John Edwards repeatedly lied during his Presidential campaign about an extra-marital affair with a novice film-maker, the former Senator admitted to ABC News today.
In an interview for broadcast tonight on Nightline, Edwards told ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff he did have an affair with 42-year old Rielle Hunter, but said that he did not love her.
His argument that he isn’t the father sounds really shaky, as well as the payoff story. What an amazingly irresponsible, immoral and reckless thing to do — I mean, this is a guy who was running for president.
Bullet dodged.
It’s not about the sex. Or the lying. It’s about the, um, not loving.
May I suggest a moratorium on the following?
grumble grumble … typical democratics … grumble grumble …
-and-
grumble grumble … Repukess are cheaters too … grumble grumble …
How about, “keep your f’ing pants zipped!”?
I prefer, in deference to the conservative and liberal religious types, ‘judge not lest ye be judged,’ or ‘let he who is without sin cast the first stone.’ Good advice, really. And I’m not even religious.
I suppose there is no chance at all of people leaving this alone and private, where it belongs. This is the country that spent gazillions going after Bill Clinton’s sex habits.
OK, Parthenon, how about these topics, then?
1) “How the hell can you give this story any credibility? It’s from the National Enquirer!”
2) Will this FINALLY break the blackout the LA Times has been imposing on the story?
3) Looks like Edwards was following the Jesse Jackson model… cheat, get the mistress on the payroll, then knock her up.
4) Edwards didn’t quite follow the Newt Gingrich model. Gingrich at least had the honesty to divorce his cancer-stricken wife. Edwards just cheated on her.
5) Edwards is in huge trouble with mainstream Democrats. After all, when it’s not the cheating that’s the issue, it’s the HYPOCRISY. Edwards made his relationship with his wife and family values a mainstay of his appeal, and that’s just gone down the toilet.
Yes, I am going to be a bit immature and small-minded and cheerful over this one. I’m going to revel in John Edwards’ fall from grace for a little bit. I despised him from the instant I heard about him.
J.
Barack Obama: “I think it is safe to say we can scratch Edwards off the potential VP list.”
Well, that’s disappointing.
It never ceases to amaze me what men are willing to risk sacrificing (wives, careers, political office) just to get laid.
irresponsible, immoral and reckless thing to do Agreed. But Amazingly so? Come on, I think that’s ignoring a lot of biology, a lot of history, and a lot of what comes naturally to people with tons of access.
And even immoral and irresponsible, as folks said about Clinton, and I still think it’s true, it’s really a matter between Elizabeth and John. It may not have been as immoral or irresponsible as we think.
And I don’t know how ill Elizabeth has been, and I wish her the best, but actually, sadly, there’s a pretty good history of people, men and women, abandoning ill partners, or seeking sex outside the marriage.
When I was ten years old and saw a favored cousin do something similar, I was shocked and offended. But I’m no longer ten years old.
We can wish and expect that people live up to only the highest standards, but I figure down deep, we’re all just apes.
The Edwards have my utmost respect and my best wishes.
Ugg. An adulterer gets your “utmost” respect?
The real story here is not even the affair, but how the mainstream media didn’t even go near it and basically covered for Edwards knowing the story was true and that he was lying his ass off. Meanwhile, the NY Times had no problem writing a story that hinted of an affair between John McCain and a lobbyist without any evidence to support it.
If I stopped giving my utmost respect to adulterers, there wouldn’t be a whole lot of people left. Just because he is known doesn’t meant there aren’t millions of adulterers walking around who aren’t known.
I’d hate your suggestion that I have to start asking people I admire if they are adulterers are not.
I wouldn’t cheat on my wife, but I’ve found many people on the net think I’m a bizarre weirdo for my ideas.
For his efforts as a trial attorney, as senator, and as candidate for speaking about two americas, yeah, the guy gets my utmost respect. As part of that, I’ve realized I shouldn’t be so judgmental about others’ private activities that I don’t know shit about and that I have no ability to know shit about.
So yeah, since it’s between himself and his family, and since the other stuff I know about him is very deserving of my utmost respect, he gets mine.
Sorry if that bothers you, there are Churches and websites that cater to your point of view.
Well, at least he’s adamant that he didn’t love her!
“If I stopped giving my utmost respect to adulterers, there wouldn’t be a whole lot of people left.”
Hilarious, if that’s really what you meant to write.
“Gingrich at least had the honesty to divorce his cancer-stricken wife.”
Honesty? What does honesty have to do with it? Are you suggesting that Gingrich wasn’t cheating on his wife before he divorced her? Sheesh.
The problem in this country is that we want our political leaders to swear fealty to codes of behavior about love, sex and passion that simply exceed their ability. No, not all politicians or married men and women cheat but sometimes, as D.H. Lawrence pointed out long ago, our bodies have truer knowledge of its wants and need than our so-called rational selves.
If I stopped giving my utmost respect to adulterers, there wouldn’t be a whole lot of people left.
The power of cooch compels you!
I’m with Parth. I fully intend to have no opinion about this.
Wow.
Takes a special kind of degenerate to cheat on a cancer-stricken wife.
Is anyone surprised though? Look at how the man made his money. He has no conscience.
Yeah, mccann, that Gingrich fellow is a shitheel. That is what you were referring to, right?
Again, the score is 1-all, net zero.
Maybe we should just all be grateful no one’s said “Baby’s Daddy” yet.
I don’t understand why anyone cares about this. Why do we have a such a fascination with politicians sex lives? I have to agree with Jerry; for better or worse, this kind of thing happens every day.
Duros the dumbass….
Notice how I made no reference to political affiliation. Doesn’t matter who or what party they are from. What he did just shows that the man is selfish and has no conscience…..
…..or do you actually disagree with the idea that “it takes a special kind of degenerate to cheat on his cancer-stricken wife?”
The man made millions sueing doctors. So I’m not going to act surprised when I (gasp) find out he cheated on his wife, but when she is ill with cancer and needed him most?????? That’s just sick. Wrong. Edwards is a dirtbag. And so is anyone that did what he did. And yes, I’m judging him. Big freaking deal.
Do you really want to pick this fight with me?
“Better luck next time Dumbocrats HUH HUH HUH HUH HUH”
Aw come on Jay, you know you want to
OK, Parthenon, how about these topics, then?
Engarde sir!
1) “How the hell can you give this story any credibility? It’s from the National Enquirer!”
Yes, broken clocks ARE in fact right twice a day. Do you also grant credibility to their stories about the President and the First Lady abusing each other in fits of drunken rage? Does this mean you consider them a legitimate news outlet?
2) Will this FINALLY break the blackout the LA Times has been imposing on the story?
On their blog at least, yes. Does it bother you that they didn’t run some snipey gossip that has no bearing on the lives of any of their readers (unless, of course, the Edwards family subscribes)? Snipey gossip which one could hear about from any of a number of news outlets (Such as Hannity’s program, for instance, when it was still just an Enquirer piece)? Because it doesn’t bother me a bit.
By the way, just to prevent any accusations of partisan hackery, I agree with Yankees Jay that the McCain NY times piece was bullshit. Like, losing-jobs-quality bullshit.
3) Looks like Edwards was following the Jesse Jackson model… cheat, get the mistress on the payroll, then knock her up.
This comment is beneath you sir. Moving along.
4) Edwards didn’t quite follow the Newt Gingrich model. Gingrich at least had the honesty to divorce his cancer-stricken wife. Edwards just cheated on her.
Yes, yes, lascvious behavior is not partisan, despite that much of the family values wing of your party would like to pretend that it is.
5) Edwards is in huge trouble with mainstream Democrats. After all, when it’s not the cheating that’s the issue, it’s the HYPOCRISY. Edwards made his relationship with his wife and family values a mainstay of his appeal, and that’s just gone down the toilet.
Politically, the guy is compost. No argument from me.
Yes, I am going to be a bit immature and small-minded and cheerful over this one. I’m going to revel in John Edwards’ fall from grace for a little bit. I despised him from the instant I heard about him.
Revel in the personal problems of your political opponents if you wish. It seems to me the true conservative thing to do is wish him well and move on - individual responsibility and all that. He has committed no crime of which we’re aware, and the right thing for somebody’s life when they’ve done something that stupid, I’m guessing, is not to be the butt of right-wing jokes for the next 20 years.
Why can’t it just be a private matter? Why do you care? Go after him and mock him for bad policy ideas - that has a chance of affecting you. Don’t go after people for this. Why not just leave it alone?
To an extent, I suppose, he has invited bitter joy (I will not use that German word we all heard every 2.5 seconds when Spitzer got nailed… I will not!), as you said, by presenting himself as a straight-laced family man. That’s the real reason he’s finished. I don’t recall Bill Clinton harping about family values, which may be in part why he survived.
There are many who wre ready to critcize and condemn John Ewards for his latest predicament but I don’t. Naturally, sometimes the things that we did not intend to that we ended up doing. Maybe, he himself can’t explain how it happened because we are all subject to some kind of ‘weakness’ I’m dissappointed in His immoral behaviour, but I still regard him as a ‘good man’ not a ‘perfect man’ but a ‘good man’ Everybody has some form of addictions and many who are throwing stones at him are still living in glass houses. I am praying for him and his family that they may find the grace to go through this together. As for Rielle, may she overcome this hurdle and not be discouraged becaue many have been in the same vally but eventually clmbed to the top of the mountain…. No man is perfect, we were all cut from the same stock of cloth.I sincerely hope they will repent of this act and that Lord will forgive them.
I SLEPT WITH GEORGE BUSH ONE WEEKEND WHEN HE WAS DODGING A NATIONAL GUARD MEETING BUT HE WAS HIGH ON COCAINE AND DON’T REMEMBER IT. HA HA HA
I’ll just appropriate one of teh standard retorts Mr. Tea uses whenever GWB’s malfeasance comes up:
“In that case, I promise never to vote for him!”
Sad. Adultery is always a bad idea, but I’ve heard his wife is close to dying. She doesn’t deserve this. Nobody does.
No, not all politicians or married men and women cheat but sometimes, as D.H. Lawrence pointed out long ago, our bodies have truer knowledge of its wants and need than our so-called rational selves.
Great D.H. Lawrence reference. I definetly agree. I never hold politicians to these ridiculous standards, if anything I think they are more prone to this sort of activity.
And the whole “media cover up!” is tiresome. David Vitter- buried that story for awhile and didn’t get so much as a glance from your supposed liberal media.
Even John McCain left his cancer stricken wife, albeit he did not cheat on her.
Jesse Jackson! Newt Gingrich! etc…etc…
Jaygee,
I’m sure you don’t need me telling you this, but I’ll say it anyway. You’re a good person.
Parthenon, I said I have loathed Edwards from the first moment I heard of him, and I meant it. That ambulance-chasing scumbag of a trial lawyer (but I repeat myself) single-handedly gutted his home state’s obstetricians and gynecologists. He once, for a jury, pretended to “channel” the spirit of a deceased child. And the reason he did not run for re-election was that the voters of his home state made it abundantly clear they would NOT re-elect him.
Yes, Edwards is not, technically, running for anything at the moment. But that’s an incredibly low standard. Rush Limbaugh has never run for any office, but his detaining over perfectly-legal prescription drugs was released in every salacious detail (”hey, did you hear Rush needs Viagra?”). Ted whatshisname, that evangelist out in Utah or Colorado or something (I’m sure at least half the readership here can supply all the details), was a nobody on the national stage until his gay adventures came out. Jenna and Barbara Bush have NEVER run for anything, and made very few political appearances, but that didn’t stop their shenanigans while in college from making national news.
Edwards’ name was being bandied about as a possible vice-president as recently as the middle of June, and he’s also been mentioned as a possible cabinet member — I’ve heard him talked about as a possible Attorney General. (THAT thought should scare the crap out of anyone.) Further, I recall him suspending his campaign, but I don’t remember him officially ending it — making him, technically, still a candidate for president.
Edwards never made any announcement that he was withdrawing from public life, never said he was going back to being a private citizen. And he lied — repeatedly — to save his ass when he was running for president.
Now he says yeah, I was lying then, but I’m not now, so you can trust me. The affair was strictly during the times when Elizabeth’s cancer was in remission, and there’s no way I’m the father of the child.
Tell us another one, John. Volunteer for a DNA test.
Short of that, I say we wait until the girl is a little bit older. If her first steps are towards the nearest ambulance, that’ll be good enough for me.
J.
The “shenanigans” in the case of the Bush twins being breaking the law.
Whoops, forgot one thing. Yes, Parthenon and JayGee, forgiving John Edwards would be the Christian thing to do. Anyone who considers himself or herself a good Christian should find it in their heart to forgive him his sins.
Providing, of course, he has fully confessed his sins and shown true repentance. Which I don’t think he has.
Fortunately, I’m no Christian, so that doesn’t apply to me in the lesat. I don’t often revel in the misfortunes of others, but considering all the factors — this is nothing more than pure personal embarrassment, and I really despise the person involved — I’m making a big exception in this case.
Not for too long, though. The main consequence of this will be — I hope — the demise of his public life and his descent into well-deserved obscurity. Once he’s gone, it’ll be “out of sight, out of mind.”
Until then, I’m going to revel all I can.
J.
OMG, Oliver! College students engaging in underage drinking! That’s certainly worthy of news around the world!
Did you apply similar criteria to Al Gore III being arrested for DWI and drug possession?
Underage drinkers will, at the worst, puke on my shoes. When they get behind the wheel (and get a Prius up over 100 MPH — daddy must have been so proud that he used a hybrid!), they could easily kill me.
J.
Notice how I made no reference to political affiliation. Doesn’t matter who or what party they are from. What he did just shows that the man is selfish and has no conscience…..
Right. No reference is needed. I think we all know who you were referring to.
…..or do you actually disagree with the idea that “it takes a special kind of degenerate to cheat on his cancer-stricken wife?”
Not at all.
The man made millions sueing doctors. So I’m not going to act surprised when I (gasp) find out he cheated on his wife,
Not at all sure that has any relevance. Lemme check… nope, none at all.
but when she is ill with cancer and needed him most?????? That’s just sick. Wrong. Edwards is a dirtbag. And so is anyone that did what he did. And yes, I’m judging him. Big freaking deal.
So can I assume you judge Gingrich as harshly since he did exactly the same thing?
Do you really want to pick this fight with me?
Bite me.
I think there’s a simple message with this issue.
Anyone that cheats, particularly when their spouse is going through something like mrs. edwards was, is a real dirtbag degenerate, regardless of what party they’re from. I’d say the same of any conservative that engaged in the same behavior that john edwards did.
Let’s not forget, they’re all politicians that are on some level, cut from the same cloth - a cloth made of arrogance, self-absorption, and narcissism.
This is about right and wrong, not right and left.
Quit with the partisan bs everyone.
Whoops, forgot one thing. Yes, Parthenon and JayGee, forgiving John Edwards would be the Christian thing to do. Anyone who considers himself or herself a good Christian should find it in their heart to forgive him his sins.
Providing, of course, he has fully confessed his sins and shown true repentance. Which I don’t think he has.
That’s not true. You’re to forgive unconditionally, whether they’ve repented or not.
Well, Jay, then consider what I said as proof that I’m no Christian. I’ll cheerfully defer on the matters of what is considered “Christian” to those who actually profess to be Christians.
J.
Was it was really only in May when Mr. Willis was oogling wistfully at an Obama-Edwards ticket.
http://www.oliverwillis.com/2008/05/14/ticket/
How times flies.
Yes, underage drinking is bad, and a crime. Ditto for DWI. Are you saying Al Gore Jr.’s incident wasn’t covered? Because it was and it was newsworthy. But are you also suggesting that the daughter of the president is going to get the same level of coverage as the son of a former candidate? If so, what are you smoking and how strong is it?
Mr. Tea is having trouble.
His addiction (and possibly illegal acquisition of) powerful narcotics runs directly contrary to his perpetual moralizing and his vilification of “drug addicts.”
He was the leader of the National Association of Evangelicals and made his living denouncing the evils of TEH GAY.
Maybe that’s because their father, as governor of Texas, made a big production out of getting tough on underage drug and alcohol offenders.
Now if you can just show us where Mr. Edwards made a gazillion dollars or a political career out of hollering about marital infidelity, you might be on to something.
“You’re to forgive unconditionally, whether they’ve repented or not.”
Well that sucks. Chalk another one up for my ex.
Ah yes, the Family Values sense of right and wrong is to respond to SEX -all the while vilifying non-Christian religions, and cheerleading foreign policies that result in the deaths of thousands under the most barbarous circumstances- meh.
- That’s why dumbasses are still upset about Clinton’s antiquated knob job than anything Bush has done
Elizabeth knew back in 2006. McCain cheated on the woman who awaited his Viet Nam ordeal. Kwame Kilpatrick was sexing his chief of staff. The mayor of L.A. was creeping. Big deal. I’d be surprised if a male who was that driven didn’t stray from his wife- the initial impetus for grand achievement, whethre conscious or not, is attracting what one deems highly valued women.
This is about right and wrong, not right and left.
I think this is the only thing you have ever said on this blog that I can agree with.
For the record, John Edwards was always too shiny for me to support. Every time I heard him speak, all I heard him saying was “What can I do to get you in this car today?”
Come to find out I was right.
Did someone say something about Newt Gingrich taking the high road by abandoning his wife to her debilitating disease? The same Newt Gingrich that abandoned his first wife and children while adamantly refusing to pay alimony and child support making them charity cases? That’s your high standard? Schmuck.
“College students engaging in underage drinking! That’s certainly worthy of news around the world.”
Considering that those college students, at the time of this illegal behavior, were (and still are, of course) the children of the President of the United States, this is (to a certain extent) “worthy of news around the world.”
“Did you (Oliver) apply similiar criteria to Al Gore III being arrested for DUI and drug possession.”
Oliver didn’t need to apply the same criteria, because, as he has correctly noted, the two situations aren’t equivalent. One involves illegal behavior of children of the President of the U.S.A., the other involves illegal behavior of a child of a former Vice President, one who had been out of that office for six and a half years when said behavior occurred.
Regardless of what one thinks of what Edwards put his family through, I’m watching his “Nightline” appearance. I’m not excusing the nature of his affair, but I appreciate the fact that, unlike McGreevey, Spitzer and Vitter- he does not have his wife sitting painfully by his side as he makes his admission.
Jay:
Newt Gingrich and John McCain are on lines 1 & 2. Both of them dumped wives while hospitalized. I suppose you’ve decided to conveniently forget how McCain met his present wife. And if he cheated on his first wife with Cindy, it’s highly likely he’s cheated on Cindy as well.
I find we spend an unusual amount of words on this blog complaining about double standards.
My last word on this issue (probably) is that I don’t need to like or even respect presidents or candidates - they need to be capable administrators. They are not running for president of fidelity; they are running for the president of a government.
There are more ‘great’ presidents in the past that we would not have found likable (and, in many cases, morally respectable) than there are those that most of us would have liked.
This ’story’ is not worth the ink they used to print it.
Parthenon:
“…This ’story’ is not worth the ink they used to print it…”
Sex sells baby.
As much as I’m enjoying John Edwards entirely-self-inflicted misery, I’m enjoying even more the comeuppance certain folks and organizations are suffering. As noted above, as recently as May Oliver was touting Edwards as a good Veep candidate. The LA Times imposed a blackout on the story. And Daily Kos banned one of its authors for having the effrontery to bring it up.
As for those comparing Edwards’ actions with McCain’s, kindly note that the best source of info on McCain’s conduct regarding his first marriage is John McCain himself. He’s personally recounted his failings, at length, and expressed his regrets and admitted his misdeeds.
Also, to all those who say that the Edwards story should be a private matter, strictly within his family, note that the first Mrs. McCain maintains a friendship with both Senator and the present Mrs. McCain, has refused to speak out against her ex-husband, and has expressed support for his candidacy. If she doesn’t choose to make an issue about how the marriage dissolved almost 30 years ago, who the hell else has the right?
But back to the core issue here: Edwards cheated on his wife, lied about it repeatedly, paid his mistress with campaign funds, and then only confessed when his guilt was proven beyond a doubt. He fooled a lot of people, and it was only blind luck that he has twice been denied positions of great power.
Good riddance, scumbag. Go back to suing obstetricians and gynecologists out of business. At least that way you can’t fuck up more than a single state.
J.
One last quote:
Senator John Edwards, 1999, on the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
At least Clinton was using an unpaid intern as a human humidor. Edwards had his mistress on the payroll.
J.
he does not have his wife sitting painfully by his side as he makes his admission.
I’m glad to hear that. I hate that shit. Hopefully, she was at home, throwing his shit out on the lawn.
Right there with ya. Apparently, one of the requirements for “politician’s wife” is “doormat.” Clinton, Edwards, Vitter… the list goes on and on and on.
The only exceptions I can recall is Jim McGreevey’s wife and Arianna Huffington… but they kinda didn’t have much choice when their hubbies came out as gay.
J.
Jay - would you mind throwing up a credible link to some information on Edwards’ vampiric legal career? I’m as against marital infidelity as the next guy, and I’ve heard him derided as an ‘ambulance chaser’ probably hundreds of times, but all I can find on his lawyering is pretty laudatory, going after people that deserved it. I haven’t seen, as yet, a single malpractice suit he pursued that wasn’t legitimate.
Save a guy the research?
Now the Trad Med is patting themselves on the back for getting the story out? Douchebags..
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26099046/
Great. You know what wouldn’t be that hard to prove? High crimes and misdemeanors.
The “channeling,” as Jay Tea would frame it, happened during a trial against a Minneapolis Golf Club whose defective pool drain in their children’s pool effectively disemboweled a young girl. Edwards won a 25 million dollar judgment for the family, a record for the state (all easily Googled and verified).
Yeah, suing a negligent country club over the horrific death of a 6 year old, what a disgusting jerk!
Don’t bother waiting on that ambulance chaser evidence Parthenon, it doesn’t exist. Jay Tea and the rest of the winger set simply like to throw out that smear whenever they want to knock trial lawyers, which is a favorite hobby of corporate America in their never ending quest to erase “liability” from the English language.
The real winner here has to be the National Enquirer. Once again (like in the OJ Simpson case and the Lewinsky scandal) they beat the snot out of the mainstream media, and were proven right in the end.
And Parthenon, I was mistaken on one detail. The child whose voice he channeled was crippled with cerebral palsy, not dead. Guess I got him mixed up with John Edward.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/31/politics/campaign/31EDWA.html?ex=1390885200&en=4fb97ac07a96f186&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND
(Hope that link works…)
He literally made his millions suing hospitals and doctors over kids born with cerebral palsy, saying that it was because they didn’t perform caesarean sections. And studies since then have shown that in the vast majority of cases, there’s very little correlation between caesarean/vaginal birth and cerebral palsy. But that didn’t stop Edwards, who had his medical theory and used it to make himself a tidy fortune — and drove the malpractice insurance rates into the stratosphere for North Carolina obstetricians.
I am thrilled that they are, I hope, finally out of public life.
As far as her health goes, I feel great sympathy for her. As I do for Ted Kennedy and Robert Novak, just to name two other politically prominent people suffering grave health issues. And I intend to be at least marginally classier than a lot of folks were on the passings of Tony Snow and Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond.
J.
Bill L, wrong case. I’ve got a link to the NY Times story that talks about the “channeling,” but it’s held up in moderation.
From the opening of the NYT story:
NOT the pool drain case, for the record, but one of the numerous cerebral palsy cases where Edwards put forth his theory (since statistically discredited) that CP was often caused by doctors choosing to avoid C-sections and insisting on women giving birth vaginally. His little hobby there netted him millions, and sent malpractice insurance rates for obstetricians through the roof in North Carolina.
Nice smokescreen there, Bill. Pity it ain’t true. But it was a darned good effort.
J.
In the Edward’s interview with Bob Woodruff, Bob has him about holding a baby for a picture. Edwards answered (paraphrasing) “I was not holding that baby for a picture”. That could mean, in a lawyer’s mind, that he was holding a baby, he just wasn’t holding it for a picture. Edwards is still lying through he teeth.
At least Clinton was using an unpaid intern as a human humidor.
Once again, Mr. Tea bungles even the most basic facts. Ms. Lewinsky was not a White House intern at the time of her intimacies with Mr. Clinton. She was a Pentagon employee.
I was all set to apologize, Quaker, and thank you for correcting me, but then I realized I can’t take your word on things. So I double-checked.
Lewinsky left her internship in November 1994, began her liaisons with Clinton in November 1995, and was transferred from the White House to the Pentagon in April 1996.
So yes, Quaker, I was wrong and I apologize. Clinton did, indeed, pork someone on his payroll, just like John Edwards. I hereby withdraw my saying “at least Clinton wasn’t that bad” and make it “at least Clinton didn’t start porking her until after she was an employee, unlike Edwards who apparently put his mistress on the payroll.”
That’s such an improvement. Thanks, Quaker.
J.
So yes, Quaker, I was wrong and I apologize.
A keyboard macro would save time.
But that would lack the human touch, Quaker. It’s kind of like how Oliver doesn’t have a “John McCain is old” macro, or a “Karl Rove” macro.
But thanks again. You helped me recover from a terrible mistake — saying that Bill Clinton wasn’t as big a scumbag as he was. That was truly mortifying.
J.
Was it really worth it? Was SHE really worth it? She doesn’t seem like much in either the looks or the personality department. I could understand that he’d be tempted if she were a young, viviacious, beautiful woman. She looks Camilla Parker Bowles. Yuck.
Forgot all about this thread.
1.)Edwards made a stupid mistake, but he was holding any high office and he isn’t the nominee, so I don’t get where the comparisons to Clinton come from.
2.)The claims about Edwards ambulance chasing apparently are rooted in his career in the 80’s involving multiple cases of cerebral palsy. There was never any “channeling.” To convey to the jury in one case how one doctor purportedly failed to heed the warnings from a fetal heart monitor, Edwards spoke as though he were the fetus (i.e. “30 beats, everything’s okay, 60 beats, starting to feel unwell, 80 beats, I need help”). That’s not channeling. You can call it manipulative, but it is a tactic as old as the hills. You can argue that there is conflicting evidence on the issue of birth complications, fetal heart monitors, and doctor liability for cerebral palsy, if you like (though you need to be aware that the issue was less clear in 20 years ago). None of that constitutes proof that Edwards was and ambulance chaser.
Everything else aside, though, this kills Edwards as a figure in Democratic politics. No way they are going to let him speak at the Convention.
Bill, I note you don’t discuss the crux of my grievance with Edwards — that the medical theory he won millions of dollars over has been proven to be bunk. And the harm he did in winning those suits lasts to this day.
I call him “ambulance-chaser” because, to most people, that’s a good slang term for “disgustingly corrupt and vile personal-injury lawyer.” That’s what Edwards was, and it is what he is, at his core.
I’m not proud of admitting this, but when Elizabeth Edwards was first diagnosed with cancer, my first thought was “what doctor would dare treat her, considering who her husband is and what he’s done to other doctors? That family has ‘lawsuit’ written all over them!” And I know I was not alone with that thought.
J.
And I know I was not alone with that thought.
Hate to point this out, but those people were just humoring you.
Funny, I don’t see you whining about ambulance chaser Jack Thompson. I wonder why that is? Hmm…
Probably, Zython, because I have no idea who Jack Thompson is. But John Edwards… everyone knows who he is.
Just Googled him up, found him on Wikipedia… if you’re talking about the Florida Christian, then all I can say is “good god, what an asshole” and wonder if he’s ever thought about hooking up with the Phelps assholes.
Preferably, on a sinking boat.
In shark-infested waters.
He doesn’t strike me as an “ambulance chaser,” though. More of a crusading Religious Reich zealot who believes in using the courts to push his psycho agenda. I see they’re trying to disbar him, and good for them.
But back to Edwards… a scummy personal-injury lawyer who finally got his comeuppance. Good riddance; couldn’t have happened to a scummier guy.
J.