Sunday Roundup
This week brought us the latest twists in the John Edwards infidelity story -- a story with many inconsistencies, which HuffPost began to explore last September. Edwards told ABC that he will have no more to say on the matter, but so many loose ends remain -- the incomplete birth certificate, the money paid to Edwards' mistress by his campaign's finance chairman, that blurry pic of Edwards and the baby he claims isn't his -- that more revelations seem inevitable. I've long pushed for a giant border fence separating public life and private lives. But the issue here wasn't Edwards' infidelity, it was his lying directly to the American people. The last thing we need is a sexual purity test for our politicians, but we desperately need political leaders whose word we can trust.
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Unfortunately, what's going to really do Edwards in is not having an affair -- but the cover-up. And I do think ther hiding more than he's telling. And it's going to be ugly when it comes out. It's so weird that the sexual misdoings Republicans have done seem to have been largely forgotten and forgiven by the press and their consistuents. Dems really don't care about affairs but I don't think they'll forgive Edwards for the cover-up and the lying.
Exactly, it’s all about the money! I don’t think for one moment that Edwards’ repeated lies were solely about keeping the affair, itself, private. There is no way that Fred Baron kept the funding of money to Hunter and Young to himself. He’s lying!!! Edwards’ political career may survive the affair, but illegal use of campaign money will put him in jail!!
According to Byron York , “Hunter and Young, the recipients of Baron’s generosity, were not high-ranking officials in the Edwards campaign. How Baron got to know them and how he decided to fund their move to California, and why he decided to do so without Edwards’ knowledge, might be the subject of more questions as the Edwards matter goes forward.”
Also, just picture what could have happened if this bombshell exploded during the upcoming convention! I thought it was very interesting that the first words from Obama on the subject were that he had been told that the Edwards family will not be at the convention. Hmm, sounds like his major concern about the affair is how this will affect the convention.
If you are running for high office in a country that regurgitates 30 second soundbites for months on end, and is obsessed with flag pins and, "not that I know of" innuendo, - with most citizens unwilling to demand attention to real issues - then spousal infidelity is probably not a good idea - but a really stupid thing to do.
While lying & cheating may be expected among practicing politicians - stupid is no longer a desirable quality for presidential hopefuls.
Sometimes you have to go to the MSM for some sensible moderation. Joe Klein wrote yesterday:
"Just about anyone under the age of 60 who has lived in this permissive society during the past 40 years, has done something that might be unfit for a Hallmark Greeting Card. In fact, I have profound qualms about any would-be politician who hasn't allowed him- or herself a moment of untrammeled human or chemical exploration. I fear that the media have driven an awful lot of interesting people away from public service for reasons that would have seemed extreme to the second generation of New England Puritans.
--These sort of crapulous stories are next-door neighbors to the sleazy negative advertising that, well, John McCain has been accosting us with. They feed the notion that politicians are just a bunch of soulless, egomaniacal dolts without a high-minded--whoa, almost said bone in their bodies--pick your allusion. One of the worst results of the past 30 years of the Reagan pendulum swing is that the politicians-as-perverts meme fits quite neatly into the government-as-problem-not-solution meme. Given the problems we're facing now, this is not where we want our national discourse to be.
I'm not in favor of censorship. I am in favor of discretion and proportion."
http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/08/edwards.html
Sorry Arianna! Expecting to have politicians who we can trust, is asking for the impossible.
JOHN EDWARDS SEX SCANDAL WITH RIELLE HUNTER IS A STIGMA THAT MAY DESTROY HIS POLITICAL FUTURE AND RUIN HIS POSSIBLE APPOINTMENT AS U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL
By Hermie Rotea
After former Senator John Edwards abandoned his Democratic presidential bid, his supporters hoped that he might still be drafted as the running mate of presumptive nominee Senator Barack Obama or be appointed as U.S. attorney general under an Obama administration.
Now he and they can kiss that possibility goodbye. Not after he cheated on his wife Elizabeth who has terminal cancer. He first repeatedly lied about it. He even scolded a reporter when asked about it, saying he does not reply to tabloid lies.
But after a National Enquirer reporter caught him sneaking in a Beverly Hills hotel past midnight for a rendezvous with Hunter and their love child, he finally confessed. But he dismissed it not as an affair but a mistake. What is the difference? He denied the child is his. Hunter rejects a DNA paternity test.
Edwards failed to realize that as a public figure he was fair game. He lost his right to privacy although he is no longer in government or a presidential candidate. He learned that lesson too late. It is a costly mistake. His sex scandal story won’t go away until remaining questions are answered.
Without infidelity, or other serious and just plain pathetic indiscretions by public officials, a fence between public and private lives would not be necessary. Who would be building these fences, anyhow?
See Kathy Harter's Profile
He was considered one of the good guys, with a strong marriage, that's why it's creating so much buzz. Sure, a wife with cancer is tough on a guy, but did he stop to think about that news hitting her?
Thankfully the voters must have sensed something in him that made him seem duplicitous. Because he would derail a Democratic nomination at this crucial time in our history. If he hadn't run for president knowing this would likely get out - it always does - maybe it wouldn't have the same impact.
I was a fan of his. Now I see him as all hype, political expediency to "overcome" his own behavior. No one's perfect but this is just stupid and selfish.
"The voters must have sensed something"
helloooooo!
how could they "sense" something when he received NO media attention.
The MSM must have known something - which is being really generous - in assuming they actually maintain that depth of intellect.
whether they had some inside track info - or they just wanted the "Black Guy v. Women" thing - doesn't matter.
the "HYPE" deserves a closer look, for sure, but let's look at all the HYPERS, shall we?
My mom was a big supporter, contributed money, and when I broke the news she went into denial. Now that she has finally seen & heard the reality from the MSM, she is disgusted.
I'm bothered by the fact that the MSM went out of their way to ignore. It didn't matter what I said, mom would not believe it was true unless reported on her nightly network newscast. She was deceived by both Edwards & the media.
Don't forget to address Mrs. Edwards complicitous actions.
He is a good guy with a good marriage that has lasted for more than 30 year and extremely painfull loses
Edwards' supporters involved in handing out hush money have got themselves in a big mess. It's called the Gift Tax. Money and free rent given to Rielle Hunter and Andrew Young are taxable to the donor.
Even worse, if campaign funds were used as straight hush money, there's the prospect of prosecution for filing false campaign finance reports.
It's not hiring Hunter to do the videos that is the problem. Regardless of their quality, as long as they exist that expense cannot be challenged. It's the use of campaign dollars without the rendering of services, and private gifts which are the problem.
Remember that the former mayor of San Antonio got into big trouble in paying hush money to his former girlfriend and lying about it to the FBI. You've got to bet that as long as the Republicans hold on to the prosecutorial power that this is just the beginning of the "John Edwards mess".
Is it really that difficult to ignore partisan politics for a moment? "Prosecutorial power?" What? Huh? This ain't a party matter. Get to that understanding and you'll be miles ahead.
I've seen southern and/or rural judges, citizens who are registered democrats, attend all the functions, hand down some pretty stiff sentences for crimes that big-city judges, registered as republicans, find excessive.
Everybody lies. It's a part of civilization. Common courtesy often demands it.
If an insecure person asks if their outfit is attractive, the proper response is "yes." Is it a lie? Technically, yes. We need them.
As a society, we have become so dogmatic and dependent on rules that we can't seem to delineate the grey areas of life.
Sometimes we lie to protect another person's feelings. When Bill Clinton lied about his infidelity, he did the right thing. Why humiliate his wife and come out and say, yeah I banged the intern?
Our witch-hunting lap dog Republican congress decided to go after Clinton for his marital dishonesty.
This is nobody's business! Hillary knows what she is married to and it's up to them to work it out.
Just like Elizabeth Edwards will work out her relationship. The poor woman's gone through enough. Why do we need to display their private pain to America? It's not our business.
Now, if we want to discuss the issue of lying, how about some really lethal lying which has daily streamed from the white house for the last eight years. Lies that will cost millions of lives and trillions of dollars and the ecosystem and America's standing in the world. And has also cost our country it's moral center.
These are the lies to worry about. What John Edwards does with his private life is between him and Elizabeth. Leave them the hell alone and go after the lethal liars!
So you're saying, in that proverbial nutshell, that we should drop or ignore all rules, legal or otherwise, of a civilized society and learn how to lie? Isn't that anarchy?
You seemed to have missed my point entirely. I'm tempted to call you a dunderhead, but I'll be polite and act like it was my own fault for not expressing myself clearly. Of course, I am being a tad insincere but the rules of civil society require it.
No, dropping the rule against lying is not anarchy. Anarchy means to live without rules or rulers.
I am saying that obsessing on the rules is unhealthy. Nobody tells the truth about their sex life and anybody who says they do is a liar.
Learn to distinguish between a lie that saves a person's feelings and a toxic lie which hurts large portions of the population.
Bill Clinton's lie got more press coverage and more resources thrown at it than the Bush/Cheney lies that led us into an unending war.
Can you see the difference, or do all liars get thrown into the same prison in your absolutist universe?
"Leave them the hell alone and go after the lethal liars!"
We don't want to do that. Leave them (gw & gang) alone too! (motto of MANY dems). Quit yer whinin. We are getting (it's just starting) what we deserve.
Just curious. Did (past tense) you want to impeach these guys?
I wonder which is worse lying about your personal affairs or lying about why we should invade Iraq? Which does the most damage?
Two (2) separate issues. One has nothing to do with the other unless you subscribe to party spin and I doubt that there is any "official" spin that makes the sort of relation you feel so desperate to make..
Our legal system does not operate on a "which is worse" system, except when it comes t punishment.. We take each case at a time. Edwards troubles are not legal (not yet), but perhaps the Bush BS will be? Doubt it, but that is not the debate.
Fortunately, as talented (and apparently deceitful in personal matters), Edwards isn't the nominee. Let's keep our eyes on the prize and not let us do what the media and the GOP would like us to do and that is fixate on this issue.
There is an election going on, folks. Let's get Obama elected and then we can spend a lot of time deconstructing Edward's affair.
It's very simple for me. If you lied about that, what else are you lying/will you lie about? If your judgment in this situation was so very faulty, what else will you exercise extremely poor judgment about when you're leading my country? If your word was no good about "cleaving only unto" the woman you vowed to cleave only unto, then what else is your word no good about?
I'm with Arianna. Give me someone, anyone I can trust.
very few politicians can be trusted
Ok...we have established the fact that Edwards lied to the American public. We know that Edwards is a good man who did a bad thing.
He's not a pervert or child molester...... He's done nothing illegal
I don't think he owes us any more info....he lied to us, we will deal with it....each of us in our own way..because....it is what it is and it ...thankfully doesn't effect us at all any more.
Just for the record, adultery actually is illegal in John Edward's home state of North Carolina.
Oh yeah, I forgot, it's alright to elect liers president as long as they represent the right realities.
If we didn't elect liars we wouldn't have political leaders. In fact, it came as something of a surprise to me when John Dean in his book "Broken Government" clearly documented that William Renquist perjured himself to get on the Supreme Court in 1971 and then committed the same act when he was elected to the Chief Justice post in the early 1980s. Dean and others establish that Clarence Thomas did the same thing to win his nomination. If top American jurists lie and get away with it why should we think mere politicians won't do the same thing? Why do politicians lie? I think the answer is self evident. The majority of the American electorate prefer being told what they want to hear rather than what they actually need to hear. Alternatively, some politicians lie because they firmly believe that their private lives are not the concern of voters and they risk the lie because of their belief.
Sorry Arianna, here you are dead wrong and just part of the feeding frenzy. It is the season for "bringing the down and burying them for good." Elliot Spitzer, David Patterson, Clinton and husband are hard to kill but they will do it, Edwards is going down--now Obama won't have to give him a place at the convention or in his administration, and let's see? Who else? Make Kucinitch a meaningless fool--UFOs--Biden must have promised to disappear or be quiet. I don't know why NO one thinks there is a Rovian hand at play here, but the agenda is not the peoples choice.
I am almost 80 years old and have yet to understand why powerful men, knowing that their career s might end when they unzip for the wrong person. Is it a compulsion? Immaturity? Arrogance?. What induces them to ruin their lives and those of their families for ten minutes of gratification (if the respondent is lucky)?
I couldn't agree more with your statement. I just don't understand how some political leaders make excellent leaders and then demonstrate a childish lack of self control regards their private lives. It must have something to do with power. Imagine having women constantly fawn over your every move and I can imagine that in some instance women must throw themselves at powerful men. It must test one's resolve to be sure. And let's not forget that we make the presumption that the married lives of powerful men are idyllic (think about Kennedy's "Camelot") or even tolerable: Maybe relationships were think are happy are in fact miserable? How much easier is having an affair when a relationship is in the toilet. Being a politician with marriage the expected norm and divorce frowned upon especially for a president what is the option for such men? Give up intimacy and sex? If Obama (or McCain) divorced his wife last year what chance do you think either would be where he is today? I wonder if the problem has anything to do with having affairs. Maybe the problem is with America's unhealthy obsession with sex and fidelity?
Powerful men often have good libidos. Combine that with testosterone, a dose of narcissism, an addiction to adrenaline rush, and many other things typical of powerful men, and bingo.
I hope you are not describing Edwards as a powerful man. He quite obviously is weak. Even on his best day, as a politician he simply has been non-existent.
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