The battle over the future of Terri Schiavo may have ended months ago, but apparently the battle over Michael Schiavo’s blogging future is just getting started.
On Friday, the erstwhile husband of the late Terri Schiavo posted a piece on Daily Kos — proving the old maxim that if you can’t escape the heat of the blogosphere, just throw another log on the fire.
Ostensibly, Schiavo was using the blog’o’forum to announce that he would be hosting a round-table discussion at the YearlyKos Convention. While he was at it, however, Schiavo also took the opportunity to throw a couple of punches at his former tormentors.
“Nearly half of Americans (49 percent) approved of George Bush’s job performance before he and other right-wing politicians tried to score political points from my deeply personal family tragedy,” writes Schiavo. “If you believe in polls, the president has never recovered.”
“Since then, these same right-wing leaders in our government have ordered eavesdropping on Americans, compiled the world’s largest collection of private information on Americans and released savage personal and political attacks on their opponents,” adds Schiavo. “Believe me; I know what those attacks are like — I have to be among the most investigated men in America. Their attacks on me, Ambassador Joe Wilson and others are equal parts fiction and intensity.”
So far, Schiavo has received a warm welcome from readers of the site. To date, his post has generated more than 250 comments, many of which offer words of blogging encouragement.
“Welcome and I applaud your strength against the horrific display of the right-wing smear machine,” notes one reader. “I can probably speak for many of us here (but won’t) when I say that my heart goes out to you with what you had to endure.”
Outside the cozy confines of Daily Kos, however, Schiavo’s arrival in the blogosphere stirred up a fresh round of anger.
“Even those that aren’t sure what to think of the Schiavo case all admit that Michael makes their skin crawl,” writes the Chatterbox Chronicles. “Does anyone besides extreme leftists care what this man has to say?”
Apparently plenty of conservative bloggers care — at least enough to pile on.
“John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Al Gore, who’s next?” writes Church and State. “If any other liberal needs a pick-me-up from a bunch of Yes-people, just blog at the Daily Kos. Pathetic.”
“Michael Schiavo is blogging at the uber-lefty political blog Daily Kos,” writes Bettnet. “We already know that this man has no shame. … Michael Schiavo is a parasitic human being. I’ll pray for him, but I won’t like him.”
“Michael Schiavo continues to lie, claiming that it was all Bush and Republicans who tried to save Terri’s life,” writes jwl79. “In reality, it was a group of Republicans and Democrats who are good people.”
Felix Gillette writes about the media for The New York Observer.