NO GUTS, DEFINITELY NO GLORY. Margaret Cho joins Whoopi Goldberg and Linda Ronstadt on the list of liberal performers who are paying the price for their beliefs. Unlike Goldberg and Ronstadt, though, Cho is being censored in advance. According to this press release, Cho has been dropped from a Unity ’04 event, scheduled for Avalon in Boston on Monday night, out of fear that her provocative material might harm John Kerry.

Cho's manager, Karen Taussig, tells 365Gay.com:

I am not surprised at the reversal in light of how the Kerry campaign has distanced itself from Whoopi's routine in response to the unrelenting media hype and Republican criticism. It's Whoopi's job as a comedian to say things that are sometimes shocking. I wish they could have backed her up. Dennis Miller can make gay jokes about Senators Kerry and Edwards at a recent Bush rally in Wisconsin to a complete absence of media scrutiny. No one demanded a tape of that event or alleged that his comments as a comedian might reflect poorly on Bush.

According to this AP report, a new bit by Cho on the Iraqi prison scandal is so over-the-top that she had to be escorted from the stage. And the problem is what, exactly?

Perhaps the Kerry campaign didn't have anything to do with this. Perhaps the Human Rights Campaign and the other gay-rights groups organizing this event did it on their own, not wanting to embarrass the nominee.

If that's the case, there's a simple solution. Kerry should personally re-invite Cho back onto the program. After all, if this is how the Democrats and their allies are going to behave, what, precisely, is the point of having Democrats?