Jeff Goldstein - Edwards supporter or Stalker?

I'm working today so I just discovered that this guy Dan at Protein Wisdom is mocking my post where I briefly referenced Jeff Goldstein's strange fixation with Amanda Marcotte. I usually stay out of the blog spats that occur with some frequency in Blogtopia, especially any little imbroglio that has Jeff Goldstein at the center of it. But occassionally over the last couple of years, when one gets really heated, I'll follow a link from somewhere and read through a thread to see what they're fighting about and more often than not, it has been about Jeff taking potshots at either Amanda or one of the other high profile young bloggers that run in her crowd.

Apparently I hit a nerve with my offhand remark because Jeff is now "not" defending himself against my "silly suggestion" that he's obsessed with Ms. Marcotte.

For the time being, I’m going to leave aside the silly suggestions coming out of the “tolerant” side of the blogosphere that I am somehow obsessed with Amanda Marcotte, or that I “stalk” her; such comments are ludicrous on their face and I don’t think I need to dignify them with any kind of defense.

This from a guy who I clearly remember used up a whole lot of bandwidth speculating about what kind of laundry basket Amanda uses. So let's just review for a moment, the definition of obssession and stalking.

Obsession: n 2: an unhealthy and compulsive preoccupation with something or someone [syn: fixation]

stalk: v 2: recur constantly and spontaneously to [syn: haunt]
3: go through (an area) in search of prey; "stalk the woods for deer"

So if he's not obsessed with Amanda and indeed stalking her, why is he following her around Blogtopia nearly constantly and baiting her with barbed comments? What possible reason could he have to jump into the thread on Amanda's first post as Blogmaster of the John Edwards website, where she simply posted an introduction to herself and explained why she took the position and quote her at length about unrelated matters in a clear attempt to make her look bad?

Goldstein seems to think this explains it.

And whether you think me a “stalker” or a purveyor of vicious ad hominems, it remains the case that I believe that Ms Marcotte’s views on the Duke rape cass and Iran—as well as her history of vicious attacks on people of faith (for the record, I’m agnostic)—will be a hinderance to the Edwards campaign should they become widely known, and bespeak a lack of judgment on the part of the Edwards campaign.

And why does Jeff feels compelled to warn the Edwards campaign about this? Because he's so concerned about the success of Edwards candidacy? Hardly. He's a rabid Bush supporter and wouldn't vote for a Democrat if his life depended on it. And when is the last time you heard about any candidate's internet advisors influencing public opinion about the candidate? Do you find Jeff at Hillary's website, dishing out unflattering comments about Peter Daou's blogospheric musings? I would guess not. So why the sudden overweening concern over Edwards well-being?

If it was the first time I ever discovered him haunting a comment thread and making disparaging remarks about Amanda, I would have chalked it up to simple jealousy. After all, I don't notice any candidate offering him a high profile position on their team. But time and time again, wherever Amanda is, I find Goldstein ejaculating his snark in the threads.

I don't really care to waste any more time or bandwidth on this, but Goldstein's conduct certainly fits the definition of obsessive stalking, and I still think it's really creepy.