Imagine if he'd gotten the nomination. What a selfish bastard — to run for the nomination while parading his cancerous wife about and knowing that if he won this story could have come out at any time — maybe in October — screwing up his party's chances!
Go away now.
ADDED: Stephen Spruiell on why JE would admit the affair and deny fathering the child:
Elizabeth Edwards was diagnosed with incurable cancer in late March of 2007. Rielle Hunter's baby was born in late February of 2008. That means that if Edwards is the father, he was definitely still carrying on the affair with Hunter after he knew his wife's cancer was back.Yeah, but why come clean and still be dirty? Doesn't that just make you more of a sleazeball? Or is the idea that we're all supposed to understand that Elizabeth must be allowed some peace and shut up about the baby? I get it, but go away.
AND: Let's say there's a paternity test on that baby and it turns out John Edwards is the father. Can John stick by his story that he broke off the affair before Elizabeth's cancer diagnosis? Of course, he can! John Edwards knows how to use his lawyerly skill to sell a story. Remember that lawprof who testified that his cleaning lady might have impregnated herself after stealing semen that he kept in his office refrigerator? Well, Rielle Hunter had better access to John Edwards's semen than that.
She could easily easily have captured and preserved some of it in case she needed it later. She might have thought about how Monica Lewinsky kept that semen-stained dress all that time. (Wasn't that weird?!) You never know when you might need to protect yourself with some semen evidence to prove one thing or another. Then, maybe for revenge or to assuage her sadness over the end of the affair, she got the little jar out of the fridge and impregnated herself. And that was some quality genetic material — good for the production of an adorable, lovable, intelligent, glossy-haired child. Hunter, a woman with a loudly ticking biological clock, must have looked longingly at the splooge many a time....
John can tell that story in a way that will have us in the palm of his hand.
UPDATE: Edwards's statement. Most interesting sentence:
When a supermarket tabloid told a version of the story, I used the fact that the story contained many falsities to deny it. But being 99% honest is no longer enough.
AND: With more than 200 comments here, I recommend commenting on the new Edwards post.
Posts
212 comments:
1 – 200 of 212 Newer› Newest»Two Americas, indeed. Faithfullness is for that other America.
If you believe that he ended the affair and told his wife in 2006, but was innocently sneaking out of her Hotel room at 2:45 AM, I've got a bridge I want to sell you.
He's a complete jerk.
At least McCain cheated on his disabled wife years ago. Not that anyone cares.
hillary to johnny: karma is a bitch
Many of the physicians who were the victims of his junk science malpractice suits will have an extra drink this evening and smile a lot.
Imagine if he had won the nomination and this had broken about a week before Denver.
And if his "supporters" have been keeping her under assumed names in fancy houses around NC, where did the money come from and who did or did not pay taxes on it.
Am I the only one to be grossed out at the idea of he and his aide sharing the same woman?
At least McCain cheated on his disabled wife years ago. Not that anyone cares.
That is horrible. At least Obama only took $300k from Rezko for his house. It could have been a lot more!
What, did I hear the Democratic elected mayor of detroit is in Jail? You never hear about these things from the liberal press.
The best thing about the Edwards story is that the Enquirer scooped the NY Times. The NY Times is willing to run a fake story about John McCain having an affair but refuses to run a real story about Edwards having a love child. The liberal press... you gotta love them.
So... how many other true stories about democrats has the NY Times refused to run.... hundreds I assume.
Christy: no, you're not. I find it repellent, if it's believable at all and not just a cover for the fatherhood issue. Either way, it's sleazy. He's sleazy.
He never would have been President. Because of the curse of the Bambino.
Okay, Sloan. All that makes it just fine that McCain cheated on his disabled wife and still gets to be Mr. Man of Honor.
I'm glad I have you to explain GOP thinking to me. Between you and downtownlad, I can almost decipher the most lunatic of both fringes.
Maury! Maury! Maury!
The Edwards campaign paid Hunter over $114,000 for services during that time. What about the reported large sums separately paid to her by big Edwards campaign donors? John Edwards denies knowledge of these payments, but John Edwards denied the relationship as well.
Subjects like this are distasteful but so is the idea of a sitting President paying out large amounts of hush money, or subjecting himself (herself) to blackmail.
What does Ms. Marcotte say?
Oh man, Edwards is a pretty-boy pansy and a selfish womanizer? Is this that cognitive dissonance stuff they talk about?
Either way, it's sleazy. He's sleazy.
Well he is a lawyer.....
What? Oh look at the time!!
I hope they still have jobs in his daddy's old textile mill. He'll need one after his wife and paramour both have their lawyers sink claws into him.
Well, at least she addresses it, noting that she was wrong, and that -- by the way -- McCain cheated on his poor disabled wife. (Poor in the not rich sense).
Christy, the aide story is obviously baloney. Andrew Young (the aide) is African-American. If you've seen the picture of the baby, she looks very Caucasian-American. Like her mother. And John Edwards.
I'll be glad if we never have to deal with Edwards again, and despite my developed and developing dislike of Obama, I am glad this came out now rather than after him being his VP choice or AG nominee or something similar.
However, I can't dismiss it with a "who cares" at this point. At the very least, he had his lover given over $115,000 by his campaign to produce nothing, all while he was running for the Presidency. And the media covered it up as best they could. That is very disturbing to me.
I want the media to uncover the lying, corrupt scumbags on both sides of the aisle. So I care. The story now is one of corruption and of a complicit media.
I always thought Edwards was gay?
Maybe this Hunter chick is just a beard-in-training for when Elizabeth dies?
He's hot...I'd hit it.
Am I the only one to be grossed out at the idea of he and his aide sharing the same woman?
Based on everything I've read, I seriously doubt the aide ever touched Rielle Hunter.
If I were an enterprising MSM reporter, I might ask the aide if he is *still* the baby's father, now that Edwards campaign is over.
"I always thought Edwards was gay?
Maybe this Hunter chick is just a beard-in-training for when Elizabeth dies?
He's hot...I'd hit it."
No he is NOT!
No you would NOT!
Eww! Eww! Eww!
Evan Bayh on the other hand...
A friend who has been there more than once believes stress plays an important role in cancer recurrence.
This has got to distract Edwards from his effort to end poverty in the US.
Either way, it's sleazy. He's sleazy.
That's the reason cited by the MSM for the silence on the story, after all, it certainly isn't news that a trial lawyer is sleazy.
Beth: I'd use stronger language, perhps going back to my SGT days.
He's an F'ing a__hole!!
As for McCain, yes, he came back from 5 years in solitary to a wife that he didn't know well, who had been severely injured while he was gone. He cheated on her and behaved like an adolescent for a time (or as some would say, a typical Navy Aviator).
Few marriages survive being a POW, particularly one that was only a year plus old when he was locked up for 5.5 years.
He admits he was an ass, he divorced his wife, they apparently remain friends.
I don't care that Edwards cheated on his wife. Same way I didn't care about Clinton's affair - it was the obstruction of justice, violating Paula Jones right to discovery.
The real scandal here is the MSM's censorship by omission.
So, when will Ann Coulter be apologizing to Edwards for her gay insinuations about him? Are we all holding our breath?
I would never trust a dude with hair like Edward's.
BTW - McCain had a similar haircut when he had enough hair to style.
McCain cheated on his poor disabled wife. (Poor in the not rich sense).
He also adopted his poor disabled former wife's children who now work for his current wife at the Beer company.
Funny how things work....
McCain also has a son serving in Iraq and one in the Academy.
McCain also adopted an abandoned toddler from Bangladesh.... but anyone would do that.. right?
At least McCain cheated on his disabled wife years ago. Not that anyone cares.
After thirty years, there's a fine line between "caring about" and "obsessing over". Yeah, the man did bad things; we've known this for decades. Everyone for whom that would be a deal-breaker has already considered the deal broken. What's there to discuss?
Now if it comes out that he's cheating again -- and there have been a few failed trial balloons in the press along those lines -- then he can kiss his would-be Presidential ass goodbye. That'd be something to "care" about all over again.
And can we all agree on one thing going forward regarding John Edwards, since this story is not going to go away?
Absolutely nothing he says or has said can be taken at face value. In fact, if he says something is true then that should be a reason to doubt that it is.
Can we all agree to this?
It's a Friday, and there's hugely important international news in the apparent commencement of a war between Georgia and Russia. Of course Edwards is coming clean today. The story will be buried, and anyone who tries to breath air into it can be accused of trying to distract us from more pressing, important issues. It's an act of total cynicism aimed at burying the story.
Gee, I wonder how Amanda Marcotte feels about her erstwhile boss now that emerges that he treated her with almost as much respect as he treated his wife and mistress.
I was touched by Edward's thoughtfulness in cheating on Mrs. Edwards only when her cancer was in remission: what a real gentleman that little Johnnie. I bet that made it ever so much better for Mrs Edwards.
The political conspirator in me wonders if someone told Edwards to get out of the race when he did because if he stayed in......And I'm thinking it was a fellow democrat.
Having said all the political stuff, my heart does go out to Mrs. Edwards and her fammily. Not what a woman with cancer needs to face--I hope the MSM, having left this story alone for so long, continue to keep their dirty hands off Mrs. E.
Ecore said:
"I want the media to uncover the lying, corrupt scumbags on both sides of the aisle. So I care. The story now is one of corruption and of a complicit media."
Most people agree with that. Hard to reconcile their obvious bias which costs them readers AND their DECLINING financial results.
What is up with that? Don't they have a boss to answer to?
If I was a news publisher, these liberal heads at the top would be rolling.
MadisonMan: "What does Ms. Marcotte say?"
Amanda: My official stance is that unless it’s a matter of hypocrisy, it’s none of your damn business. So, if someone has a history of dogging gay people, prostitutes, people who have sex outside of marriage, etc., their business is now public property because they treat your business like it’s public property. Edwards, as far as I know, has never been a “sanctity of marriage” wanker, and so this is officially None Of Our Business, and anyone who dogged him on this story should be fired on the principle that they don’t know journalism from rooting around in the trash. Hypocrisy is a story; human weakness is not.
Shorter Amanda: "Unethical behavior is excusable if the perp in question has never taken a stand against such behavior."
What a nice set of values she has.
I don't believe he told his wife at all.
If he did, then Elizabeth Edwards is disgustingly avaricious...she supported her husbands campaign for the nomination *knowing* that this scandal was sitting in the wings just waiting to blow up on him.
That doesn't seem like her.
Therefore, I conclude that John Edwards is lying in this, as in so much else.
I believe the affair *never* ended and that the baby *is* his.
And the idea that he would run for the nomination of his party with this hanging over him is just breath taking in his hubris and arrogance, rendering him wholly unfit for any kind of position of responsibility.
That's ignoring the fact this shows he lacks loyalty, integrity, class, or honesty.
Absolutely nothing he says or has said can be taken at face value. In fact, if he says something is true then that should be a reason to doubt that it is.
Can we all agree to this?
I'll see you your John Edwards, Core, and raise you one Main Stream Media.
How terribly sad for Elizabeth Edwards. The Breck Girl doesn't deserve her.
Something puzzles me; why admit to an affair, but lie about it? There's no way his former campaign aide, Andrew Young, fathered that baby. For chrissakes, Young and his wife have had Ms. Hunter over to their home on numerous occasions. What wife would do that if she knew the woman had been with her husband and had his love child?
Edwards also lied about the affair being over. What was he doing in her hotel room last week? At least he's consistently a liar.
How on Earth does the Democratic Party find these creeps?
Drill Sgt.,
Your language is fine with me. Edwards is an Effin A Hole.
But I don't sign on to the oh poor baby story for McCain. He was a grown man who made choices that hurt others. He's no less a selfish prick than Edwards - and he's gotten a long pass on it from the press that adores him and his so-called "straight-talk," maverick persona.
EnigmatiCore said...
"Absolutely nothing he says or has said can be taken at face value. In fact, if he says something is true then that should be a reason to doubt that it is."
How does that make today any different to yesterday? That Edwards is a slimeball who wouldn't know the truth if it assaulted him with a baseball bat has been common knowledge for quite a while. Even John Kerry knew that much - see the infamous "I'm going to tell you a story I've never told anyone else - again" incident.
FairestWitness said...
"How on Earth does the Democratic Party find these creeps?"
The GOP has plenty of creeps of our own.
Shorter Amanda: "Unethical behavior is excusable if the perp in question has never taken a stand against such behavior."
Let's apply this set of values to Obama... so has Obama ever driven in a car with low inflated tires? has he ever owned an oil company stock. Has he ever used a drug made by big Pharma. Has Obama ever taken donations from oil company employees, the list goes on and on and on.
Simon,
Unless you're talking about Commies rolling down the streets of Hotlanta, there's no way the Edwards story gets buried by it. Olympics, maybe. But not by Eastern Bloc disputes.
Yet Kerry chose him anyway.
That is what I am getting at, that it matters. If Edwards' nature had come out earlier, we wouldn't have almost elected him VP.
And his enablers? They are still active in politics. They obviously will tolerate and/or participate in graft. Who cares? I do.
This shouldn't make anyone vote Republican or against Democrats. But it should make people think long and hard about the way the media helps us 'vet' candidates, and we have some more cleanup to do on this particular matter. Who else was involved in the coverup? Who else was involved in the graft? How much money was siphoned, and just where did it come from?
You've got a point there, Simon. Our own party needs to rid itself of some rotten bastards, too.
He's no less a selfish prick than Edwards -
Wow. So Tell me Beth. Have you endured 6 years of solitary confinement and torture in a enemy prison camp while fighting for your country? What a selfish prick he was.
The story is coming out on some ABC news show scheduled long before Edwards could have known about the Russia/Georgia conflict. I think Edwards is banking on the story dying under an Olympic onslaught.
Simon, you're right on about the timing of this admission. The Georgia thing is probably serendipity, but Friday and the opening of the Olympics likely both went into the planning of this admission.
Revenant, I guess it's a matter of perception. I don't idolize politicians -- I barely hold out any hope at all for any of them. So I don't bother with "yeah, but in HIS case it was different" rationalizing. Politicians are big ego cases; that a lot of them betray their vows doesn't surprise me at all. If McCain's cheating predates his holding office, it doesn't matter to me. It's just part of who he is, an entitled, egocentric person like most other politicians.
You've got a point there, Simon. Our own party needs to rid itself of some rotten bastards, too.
Based on past experience, you should expect to read about one or two of them in the next few days, now that the press is forced to report on this one.
"How on Earth does the Democratic Party find these creeps?"
The same way the GOP keeps finding creeps like Ted Stevens, Larry Craig, Mark Foley, and on and on.
Power attracts, and having no scruples unfortunately seems to make it easier to attain, when in a perfect world it would make it harder.
Yet we the people seem to care more about partisan games.
Sloan, what does one have to do with the other? Being a POW means he holds no accountability for his own choices? That's just dumb.
Let's try to focus on the real issue: if Edwards haircut cost $400, how much did Rielle Hunter's Brazilian cost?
Dewave, all those negative characteristics? Edwards, classic Democrat.
Besides, what else would you all expect of a guy who spends ages in the mirror combing his hair? THink he's gonna worry about a sick wife when he's focused on Numero Uno? A sick wife can't get it on when Johnny wants to get his freak on.
Just our of curiosity, beth. What is your statute of limitations on stupidity? I did some remarkably stupid things as a very young adult and I was NOT locked away and tortured for 5 years. Now most of this was 30 years ago or so. Am I still damned by it?
Beth:
Life and trust are much more important than scoring a political point.
With politics, it gets like a game of badminton. You serve one for your side and your opponent will soon volley one back. And that game goes on and on.
I don't think this Edwards story falls into the politics / badminton class.
It is a story of betrayal by Edwards. You diminish your own value system when you feel compelled to drag McCain into it.
"The GOP has plenty of creeps of our own."
Sadly, this is true.
"The GOP has plenty of creeps of our own."
That's why I vote Libertarian. They have neither creeps nor weirdos. Heh.
The Marcotte quote is priceless: As long as you have no moral standards, nothing is immoral.
Sloan: We're all a mixed bag of good and bad. You don't get a marital infidelity offset because you were a POW. What Beth is probably getting at is that in the "you have to take sides and there are only two to choose from" political environment, the people who love to DQ dems over cheating have looked the other way regarding McCain, Vitter, etc. I go to church with people who can quote every verse in the bible about divorce and spit venom if you say "Monica" out loud and then you go to their house and there is a McCain sign in their yard. I have a hard time trusting someone unfaithful to his wife to tell the truth to people he doesn't even know and didn't promise anything to in a church. Which is probably why we need to adjust our expectations regarding our elected officials, or strictly enforce our moral codes REGARDLESS OF PARTY. But, we'll do neither...
This just confirms what I've known for a long time, there's a lot of screwin goin on.
I disagree that this is somehow dirty. If you're having sex and you think that it's not dirty, you're probably not doing it right.
Oh, Althouse-- you are grossing me out!!!
I love it!
Hunter, a woman with a loudly ticking biological clock, must have looked longingly at the splooge many a time....
John can tell that story in a way that will have us in the palm of his hand.
A brilliantly awful turn of phrase, Ann. I don't know whether to groan or applaud.
Perhaps both?
I think this is a damn dirty lie. He was only studing kabala with her and they were soul mates and we don't want this to hurt the team so lets keep it out of the papers....what...not A-rod...read
thread not just comments...never mind.
jeff, if you want to argue that we all fall short and have done things we regret, that's fine. If we need a measureing stick, we can use the Gingrich standard for the statute of limitations, and McCain can be a shining beacon of integrity right now. That'll give Edwards a few years of skulking around before he can retake the public stage.
You diminish your own value system when you feel compelled to drag McCain into it.
AJ - my value system is intact. You should look after your own.
jeff, if you want to argue that we all fall short and have done things we regret...
Beth, I think many here simply wished you would have denounced Edwards without invoking the tu quoque fallacy.
must have looked longingly at the splooge many a time....
Raunchy Althouse. Love it.
And who doesn't look longingly at splooge? It's my favorite bodily fluid.
Yeah, but why come clean and still be dirty? Doesn't that just make you more of a sleazeball?
First, I hope never to hear Edwards try out your spermination speculation defense. Good God.
But why would he hedge now, and be more of a sleazeball later? That's classic sleazeball technique! Confess a bit, see how it plays. Hope nothing else develops, but if it does, they already know you screwed up. What's a few more details? As you've already pointed out, Edwards is monumentally selfish.
Yes, Fen, it's clear that many here would rather not evoke images of other cheaters running for president.
Beth is unable to process the fact that Edwards is a cheating phony as a stand alone concept. She's compelled to find a Republican, McCain, to drag into it in order to handle it. That's what's in need of psychologizing. My guess is it's indicative a very fragile worldview on the brink of being fractured.
But I don't sign on to the oh poor baby story for McCain.
Nor do I.
He was a grown man who made choices that hurt others.
Yes, he did. Decades ago.
He's no less a selfish prick than Edwards - and he's gotten a long pass on it from the press that adores him and his so-called "straight-talk," maverick persona.
I think the circumstance surrounding McCain's divorce was highlighted during his first campaign for a congressional seat in Arizona. It was mentioned during 2000 as well, but by that time it had occurred over 15 years before.
Why this demand that we rehash this now, 20+ years later. It borders on permanently tagging those who committed adultery with a scarlet letter. That seems a tad excessive to me.
Beth:
He's no less a selfish prick than Edwards
...referring to McCain's adulterous affair back in the 1970s.
Well, without excusing McCain, I would point out he wasn't running for President at the time, so wasn't attempting to bamboozle the entire population of the United States. (Well, all of it not on his or his "supporters'" payrolls....)
Just imagine if John Boy had gotten the nod for Veep before this hit the fan. Or even better, if he'd actually managed to secure the Presidential nomination.
Now there is a world-class selfish a**hole.
The thing that makes me saddest about this? It's that it totally shoots to hell the image I had of the serendipitous way John-boy and Elizabeth discovered that her cancer had recurred. Remember the cute little "John hugged me and we heard a crack" story, which we all knew was a cover-up for "we were doing it and got a little rough and then ouch"?
Now I can just hope that it was that Elizabeth was telling him to go jump off a bridge, and John was clinging desperately to her, begging her not to toss his lying butt out the door.
Disappointing. As a Dem, I cringe to think that we might have nominated him and had this coming out now.
Tara from GPRR
Did we really need this to learn that John Edwards is, and always has been, a fraud?
I didn't.
Mark:
I would think he would have been freaked out the whole time about it coming out during the primary. You do well in Iowa, smiles everywhere, thoughts of winning the primary dance in your head, and then you lay down in your bed and you think "Oh God, what if they find out?!"
Ann Althouse: And: etc.
Gah. Splooge?
Since this story breaks along party lines, with the progressives saying "No big deal" and "look over there", and the slightly more conservatives saying "Told you so", and the MSM ignoring it, this will all be lost in the noise of the campaign soon enough.
Clearly the MSM, if they cared what people thought, would feel some degree of shame for actively covering up this story, but that's not news, either.
Thanks goodness for independent thinkers and writers, at least until Obamessiah closes down all dissenting channels of communication.
Edwards is not a good man, not a good candidate for anything, and the sooner he shuffles off the stage the better. We didn't even reelect him here, so that should tell you something. Oh, right, we elected him once. Nevermind...
As a Dem, I cringe to think that we might have nominated him and had this coming out now.
On this day, _August_8th_2008_ a Democrat by the name of _Tara_van_ Brederode_ denounced a member of her own party without drawing equivalence to any Republican.
Noted and recorded as an exception to Fen's Rule 1.8
A selfish prick indeed. You can own up to misdeed without being a cad about it. Or given his wife's condition, being a worse cad about it.
"If we need a measureing stick, we can use the Gingrich standard for the statute of limitations, and McCain can be a shining beacon of integrity right now. That'll give Edwards a few years of skulking around before he can retake the public stage."
I would find Gingrich behavior still fairly recent, but I would think 30 years with no relapse is a different category than Clinton and Monica. My question would be, since McCain is being held up as the current Republican version of Edwards, despite the 28-29 years between the acts, at what point has someone paid their dues?
He's no less a selfish prick than Edwards -
Wow. So Tell me Beth. Have you endured 6 years of solitary confinement and torture in a enemy prison camp while fighting for your country? What a selfish prick he was.
Not something that feminists like Beth like to dwell on, but affairs by women whose husbands were MIA or POW in WWII, Korea, Vietnam - were rampant. Same with the "Navy Widow's Clubs" of frustrated young housewives banging away while hubby is on a year-long deployment overseas. (Not that the Marines, AF, and Army did not have similar adulterous wives and that the whores of S Korea, Germany, the Philippines only serviced single soldiers.)
Lots of military love affairs and marriages go down in flames just on a two-year deployment, let alone 5=10 years as POW. And both sides sin, despite Beth's sanctimony...
I credit the Muslims with a bit more realism and emotional maturity than those in the West who insist it is the "Christian duty" to be celebate and emotionally barren forever if they have a spouse unable or unwilling to do any of the obligations of marriage.
Thus the people that screamed that Schiavo had an emotional duty to be faithful to the living corpse of Teri Schiavo, yet never mount her comatose body for sex since there was no consent....and railed at him for finding love with another woman as he cared for his 1st wive's husk for almost 15 years.
In the Muslim system of marriage, if a wife becomes incapacitated - unable to fulfill her sexual, physical, emotional obligations to marriage - their laws seem to make more common sense. A man remains obligated to support and care for the 1st wife, but he may take a second woman in to help his household and children with wifely work, cooking, etc. And also to provide sexual and emotional companionship given the 1st wife is unable to.
I would think he would have been freaked out the whole time about it coming out during the primary.
Blue Moon, it would be nice to think so, but I don't know that Edwards is capable of that kind of self-reflection. He reminds me of Gary Hart -- who can ever forget his "Follow me!" challenge to reporters? I think Edwards just assumed he lives in a golden bubble.
Beth
McCain came back from Vietnam in 1973. He was divorced in 1980. This story has been public fodder for more than 25 years. Intelligent people consider this old news. Get over it.
Clyde said...Christy, the aide story is obviously baloney. Andrew Young (the aide) is African-American. If you've seen the picture of the baby, she looks very Caucasian-American. Like her mother. And John Edwards.
I'm not sure this Andrew Young, unlike the more famous one, is black.
But from the baby photo it looks like the baby is 100% White and even seems to have daddy's famous hair .
I'm waiting for the DNA test.
"I think Edwards just assumed he lives in a golden bubble."
Beth, you are making one of my points for me. Why on earth would Edwards have thought differently, given how the vast majority of the media have handled this story so far? He had the reporters he knew from previous campaigning sized up pretty well, it seems.
We need to change this. Reporters need to do their jobs, regardless of the politics of the people involved.
Edwards would have gotten away with it, if not for the meddling kids at the Enquirer. Thanks, in no small part, to a lot of money that went to Hunter.
That means that if Edwards is the father, he was definitely still carrying on the affair with Hunter after he knew his wife's cancer was back.
For pity's sake, he just met his "ex" lover in a hotel in the dead of night a couple weeks ago. It would have been just barely possible to imagine an innocuous explanation for that before he'd admitted to having had an affair with her in the past -- but isn't it a little absurd at this point to still be pretending he wasn't cheating on his wife while she had cancer?
Also, I realize this is just further evidence of me not thinking quite like normal people do, but... why's it relevant that she's got cancer? You're not supposed to cheat on a healthy wife either. Is sleeping around on a healthy spouse somehow anything less than morally wrong?
We need to change this. Reporters need to do their jobs, regardless of the politics of the people involved.
I agree. Either that, or we go back to the old days where reporters tacitly ignored everyone's affairs. I don't think we can have that sort of relationship between the press and politicians now, given the information age we live in, nor given the fact that we just don't accept living in closets, any closets, anymore. And I don't want Democrats shielded while Republicans are exposed - if the press wants to camp outside hotel rooms, everyone's fair game.
I might not be so disappointed in Edwards had he not used his family, especially his wife, so energetically in defining himself in his campaign. Marcotte's wrong on this one, by her own standards, because he did indeed frame himself as a "family man" and devoted spouse. That's what makes him not just flawed, but sleazy, in my estimation.
For pity's sake, he just met his "ex" lover in a hotel in the dead of night a couple weeks ago.
Was it to visit the baby he says isn't his? Blech.
p. rich, no one's putting a time limit on their examples of what an honorable guy McCain is, so I don't see why his flawed moments are out of bounds. The Keating Five? Old news! Wife stealing drugs? Old news!
McCain's working the "ready to lead" angle, making his age and life story part of his package. That's fine, but the whole package is open to critique just as much as it's open for praise.
At least McCain cheated on his disabled wife years ago. Not that anyone cares.
Nobody cares. Nobody cares about Vicky Iseman either. Certainly not Althouse or Mickey Kaus. Their fetish is only with Democratic sex.
All I know is Randy "Macho-Man" Savage never treated his wife Elizabeth this way.
At least to our knowledge.
"Snap into a Slim Jim, oh yeah!"
When, in your opinion, are such stories not old news? Are you seriously arguing, for example, that Obama's use of drugs in high school is not old news?
Randy, the fact that I don't have to ask you what you're referring to tells me it hasn't been relegated entirely to "old news." Or at least that we continually move the line for what is and isn't old news. It will come up again, tacitly or directly, just like "I didn't inhale" kept dogging Clinton, as it should have.
Twenty years from now this girl is going to read these stories.
Is she going to be proud of the way Dad treated Mom?
and he's gotten a long pass on it
The press covered it when he ran for office. They still bring it up from time to time. You've confused "getting a pass on it" with "everybody there is to say has already been said".
One question, though -- did I miss your complaints about how the press wasn't re-covering all of the Clinton scandals, back when Hillary was still in the race? Or is this one of those things where it is only Republican scandals you want to see the press run exposes on year after year?
Thanks, Fen...and because you're so kind, I will elaborate about just why I am so disappointed.
I honestly don't care what John Edwards did or did not do. I don't know him. But he asked people in my party to rely on him to carry us to victory in an election. He asked us to give him time, and money, and energy. In exchange for that, I think we have a reasonable right to expect him not to fu*k it up.
It's what the "vetting" process should be all about. If I am the nominee for President right now, I am asking EVERY POSSIBLE VP CANDIDATE some tough questions: What do you think nobody knows that might come out to hurt us? Is there ANYONE, anywhere, who might have actual verifiable dirt on you? What are your deepest, darkest secrets? Someone has to be asking these questions, because for both parties, the stakes are unbelievably high.
And I suppose it is simply too much to ask that my chosen candidate will have done a similarly careful scrutiny of him- or herself before offering said self up as a contender.
I hear what people are saying about Edwards' bad behavior and sliminess and all that, but again, that's not what I care about. He asked us to put faith in him and he could have lost everything for us. Talk about hubris.
I'm bemused by the report I've been hearing that "while Edwards admitted to having an affair, he said he did not love the woman".
I guess that makes it all right.
"Are you seriously arguing, for example, that Obama's use of drugs in high school is not old news?"
Apparently that should be front and center. And why stop there, let's go back see if the parents or grandparents did anything objectionable. Of everyone. Based on that standard, I can't wait to see who is eligible. Besides Garage of course. And who knew Larry Craig was a democrat? The things I learn here.
Nobody cares. Nobody cares about Vicky Iseman either.
The New York Times cared enough about her to run a nice long article full of innuendo and completely lacking in supporting evidence. There still isn't any evidence of an affair between the two, which is why not even the Obama campaign is pushing the story anymore.
John Edwards got caught on camera sneaking out of the hotel his lover was staying in. The only paper to run with the story was the National Enquirer.
Most Americans still don't know Obama did coke as a kid.
That says all you need to know about who gets a pass from the media.
As someone who stands behind no one in his detestation of the Presidential hopes of John Edwards - who is the last Democrat I would hope to see elected President
(except for Barack Obama, who is the least qualified major party candidate for President in the entire history of the United States)
- I find his admission to be breathtakingly real and sincere, because having a sincere, repentant conscience is congenitally impossible for lawyers and Democrat politicians.
Let he and his wife now go on in obscurity, hopefully haling in all areas. Leave them alone. Move on to something that matters.
why's it relevant that she's got cancer? You're not supposed to cheat on a healthy wife either. Is sleeping around on a healthy spouse somehow anything less than morally wrong?
It not less morally wrong, but I think it adds an extra level of cold heartedness from which most people recoil even more.
"Either that, or we go back to the old days where reporters tacitly ignored everyone's affairs."
But it isn't just the affair.
The Edwards story, as he is claiming it now, is that he met her in a bar, and then after this but before the affair started, his PAC gave her six figures plus to do a job she wasn't qualified to do (well, he doesn't say that last part, but it is clearly the case). Then, after she was hired and paid, he had an affair with her that was discovered by his wife. Before 2006 was over, the affair was ended, but she remained on the staff (you think Elizabeth would have put up with that?). And after Edwards ended it, she had another affair, this time with Andrew Young, a married Edwards' aide, who knocked her up. And then to top it all off, Edwards met her and the kid in a hotel just a few weeks ago, without his wife's knowledge, until 2 in the morning. And that it is possible that friends of his might have been making payments to her, but if so it was without his knowledge.
Even if we get back to the days that affairs are not covered, there is so much here that smacks of graft it isn't funny. At a minimum, she got $115,000 that she should not have from money donated to fight poverty and to help elect John Edwards. Forget the sex-- that sort of crap needs to be reported. And we need to find out every single person involved and make sure they are never, ever allowed to be involved with anyone who might hold a position of power. They can't be trusted with it.
Ah, Host? Let me explain it to you.
He. Got. Caught.
There. Were. Pictures.
"I find his admission to be breathtakingly real and sincere"
Of course it is. Why would he lie? I mean, he was lying before, but now he's being completely honest!
Let the poor guy be.
Revenent - why's it relevant that she's got cancer? You're not supposed to cheat on a healthy wife either. Is sleeping around on a healthy spouse somehow anything less than morally wrong?
Good point.
Newt Gingrich and his wife mutually agreed to separate. Then go to divorce when the separation failed to reconcile the relationship. Then Mrs Gingrich gets cancer. Then Newt is condemned by Enquirer-reading women everywhere because he gave his wife the divorce papers the lawyer drafted while she was in treatment from cancer....
Somehow, magically, the fact of her cancer was supposed to "heal" the marriage? In the think with their hearts instead of their heads world of many women - the answer is "yes".
Even worse in the Schiavo case, where many fanatics said the only moral thing for him to do was forgoe all love and companionship and spend the rest of his life being a monk-like carer for the Terri Schiavo husk. Or be a heel and divorce the living corpse. But nothing in between - like care for her AND start a family of his own...
And again. I don't think there is much difference between the sexes when it comes how they behave when confronted with a spouse missing for years, a spouse with a disabling mental or physical condition. Likely about the same proportion are "Saint-like" as the same proportion are cheaters, with the degree of wandering or seeking love and comfort in a second relationship strongly influenced by age.
(a 75 year old man caring for his bedridden stroke victim wife is biologically less likely to "cheat" than a 21 year old woman whose old man gets locked up for 10 years,)
Again, the Muslim vows of marriage that recognize there are more factors of marriage that must be fulfilled than idealistic Christian maxims that only faithfulness matters - seem more rational and in keeping with the laws of nature when a spouse cannot be a full marriage partner anymore. (Though the Muslim way does slant towards the legitimate needs of the male as much as US family court screws the man to favor the woman.)
Beth, I had to think real hard before I could come up with even that. No one with half a brain could seriously consider it remotely relevant. Why pretend otherwise?
It sounds like you are demanding a lifetime of perfection from politicians, a permanent mark upon them should they ever have committed a transgression, with absolutely no allowance for the distance in time.
Ann used the word "splooge"
Now I can die happy. However, did you weigh the other choices carefully? Senator Spunk? John's Joy Juice? Cream of Sum Yung Creep? Liquid Lawyer? We can do better people.
Edwards does this and what concerns you is the Democrat Party and it's chances.
Talk about loathsome ..
Or is this one of those things where it is only Republican scandals you want to see the press run exposes on year after year?
Are you arguing that Bill wasn't a liability to Hillary in her campaign? Of course he was! His infidelities are always part of their public image. And no, I'm not up in arms over it being unfair. It's what she's signed on for, in staying with him.
Luckily for McCain, he's not running against Edwards so the whole adultery issue isn't going to matter. We'll continue hearing the whole gushy narrative of him as the rogue, the maverick, the POW, the straight talk guy. You can pick through his 71 years for every wonderful thing you love, and dismiss all the rest as old news.
It sounds like you are demanding a lifetime of perfection from politicians
No, I just think it sounds like a lot of people here are demanding a pass for their guy and not for the cheating jerks over on the opposition.
This pretty much ends any Rielle Hunter White House bid in the future.
OMG, Edwards accomplished the triple "F"depending how one counts, using fingers and toes or just other appendages. One for his many and adoring fans like Beth, two for his wife (Perhaps?), three for Ms Hunter(Whatever her actual name is?), OMG, it's actually four because Beth got "F'ed" too.
This is so much fun otherwise we'd have to cry about it. Wonder what Billy Clinton has to say about this new disclosure?
Beth, are you a strict Catholic? Serious question.
Do you believe that two private people having gotten married when young and in lust and then realizing that they have made a terrible mistake are doomed to stay together until death do they part? No matter how much they suffer. No matter that both of them might be better off apart than tortured together?
I don't. I don't condone cheating either by the man or the woman. The moral thing to do would be to separate and get a divorce BEFORE continuing a relationship. Unfortunately, people who are in love/lust don't think clearly.
McCain was a private citizen when he was unfaithful and he had spent more than half of his first marriage in horrible circumstances. Both he and his first wife suffered terribly and were irrevocably changed by their experiences. The only people that were hurt by his infidelity were he, his wife and close family.
Edwards did not experience similar circumstances of torture that changed everything although we might be able to argue that Eilizabeth has. Who knows what tolls her health has taken on her and the people around her.
Edwards is not a private person. He was almost elected VP of the United States. He was selfishly having an affair that would hurt not just he, his wife and family but also all of the rest of his Democrat Party and the people that voted for him. Should this information come out, he would have been completely unable to function as VP or even God forbid, President and he damned well knew it and selfishly still sought the office.
Can you see the difference at all?
No, I just think it sounds like a lot of people here are demanding a pass for their guy and not for the cheating jerks over on the opposition.
Maybe they are, but that doesn't strike me as a good reason to sound like some raging partisan fundamentalist who has no concept of the term forgiveness for personal transgressions in the distant past.
One for his many and adoring fans like Beth
Sigh. Yes, right, I'm an adoring fan, that's why I've been lauding him as "sleazy" and an "Effin A Hole" throughout this thread. OldGrouchy, get some glasses, friend. Or some reading comprehension.
Original Mike,
My point is not that he admitted because he got caught.
What is refreshing is that this is the first confession from a politician in years where he basically placed the blame on himself, and not the "mistakes were made" kind of Bill Clinton/Larry Craig/Gary Hart . . . kind of crap "confession". Edwards was saying in essence that he was an asshole.
If that doesn't count for something in your book, well then we know about two self-righteous people today, don't we Mikey?
He was probably at the Hilton doing "research" on illegitimacy in one of the America's -
DBQ, we agree on this: "The moral thing to do would be to separate and get a divorce BEFORE continuing a relationship."
Not Catholic - and not particularly worried about other people's marriages. But I am continually amused by how complex a story supporters will compose to explain why their candidate's affairs, DUIs, drug use, financial shenanigans and all manner of hijinks youthful or recent, are different from the other guy's. That's all.
What is refreshing is that this is the first confession from a politician in years where he basically placed the blame on himself.
Bullshit.
Care to back up your "comment"
Are you arguing that Bill wasn't a liability to Hillary in her campaign?
If she wasn't Bill Clinton's wife, nobody would ever considered her Presidential material in the first place. So, no, he wasn't a liability. Some of the things he said during the campaign were a liability, but those weren't related to his many scandals.
Furthermore, Hillary herself was involved in numerous scandals that the press mysteriously failed to rehash, all of them worse than a guy cheating on his wife. The travel office firings and the "cash for pardons" affair, for example, barely got a mention. How can Hillary's involvement in the selling of Presidential influence not be a big story when she's running for President? Simple. It was old news, and she's a Democrat.
His infidelities are always part of their public image.
His infidelities are not what I was talking about. Besides, they helped Hillary's public image with women. Nothing like being cheated on to make housewives forget the "cookies and tea" incident.
Luckily for McCain, he's not running against Edwards so the whole adultery issue isn't going to matter. We'll continue hearing the whole gushy narrative of him as the rogue, the maverick, the POW, the straight talk guy.
Obviously you haven't watched the news in about six months. They loved McCain back when he was the "one honest and moderate Republican", i.e. the one who kept bashing the Bush Administration. Now that he's running against The Magic Negro the only time McCain sees a press mention is when they've got a new potential scandal and want to see if it sticks.
Beth, oh never mind.
Concrete minds are hard to crack with "just words!"
Randy, when you use the word "raging" do you mean it to reflect anything to do with "rage," and behavior or language reflecting rage? If so, what the hell are you talking about? I've been quite even tempered, light-hearted even, and bipartisan in my posts on this thread.
Here are the rules: If a Republican is guilty of any type of sexual transgression, it is proof not just of his moral deformity but of the hypocrisy of his party regarding such issues. Democrats who object to this behaviour are high minded guardians of the public weal. If a Democrat commits a sexual transgression, it is proof of his essential humanity and just about sex. Republicans who object to this behaviour are prudish, and, if they publish details of the liason, prurient. The important thing to keep in mind is whether the transgressor is in favor of abortion and gay marriage. Much as belief in our Lord and Savior washes away all sins, the right opinion on these two issues gives one a pass for many transgressions. Parole boards take this into account when discussing the release of convicted sex offenders.
Beth,
let me explain some of the differences:
1. There were some extenuating circumstances that may have encouraged McCain to screw around. (not excusing them, just making a statement
2. McCain was a private person at that point, Edwards was running for President
3. Edwards was using his wife and his relationship to improve his chances for President.
4. McCain apparently admitted his guilt, asked his wife for a divorce, he apparently was up front about it, Edwards is clearly still lying.
5. McCain has faced this in every election he has had, nobody has been covering this up. Clearly the press has covered for Edwards and Edwards is still lying.
Here is what wiki says in part. Sound like McCain is honest about his failings:
John McCain would later say, "My marriage's collapse was attributable to my own selfishness and immaturity more than it was to Vietnam, and I cannot escape blame by pointing a finger at the war. The blame was entirely mine."[24] Carol McCain would later say: "The breakup of our marriage was not caused by my accident or Vietnam or any of those things. I don't know that it might not have happened if John had never been gone. I attribute it more to John turning 40 and wanting to be 25 again than I do to anything else."[24] John McCain's biographer, Robert Timberg believes that "Vietnam did play a part, perhaps not the major part, but more than a walk-on."[29] According to Carol, her husband's five-year captivity in Vietnam had left him wanting to "make up for lost time,"[1] and John put it this way: "I had changed, she had changed....People who have been apart that much change."
They all "take responsibility" in their first statement. Let's see how this plays out. However, it already looks bad for Mr. "It's not my child", Mr. "Elizabeth's cancer was in remission at the time", Mr. "I made no payments", Mr. "My friends may have made payments. I'll ask them".
docweasel said..."Ann used the word "splooge"
Now I can die happy. However, did you weigh the other choices carefully?"
I did. I gave it a lot of thought. "Splooge" was le mot juste.
Revenant, I tend to read news more than watch it, but McCain's been getting coverage all week with his ads, not to mention his usual campaign stops. He might ought to work a little harder on the campaign trail -- he doesn't seem to be making that many appearances. Obama's in the news for being over-saturated. That's not exactly fawning coverage.
Hillary's marriage has always been a dilemma. Yes, it put her in the campaign. But there was no shortage of coverage of Bill gaffes. And I don't know about how popular the cheating makes her with women. There are plenty of women who wonder why she'd put up with it, and the conclusion they come to is because it got her a Senate seat. I recall reading plenty of press coverage on whether she and Bill even sleep in the same house, or interpreting their body language on stage together. It's a weird dynamic.
I think you would have seen a resurgance of the copious coverage of Whitewater and Travelgate if she'd gotten the nomination. But we can only speculate on that, so that's a useless topic.
No, I just think it sounds like a lot of people here are demanding a pass for their guy and not for the cheating jerks over on the opposition.
Just how long after a person does something wrong are we still supposed to consider him an "effin' a-hole"? Apparently thirty years is the absolute minimum time we're supposed to fiercely maintain that attitude. Is there a maximum? If a twenty-year old cheats on his wife and then lives to be a hundred, is he still an asshole eighty years later? Or -- and this is a pretty crazy idea, so get ready to stretch your imagination -- are things like contrition and personal development possible? Can a person be a jerk at 40 and a good person at 70? By the way, the correct answer to that last question is "yes".
The guy cheated on his wife during the 1970s. That was bad. They divorced, apparently with mutual consent. He gave her extremely generous settlement terms. He publicly admitted to having done the wrong thing. His first wife has reportedly forgiven him, but he still maintains that he was wrong to act as he did. He remarried and has, apparently, been faithful since then.
And you're still incredibly pissed off about it. Unless you ARE his first wife I've got to ask -- what the hell's your problem with the guy? Is it just some "ZOMG he's too popular don't people know he used to suck" thing or is there some other reason?
Beth: No, I didn't mean "raging" in terms of anger. I said your posts read like something a raging partisan fundamentalist incapable of forgiveness would write. There is a difference. While I remain as unlikely to vote for John McCain as you do, acting as if his affair decades ago is or should be current news strikes me as off-key.
1. There were some extenuating circumstances that may have encouraged McCain to screw around. (not excusing them, just making a statement
2. McCain was a private person at that point, Edwards was running for President
3. Edwards was using his wife and his relationship to improve his chances for President.
4. McCain apparently admitted his guilt, asked his wife for a divorce, he apparently was up front about it, Edwards is clearly still lying.
5. McCain has faced this in every election he has had, nobody has been covering this up. Clearly the press has covered for Edwards and Edwards is still lying.
1 - I don't really care about circumstances. Every marriage has them.
2 - As I argued above, I think the egocentric personality to allows someone to cheat and rationalize it to themselves, is part and parcel of the average politician's personality. He didn't grow a new personality upon becoming a politician.
3 - I've already expressed that this is one of two reasons that Edwards' infidelity disgusts me (the other being his willingness to risk his party's success in November).
4 and 5 - My problem isn't with how he's gone on to deal with it personally. I'm tired of the McCain mythos of shining honor and integrity. My observation was "at least he did it years ago, not that anyone cares." It's just a reminder that there's really no use putting politicians on a pedestal.
It's not the "taking responsibility" part - and by the way, when most utter that line,they completely take it back before the first statement is over.
It's the "In the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic."
That = "I was an asshole".
Incredibly refreshing. Now, if he means it, he's on his way to actually healing his family.
Yes, Mike the Originale, that is the true statement of responsibility, and while it may not be enough for you, I dare you to find anyone in politics explaining that he or she was the problem (minus they're abusive background, too much work, not enough work, etc.) in like admittance.
What is refreshing is that this is the first confession from a politician in years where he basically placed the blame on himself.
Have to agree with Mike - that simply doesn't follow. Edwards initial response was a denial. I think he only came out and admitted to the affair because he discovered the Enquirer had a "blue dress" in waiting.
I'm tired of the McCain mythos of shining honor and integrity
Sigh.
The Republican part of the McCain "myth" centers around the fact that the guy fought for his country and stood up to treatment that I, for one, couldn't have endured. So far as that "myth" is concerned, his infidelity is completely effin' irrelevant. The point is that he fought our enemies and kept his honor as well as any American could be expected to keep it. So he cheated on his wife -- who cares? Should FDR's cheating detract from the myth of his bold wartime leadership? Correct answer: no.
The media, i.e. Democratic, myth of McCain is that he's a maverick Republican who stands up to his party to fight for what he believes in. This myth grew from the fact that he was constantly up in Bush's face from around 2000 to 2006. The press, being Democrats, dislike Bush, ergo they saw McCain as a good guy who was different from the usual Republican, ergo that's how they spun him.
In neither myth is McCain some sort of shining paragon of all the manly virtues who would never dream of cheating on his wife. If you think that's how he's portrayed in the press then step away from the bong, 'cuz you've had enough.
Just how long after a person does something wrong are we still supposed to consider him an "effin' a-hole"?
Revenant, I pretty much regard all politicians as effin' a-holes, or a-holes in process. That perspective isn't terribly popular here; I get that. Perhaps I underestimated people's need to think their candidate ISN'T an effin' a-hole, or to believe that there's something much more a-holish about another candidate.
A few years from now, it will be gauch to bring up Edwards' fling. I bet he's looking forward to then.
In September of 2007, Sam Stein of the Huffington Post reported that he had been researching an article about Internet videos and began trying to find Ms. Hunter’s Webisodes for Mr. Edwards’ One America PAC, the precursor to his formal campaign organization. Financial filings for the PAC indicated that a company she was affiliated with, Midline Groove Productions, was issued four payments of $12,500 and two of $25,000, in 2006, and 2007, totaling $114,461.79
Did John Edwards have any authority over contract terms and payments to Ms. Hunter's company? That's all I really want to know. If he did, I think it would constitute an element of sexual harassment. Was money belonging to his campaign used in a way that showed favoritism to a contractor who engaged in sexual relations with Edwards? If I had contributed money to the Edwards campaign, I would want a full accounting.
Hahahaha, damn that is some funny shit, isn't it. No fucking wonder he's building such a large home, they can all have separate zip codes.
This weekends homework assignment: Compare and contrast MSM coverage of Spitzer and Edwards.
Hahahaha.
Doesn't the pregnancy demonstrate that Edwards was cheating on Elizabeth with a woman who didn't practice safe sex?
The early pics of Hunter reminded me of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
Beth-
So now it's 2008. What do you want from the media and/or campaigns WRT McCain's infidelity? Seriously. They can't cover it as though it were new news. Everything to be known about it is known. What do you want?
Perhaps it will be gauche to mention that pompous ass's love child when his wife dies. Until then, it is merely politically incorrect, judging by the MSM.
Rev
Your comments on the liberal media covering for the Clintons is probably news to the Clintons. Funny stuff.
Hahahaha, imagine if he were the POTUS. Some poor fucking terrorist somewhere would frantically be digging a deeper hole. Everyone knows the only excuse for a cruise missle is some Democrat infidelity.
Hahahaha.
Revenant, I don't have to go to the liberal media to find what you call the "Democrat" myth for McCain - just go to his website and watch his "Maverick" ad. And while you're there, you can find this sentiment in "Character Forged by Family":
"The family he was born into, and the family he is blessed with now, made John McCain the man he is and instilled in him a deep and abiding respect for the social institution that wields the greatest influence in the formation of our character and the character of our society." What does that even mean? Do we really need to have any politician flap on about "family values" anymore" And do any of them have any credence in that area?
Of course his service was honorable and showed great courage. But eveidently, his whole "vote for me, I'm the guy with integrity" thing isn't just about that. After all, family forged his character.
You're investing too much in my comments if you think I'm saying "don't vote for McCain because 30 years ago he cheated on his wife."
What do you want?
Not a thing. Have I asked for anything?
Prof Althouse has now mentally discarded two candidates that she belatedly figured out were seriously flawed individuals. Don't know when Sen. Obama will cross that threshold, but it'll happen.
Wait, I do want something, from Edwards: get this over with now, don't drag out the paternity issue, and don't insist on appearing at the convention.
And, in another instance of sploooge ending up an an unanticipated place:
Former "American Idol" runner-up Clay Aiken, who has gone onto a singing career, said his "dear friend," music producer Jaymes Foster, gave birth on Friday to a son fathered by Aiken.
Like Edwards, Aiken is a North Carolinian from "modest" middle class roots.
Unlike Edwards, he is gay, but not a liar. Both spend lots of time and money on their hair, though..
Beth said...I'm tired of the McCain mythos of shining honor and integrity
I don't think McCain ever claimed that he was perfect, in fact I think the para below sums up his campaign:
"In war and peace, I have been an imperfect servant of my country. But I have been her servant first, last and always. Whenever I faced an important choice between my country's interests or my own interests, party politics or any special interest, I chose my country. Nothing has ever mattered more to me than the honor of serving America, and nothing ever will.
"If you elect me President, I will always put our country first. I will put its greatness; its prosperity and peace; and the hopes and concerns of the people who make it great before any personal or partisan interest.
"We are going to start making this government work for you and not for the ambitions of the powerful. And I will keep that promise every hour of every day I am in office, so help me God
I would really like to comment on this, but you have done such a good job on the post that there is not much left to comment on.
I just wonder if Bill Clinton and Jesse Jackson will minister to him. You know, the three of them sitting around having compassion for their fellow adulterer and swapping stories and such.
John can tell that story in a way that will have us in the palm of his hand.
No. No he can't. The plain fact is that he cheated on his wife, whom he had no plans to divorce. It doesn't matter if she had cancer or didn't, or when she got it, or any other weasel-worded time line. It doesn't even matter if he's the father of her baby. He touted his marriage to Elizabeth as solid, she helped him in his campaign, he presented himself as a family man, and all the time he was cheating on her with a flakey blonde bimbo. To a lot of us out here in Ignored America (and there are a lot of us), this means John Edwards is a man who lies and cheats on his wife, so what's to say he won't lie and cheat on the nation?
Please, no Clintonesque equivocations are going to convince, so save them.
Beth-
No, you haven't, that's why I asked. Althouse is disgusted and wants JE to go away. You appear to be also disturbed by both Edwards' and McCain's infidelity. So are you looking for McCain to step down, or stop running on his "Integrity" message or at least have someone call him on it or for more complete new coverage, or something else?
We know - McCain had an affair. Now what?
It doesn't even matter if he's the father of her baby.
I meant Hunter/Druck's baby by this, although this clarification is probably not needed by most people.
Ugh! Who cares? Go away now..
..Go away now..
..I get it, but go away...
Wow, it's like you were married to the guy.
Let me see if I'm reading you right, you want him to leave? Just go, talk to the hand kind of just..it's over? Never trust those pretty boys.
I think Edward's "I didn't love her" comment is going to go down in history next to "I didn't have sex with THAT woman".
Before,when this came up, Edwards said something to the effect that he 'has only loved one woman for the last 30 years'.
Well, now he has told us all that the lack of love for the woman involved didn't stop him for having an affair with her.
So, basically, he created a question that I never had considered until he made the point of saying he didn't love Hunter:
Have there been other woman over the last 30 years that Edwards hasn't loved either in the same way he didn't love Hunter?
Not the best strategy for putting an issue to rest.
Revenant, I don't have to go to the liberal media to find what you call the "Democrat" myth for McCain - just go to his website and watch his "Maverick" ad.
Beth, you were complaining about how the media portrays McCain. If you want to argue that a politician portrays *himself* as better than he is then, well... no shit. Welcome to Earth.
I guess you could complain that the media isn't pointing out all the questionable claims in McCain's ads. Fine, but they aren't doing it to Obama, either. Trust me, if McCain could get the media to take a serious look at Obama's claims to be interested in racial healing (hello, 20 year membership in racist organization) or to be a new kind of politician (unadulterated left-wing voting record) he would be happy to see his 1970s sex life investigated. Again.
But complaining that McCain's "my family is important" line has only been true for the last 30 years, while Obama's allowed to invent himself without any serious media scrutiny? Please.
Anyone, ANYONE who didn't realize that Edwards was the worst kind of oily used car pitchman within 20 seconds of hearing him speak is a moron.
The seething contempt that Dick Cheney obviously had for Edwards during the VP debates was well founded. Like him or not Cheney is a serious guy. Serious people could have nothing but contempt for a slug like Edwards.
Edwards was not a serious man concerned about serious policy; his "two Americas" riff was a song of himself; a Sirens song that too many idiots found enchanting...nearly putting this self involved piece of legal garbage
in the WH as VP.
Eliot Spitzer must feel much more comfortable with himself now. He was only banging whores.
Scumbag lawyer = check
Being 99% truthful = check
Lying to everyone about his affair = check
Getting caught by the National Enquirer = check
Doing all of this while you were running for President = check
Admitting it to your terminally cancer ridden ill wife, children, and the rest of your family = check
Possibility that you've paid off your campaign manager to take the fall in claiming it's his baby and not yours by paying him and his family a ton of money = check
Wondering where this was the plan in your two America's = priceless
Well, Revenant, you're willing to draw a finer line than I am, and I'm okay with leaving it at that. I see McCain's image making as "this family means a lot to me, and since GOP voters seem to like that family values thing, I'll go with that."
I'm certainly not not voting for McCain over the issue of marital fidelity. When I see someone comment "if he cheated on his wife, he'll cheat on us" I think, okay, if that's true, it's true overall. And if that's our standard, we'll never get to vote for anyone, because, as I've made clear, I think many, many politicians are egocentric and prone to sexual infidelity.
Ultimately, my point is that our current disgust with Edwards will die off, just as so many argue here that we ought not to care about McCain's past shameful behavior toward his first wife because it's old news. I tend to think whether it's old news or the current headline, there's just nothing surprising about it, and saying "it's in the past" means we've gone through our usual public ritual of condemning, forgetting, then forgiving. We no longer care. Fine.
You make the right point: we ought to be more attentive, and the press should as well, to all the things you mention, the claims they make, the positions they hold, rather than their making and remaking of their images, their forging of narratives and all the abstracts they throw out about "choosing country" or "change" or "family values" or "what America used to be" -- name your poison.
Link to Politico article with You Tube video of Edwards within no more than a matter of days of the alleged splooge injection.
He seems so relaxed and cavalier that he could have come right from a tryst.
Ann Althouse said.
longingly at the splooge many a time....
Hey Ann, sometimes it's called quaz. You can add it to your repertoire of characterizations of human male semen.
This make Senator Craigs little airport restroom homosexual dalliances seem tame by comparison. Let's see how long this lasts in the news cycle before the lefties try to snuff it out.
Oh! How I am loving this! John "Two Americas" Edwards exposed as a lying, ambulance-chasing, double-timing shyster. And all the hypocritical internet "populists" -- who have never seen a mine, a mill or a factory, let alone ever worked in one -- exposed as brainless shills.
Lecture us again about "tabloid trash", please!
Well, Revenant, you're willing to draw a finer line than I am, and I'm okay with leaving it at that. I see McCain's image making as "this family means a lot to me, and since GOP voters seem to like that family values thing, I'll go with that."
The "family" blurb you quote is about opposition gay marriage, couched in the usual euphemisms. Marital infidelity doesn't have much to do with it. On the larger issue of "family values", conservative Christians like a good personal redemption story. There's nothing inconsistent about doing bad things, admitting fault, and then living a good life afterwards.
Ultimately, my point is that our current disgust with Edwards will die off
Well, I'm not disgusted with Edwards, at least no more than I was by the fact that he's an personal injury lawyer. But I think the question of whether or not the public will forget his infidelities is moot, since they'll probably forget he ever existed in a couple years. His political career was already dead in the water *before* he admitted to cheating on his dying wife.
Okay, Sloan. All that makes it just fine that McCain cheated on his disabled wife and still gets to be Mr. Man of Honor.
Beth, that's not right.
McCain came back home after 5 years of the most awful physical and mental torture, to a wife (who he had been married to for 2 years, two years in Navy time, BTW, which by force is always a shorter time period than even usual) who had herself undergone unendurable tortures.
His head was not right. His values were messed up. His sense of living altered forever. She forgave him. She's voting for him in '08. They've both moved on.
We are always being told by Democrats that people should (a) never be judged (b) aspects of their life should be factored into their decision-making skills, or lack thereof.
If Barack Obama had undergone the tortures that McCain had, and did the same thing to his first wife, every single Democrat would be pleading for a little understanding and forgiveness.
One day, someone might uncover his infidelity to Cindy McCain. They've already tried.
Then and only then, would an infidelity like Edwards' or Clinton's be in any way remotely comparable to what McCain did in his early life.
Cheers,
Victoria
And like clockwork-- the "friend" that Edwards said may have paid off his lover without him knowing it, suddenly appears.
You think they worked together? Prove it.
Especially now that Elizabeth Edwards is posting on Kos that this is all a private matter.
And by next week, this will all be old news, won't it?
Disgusting.
I never would have imagined I'd see the demure Miss Althouse use the word "splooge." I'm not just shocked, I'm also appalled. And dismayed, too.
Today was a bad day in the Edwards' household, but a great day for America.
Yet another lying, cheating politician has been uncovered for the piece of splooge that he is. Never mind what his Party is -- he's out of the running for even Attorney General, now. He'll be lucky to get an Ambassadorship, after Elizabeth's death.
(With apologies for the morbidity of that statement, but we have to face facts. She's dying)
To top it off, the price of crude petroleum has plummetted to $115 per barrel, the US dollar has gained $0.10 on the Euro (unbelievable surge, considering such conversions are measured in 1/10ths gains or losses), the Dow finished at a record year-long high, Iraq is nearly at peace, and that American economic slowdown resembles what Instapundit asks, "Dude, where is my recession?".
Fantastic. Go America!!
Cheers,
Victoria
Feith forgery--ten minutes on the news; Edwards lies--the next two weeks.
No wonder.
Fantastic. Go America!!
I'll have whatever you're having. Weeeeeee!
Hey is no one watching the Beijing Opening Ceremonies?
I'll be blogging about it later. The drummers were...good.
But the light show around it reminded me of that 80s board game, Lite-Brite.
You sunk my battleship!
Cheers,
Victoria
Weeeeeee!
It's called serenity. Bottoms up.
Feith forgery--ten minutes on the news; Edwards lies--the next two weeks.
The difference being, there's evidence that the second thing actually happened. :)
VB, I got the Tivo working on that right now. Can't wait to see that stuff on HD.
Happy birthday + 1 (or is it +2?)
I'm assuming you're celebrating all weekend, in some way or another.
Ann,
Congrats on successfully working "splooge" into a blog post. That's an accomplishment I've long aspired to, but just haven't had the balls to do - at least on my own blog.
Did you consider other alternatives, though, such as "manchowder?"
I agree...in your usage, I like the word "splooge" because of it's monosyllabic elegance (if the word "elegant" can ever be used to describe "splooge").
But after years of experimentation, I've found that despite the extra syllables, the word "manchowder," in the course of casual conversations in bank lines, super market checkout counters and job interviews, the word "manchowder" frequently produces an immediate, visceral and amusing response.
Particularly when I pretend I'm Peter Sellers.
Just sayin'.
Here's the big difference:
You act like Edwards did while a president, or a candidate for president, you open yourself up to blackmail at the strategic level. People die because of that shit.
There's a reason they conduct background checks beyond a routine criminal records check when they issue top secret clearances.
Happy birthday + 1 (or is it +2?)
I'm assuming you're celebrating all weekend, in some way or another.
Thanks, again, Miss Beth!
Actually, no. This year my parents gave me a car, and a country club membership. My celebrating is done in more discrete ways these days than drinkin' and partyin'. ;)
(God, that makes me sound like I'm 78. Ah well)
BTW, just to temper the last critique of the Opening ceremonies, I did like the greeny dance in the middle of the programme.
Problem is, I'll feel like having another in an hour.
Cheers,
Victoria
Fellow Americans, there are two Americas. This is a sad truth. There is the America where people can lie, cheat, steal, destroy reputations; all in the quest for power and money.
It is the America of the greedy, the immoral, the rich and the powerful. It is the America of myself, Eliot Sptizer, Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson, and our idol John F. Kennedy.
It is an America where our weak willed wives will stand by us, no matter our sins, infidelties and crimes. It is an America where we can still prosper even though our lies have been exposed.
It is an America where we can do no wrong and benefit from our prevarications while we leave a trail of splooge in our wake.
Then there is the other America. People just like you, who go to work every day, play by the rules, and barely get by. Suckers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My name is John Edwards. I approved this message. My whore produced it.
Just because Silky Pony Breck Boy 28,000 square foot house Edwards had a baby with an employee does not eliminate the possibility that he was "banging whores"? The two are not mutually exclusive.
No one has investigated that, apparently. I am shocked!
Wow...I had no idea this would be such a big deal. The guy's already washed up, right? I guess he was angling for VP or some cabinet post, but isn't he woefully underqualified?
Beth said: The Keating Five? Old news!
As someone who personally (if indirectly) made money off this scandal, I've held this against McCain for some time. But I have to admit: I don't know what he did wrong.
I mean people say "KEATING 5!!!" But McCain and Glenn were cleared. So...where's the beef? (I think that's a contemporary phrase.)
Beth Said: just like "I didn't inhale" kept dogging Clinton, as it should have
Ah, but "I didn't inhale" is bullshit, that's why it dogged him.
Prestopundit said: Edwards does this and what concerns you is the Democrat Party and it's chances.
Well, duh. It's not a big deal if a man is drunk, unless he's in the watchtower of the Titanic.
Really, this is nothing. Garden variety sin, in a place where mortal sins are casually discussed over focaccia.
Cedarford quoted: Former "American Idol" runner-up Clay Aiken, who has gone onto a singing career, said his "dear friend," music producer Jaymes Foster, gave birth on Friday to a son fathered by Aiken.
I read that, and read that, and read that, and finally I had to Google. "Jaymes" would be a female name in this context.
So, Aiken: Mr. Effeminate Heterosexual?
Quixotic said: I never would have imagined I'd see the demure Miss Althouse use the word "splooge." I'm not just shocked, I'm also appalled. And dismayed, too.
And aroused. You can admit it here.
I'd just like to remind everyone to play it cautious here: You still have to go to rehab for using the word "fag".
VB, I got the Tivo working on that right now. Can't wait to see that stuff on HD.
I always get started late on Xmas as well. Starting to get up for the Olympics. I only saw the 84 LA games in person though. some soccer and an incredible Women's Marathon. Joan Beniot (US) won and the Swiss American gal who had that incredible finish. amazing.
anyway, the opening stuff is very impressive. Obviously the Chinese dont have any of the safety zone issues we would have. Lots of fireworks going off in the middle of town and launching from above the heads of the crowd. Thank god they had no misfires.
"I guess he was angling for VP or some cabinet post, but isn't he woefully underqualified?"
He's more qualified than Obama.
"I guess he was angling for VP or some cabinet post, but isn't he woefully underqualified?"
He's more qualified than Obama.
I repeat....
The Keating 5 incident is interesting. As noted both Senators McCain and Glenn were essentially exonerated. McCain admits to bad judgment. Apparently, he knew Keating through his pwife's father. Both were Phoenix movers and shakers at the time, and so the McCains knew Keating socially. And for that reason, they never thought twice about him contributing to Sen. McCain's campaign - until the s*** hit the fan.
But the two military heros both seemed to have been scarred by this blemish on their honor. One of our most famous astronauts was no longer the shining hero that he had been. And from McCain, we got McCain-Feingold. I have always thought that this misstep, this blemish on his honor, is why he has been so aggressive on campaign finance.
And like clockwork-- the "friend" that Edwards said may have paid off his lover without him knowing it, suddenly appears.
WOW, HOST! That was fast. I figured it take at least a day or two.
The Putins and Bushes are seated together, did you notice? And talking but not looking chummy. What timing! I teared up when I learned that one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, runner and new citizen, is the US standard bearer.
Brunei is a no-show. Is something up?
mschaff said: Anyone, ANYONE who didn't realize that Edwards was the worst kind of oily used car pitchman within 20 seconds of hearing him speak is a moron.
I have to agree. From day one I have had a singular dislike for Edwards. I couldn't understand how anyone could consider this guy sincere.
When a supermarket tabloid told a version of the story, I used the fact that the story contained many falsities to deny it. But being 99% honest is no longer enough.
I just read this. Incredible.
"When a supermarket tabloid told a version of the story, I used the fact that the story contained many falsities to deny it."
True statement.
"But being 99% honest is no longer enough."
True statement.
Put them together, and you are left with the impression that he was saying he was 99% truthful. This is a false impression that he carefully crafted.
He is a lying liar who lies and the sooner he is out of the political scene the better for all of us.
But while we are sweeping away the white trash, let's make sure to get the enablers (Young, and others) and the "friends" who were funneling cash here.
Stanley Cavell on Kleist Marquise of O ``The Conversation of Justice''
She accepts him back just because he has answered her summons (acknowledged his fatherhood to the world -- otherwise he is no father) and because she knew who would appear.
What I love best is that the joke is on the fools who've donated money to the Edwards campaign. Not only was every penny of that hard-earned money purely and totally wasted, just as if it had been set aflame in a big bonfire, but the idiot donors can now know that Edwards used their money as a payoff to his favored bimbo. Bwa-ha-ha!!
duh,
those are really dumb hats the US team is wearing
half beret, half baseball cap
ugly
Bareback Edwards' wife had an interesting statement to make. Let's interpret it shall we:
Elizabeth Edwards said ...
Elizabeth Edwards' statement on her husband's affair:
Our family has been through a lot. Some caused by nature, some caused by human weakness, and some - most recently - caused by the desire for sensationalism and profit without any regard for the human consequences.
My misery is being profited by others and not myself. How dare the National Enquirer sell fish wrap on my two-timing husband and make money. Where is my cut? Like wife, like husband.
None of these has been easy. But we have stood with one another through them all. Although John believes he should stand alone and take the consequences of his action now, when the door closes behind him, he has his family waiting for him.
I can't divorce him even though I want to because he has all the money and it's just easier for me to stay and deal with it. I'll have my 28k sq. ft. house, my bank account, and the ability to pay for my cancer treatments. I think I like this. Hmmmm, look at that beautiful necklace.
John made a terrible mistake in 2006. The fact that it is a mistake that many others have made before him
[cough] Bill Clinton [/cough]
did not make it any easier for me to hear when he told me what he had done.
Couldn't that son-of-a-bitch wait until I was cold? Look at me, I'm the victim.
But he did tell me.
Probably the first honest thing he's said since I've known him. Even And and The are lies coming out of his mouth.
And we began a long and painful process in 2006, a process oddly made somewhat easier with my diagnosis in March of 2007.
I called Hillary for advice on what I should do. Look at me, I'm the victim.
This was our private matter, and I frankly wanted it to be private because as painful as it was I did not want to have to play it out on a public stage as well.
You know, when the National Enquirer is following you around for months and digging up this kind of dirt on you, you know that something is seriously not right. As scummy as the NE is, they have a damn good investigative pool. Thank NE, you've made me an even more sympathetic victim than I already was. You can't buy this kind of press.
Because of a recent string of hurtful and absurd lies in a tabloid publication,
So hurtful infact, that they forced my husband to confess to adultery. But I'm the victim and they are the villians in all of this. That's it. I'm calling Tom Cruise' lawyer to get him to sue the NE for me. Oh wait.
because of a picture falsely suggesting that John was spending time with a child it wrongly alleged he had fathered outside our marriage,
Hmmm. I wonder what other picture they have.
our private matter could no longer be wholly private.
Yeah, that's what they call adultery by a public personality, a private matter.
The pain of the long journey since 2006 was about to be renewed.
I'm not sure what this means exactly.
John has spoken in a long on-camera interview I hope you watch.
Yeah, see the SOB squirm like the little worm that he is.
Admitting ones mistakes is a hard thing for anyone to do, and I am proud of the courage John showed by his honesty in the face of shame.
This statement alone is utterly mystifying. She is proud of her philandering husbands ability to retain his courage in the face of admitting that he shamefully cheated on his wife that has terminal cancer? The lawyer speak is heavy.
The toll on our family of news helicopters over our house and reporters in our driveway is yet unknown.
Wait is this before or after the initial reports of the gigantic house that you guys built in a neighborhood that didn't want it and pissed the rest of neighbors off? Were you mad about the helicopters flying over then?
But now the truth is out, and the repair work that began in 2006 will continue.
Oh no, my delusions are kicking in. Won't someone help me? Please?
I ask that the public, who expressed concern about the harm Johns conduct has done to us,
Concern as in what? The fact that if chosen as a VP candidate once again would have sunk the Democratic Party once in for all in the eyes of the public. Yeah, I'm sure they are wholly concerned.
think also about the real harm that the present voyeurism does and give me and my family the privacy we need at this time.
The time for the privacy you need away from the harm and voyeurism that your husband put you and your family through? Do you even understand what you are saying, lady? Oh yeah, sorry, you are the victim.
*John and Elizabeth in bed sleeping soundly. Elizabeth wakes up and nudges John awake and says, "A penny for your thoughts?"
What I love best is that the joke is on the fools who've donated money to the Edwards campaign
Well, for those donors, I'm sure they can sleep at night knowing that, at least, they didn't give a cent to Bush/Cheney in 2000 and 2004. Now that would be something to be embarrassed about.
I don't know, Zachary, I donated to that campaign, and I am glad I did.
Well, for those donors, I'm sure they can sleep at night knowing that, at least, they didn't give a cent to Bush/Cheney in 2000 and 2004. Now that would be something to be embarrassed about.
Why? They won. More importantly, Kerry lost.
What is with "Scotland the Brave" on the pipes as Olympic marching music?
I like it, but I didn't think the Chinese invented pipes?
I am beginning to wonder about Eliz. Edwards after seeing her post on Kos. She points the finger at the newspaper for trying to make some money on a scandal?
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