Yesterday, my buddy Cassy Fiano wrote a piece called Poor Little Female Bloggers that was linked on Hot Air. The piece mentioned, in passing, my friend Emily Zanotti, from the American Princess which prompted Debbie Schlussel to write the following in the comments section at Hot Air,

Emily Zanotti does not deserve to be on that list, Ed. She defended a Muslim Holocaust-denial death, rape, and torture threat against me, my parents, and grandparents on her site. She was just forced to resign from her job at the Thomas More Law Center over it, after just six months on the job. She also wrote deliberately false, defamatory information about me, which she admitted she made up and had to apologize for because she'd have lost a defamation suit.

I wouldn't say she's "ghetto-ized." Just completely unstable. Sorry you guys are linking to her site, on which the defense of the Muslim death threat remains.

This isn't the first time Debbie has thrown a tantrum in the comments section of another website over Emily Zanotti. This is what Debbie posted on Michelle Malkin's blog after Em was featured in my Blogging while female, part II article,

"Sadly, not all of these women are "intrepid". One of them, Emily Zanotti, admitted that she deliberately made up false, defamatory information about me. She only apologized when she knew I would certainly win a lawsuit against her. Then, she posted support for a Muslim Holocaust-denial death threat against me and my family. Sad, Michelle, that you would help John Hawkins promote this disgusting, vile type of "blogging." Nothing intrepid about it. It's simply deranged. Michelle, you have been upset when others posted false info about–and even photoshopped photos–of you. Why would you promote it when a "conservative" blogger does it?"

Notice that I was dragged into that. Moreover, Debbie has posted the same sort of unhinged rants in the comments section on Right Wing News, too. On RWN, she posted her little screed 5 times in a row, I suppose to make sure people saw it -- and they did, and alternately made fun of/ignored her. I deleted the posts and banned Debbie. Debbie came back and posted again. I deleted and banned her again. She even came back a third time and I had to ban and delete her yet again.

Yes, believe it or not, I've had to ban a woman who has been published in the New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, & The Washington Times for making an *ss of herself on Right Wing News.

Moreover, let me tell you a related tale about Debbie. I'm not going to bore you with all the details, but long story short,

* After I did the Blogging While Female: 5 Conservative Women Bloggers Talk About Gender Issues And The Blogosphere article, I sent out a promo to a large list of bloggers, including Debbie. Debbie, whom I really didn't know very well, responded back with an indignant email complaining that she hadn't been interviewed for the piece and also carping because I had been linking Emily Zanotti on Conservative Grapevine.

* Despite the off-the-wall nature of Debbie's complaints, I tried to be conciliatory about the whole thing, got Debbie's digits, and called her to work it out. In that conversation, bizarrely, she claimed Emily was "obsessed" with her even though she admitted Em hadn't written about her in over a year and a half. Additionally -- and this really made me scratch my head given the circumstances -- she turned down an offer to be profiled in Blogging While Female 2.

* After Blogging While Female 2 (which featured Emily Zanotti as one of the female bloggers that were profiled) went live, Debbie, believe it or not, sent me an email complaining that Emily had been profiled while she hadn't. When I pointed out to Debbie that I had offered to profile her for the piece, she claimed that wasn't true, and that she had wanted to be profiled.

If that story sounds odd to you from beginning to end, well, it ain't just you, buddy.

Let me also note that after Debbie complained to me originally about Emily, I got Emily's side of the story and did some research on my own. What I found was that while there is a grain of truth to what Debbie is saying, her story doesn't hold up under scrutiny. Emily didn't defend any threats against Debbie; she just mocked Debbie and the lunatic Debbie was fighting with simultaneously, which apparently was something Debbie's titanic sized ego couldn't handle. Yes, Emily was given incorrect info about Debbie and posted it in the comments section of another blog, but she also retracted it, apologized, and had it deleted -- and keep in mind that we're almost 2 years out from when this happened. Additionally, Debbie didn't get Emily fired and Emily wasn't forced to leave her job, although Debbie was obsessed enough to call Emily's job multiple times and complain about her.

Now, after all of that, I could understand if Debbie didn't like Emily, but she seems to be under the impression that Emily shouldn't be able to hold a job or ever be linked by another conservative blog just because she offended the great and mightly Debbie Schlussel, which is warped beyond all reason.

Now, I'd rather have just stayed out of this whole thing, but since Debbie has been publicly smearing a friend of mine in response to an article I wrote, making a pain of herself in the comments section of my blog, and has dragged my name into it, I think I have a duty to publicly point out that Debbie is acting like an insanely vindictive, obsessive bully with delusions of grandeur.

Also see,

Um, Yeah at The American Princess.