There's more, including the laughably absurd contention that it is the un-American atheism of Daily Kos that is behind its rejection of the 'openly devout' Hillary Rodham Clinton, but the above represents the crux of the argument.

This seething, twitching mass of bile is certainly in need of analysis, not least because we really shouldn't be doing the work Ann Coulter excels at for her. But let's cut right to the chase.

First of all, I don't support Hillary Clinton for the Presidency. Period. I think she's an abysmal, hair-raisingly catastrophic choice from an electoral perspective – which is why it actually amuses me that someone in her camp makes electability arguments – and from a policy perspective. I don't give a flying fuck what the woman believes privately. I say this having voted for her a total of three times. But that's not the issue, because politics is about more than just electing another President. It's also about winning races up and down the ticket – Congress, say, that branch of government that withered out of our control back when a Clinton was in office, because of the political stupidity (married to self-centeredness) of that Clinton and his wife. Mind you, we never got that back until, guess what, Daily Kos came along, and a host of other blogs that helped us to victory, raising millions and helping to counter the right-wing smear machine. Show me one thing that Francis Holland, fucking around on the beach in Brazil, has contributed to that – just one thing, not the many, many things that Markos Moulitsas Zuniga has himself done, enabled, made happen. However, that - Progressive activism - is kind of what it's all about.

Which is just one reason why this fascist screed – Francis Holland wants Markos out of the picture, calling him a 'radical atheist activist' – is so profoundly disturbing to me. I'm all for diversity of opinion in the blogosphere. But that embrace specifically does not include arguments that run along the lines of 'we must silence the non-Christians', and that most especially if they are made as part of a cynical, depraved personal vendetta against someone Holland has likely never even met. These screeds remind me of only one thing: republican campaign literature, 2004 election, claiming that Democrats would outlaw the bible. I have to say, in my entire time of reading blogs, this is the first time, that I've seen a so-called Progressive make the Dominionist argument, and I find it literally sickening. That it's being made to discredit someone who doesn't prefer one's choice in a primary puts this so far beyond the pale, so beyond anything that is good and just and right, that anyone with a shred of decency should recoil in horror. But that description obviously doesn't include us Francis, far-off in Brazil, where the weather is warm, the booze cheap and the hookers love Yanqui dollars (and hate colonial-man-cock, but hey).

The worst part is, of course, that the practical implications of Schmuck Holland's analysis are not what he says they are. Kos has never had a religious litmus test, and supported candidates of every flavor (and fervor) of religious belief; Eric Massa, Kristen Gillibrand, Jim Webb, Brian Keeler, Brian Schweitzer, Jon Tester, Jerry McNerny, and God alone knows whom else. Not to mention that there is a dedicated religious Kos offshott - Street Prophets. The simple fact is that Daily Kos is a blog dedicated to electing Democrats – that's the agenda. No more, no less; and I suspect that if, if, the Kos community were more amendable to Senator Unelectable PanderBot, Francis would have not a bad word to say about it.

But as it is, he's trying to get Hillary elected, and so must smear, with whatever comes to hand, those who stand in the way. Which is, by the by, an entirely Clintonesque approach. There will be more where this comes from, because Francis Holland's pathology has not run its course yet. Me, I'm just hoping that he doesn't discover that Daily Kos contains Jews and Gays; there's ample material to feed those screeds, and Francis won't shrink from using it if he finds it useful. In fact, here's a prediction: one of the Presidential contenders will be discovered to have Jewish ancestry; it happens in every cycle. Francis will be sorely tempted to scream from the virtual rafters that Christian Americans won't vote for him. Cuz ya know, there's people who don't like the Jews. And Hillary's safely Methodist.