington Monthly weblog. "I really don't think it matters if they were private contractors ... Nor does it matter much that you don't like the war. Some of the wingnuts on the right gloated over the deaths of UN workers in last August's bombing, and that was wrong as well, regardless of what they thought of the UN."
In a political season marked by unprecedented donations from Internet users, Daily Kos has become one of the most popular venues for candidate ads, selling at rates from $700 to $2,000 a month, according to price quotes on Blogads, the broker representing the site.
Several months ago, Ben Chandler spent $2,000 advertising his House candidacy on Daily Kos, InstaPundit, and nine other weblogs. After his campaign manager said in subsequent interviews that the two-week ad buy prompted $80,000 in contributions (and Chandler won), Kos and other politically themed weblogs began selling out their ad space to candidates.
While campaigning for president in 1992, Bill Clinton blasted remarks made by African-American rapper Sister Souljah, who said in a newspaper interview, "If black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?"
"If you took the words 'white' and 'black' and you reversed them, you might think David Duke was giving that speech," Clinton responded, drawing criticism from Rev. Jesse Jackson and others. The exchange has become enshrined as jargon -- a politician's efforts to distance himself from an extremist in his own party is viewed as a "Sister Souljah moment."
After the rapid success of his boycott and his site's spiking popularity, Michael Friedman expressed a bit of newfound concern: "If I start selling blog ads next week will Kos's readers organize against me? ... I hope not."
[Disclosure: The Drudge Retort has bought ads from Blogads, the company that represents Daily Kos.]
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