Team Edwards Agony of Deceit

It galls me to be writing about John Edwards' "liaison" or whatever the hell he calls it, because, frankly I don't really care that he was messing around.

What does outrage me is the sleazy way he, his supporters and public relations hacks, tried to cover up and deceive. Their lying, word-parsing,stonewalling and finally the predictable attempts to minimize the coverage when they were cornered, left many of us doubting anything Edwards says.

After all their attempts at deflection, after their failed efforts to obscure, they didn't finally come clean, they came dirty.

Of late, a refuge for scoundrels is the "Friday Night Dump". That's where the perps try and minimize the embarrassment of getting caught by trying to confuse when the fewest number of people are paying attention. They regurgitate their damning evidence and reluctant admissions of guilt when almost everyone is distracted by the weekend's pursuit of pleasure.

In this case this was a "Friday NightLINE Dump". This one just happened to be on the air at the very same time when anybody watching television was tuned to the opening ceremonies of the Olympics.

What an amazing coincidence! And now some of the Edwards people are reportedly outraged that ABC News had the audacity to publicize the forced confession ahead of time. So the oh-so-clever Edwards handlers were not clever enough.

Not only were they devious, but inept.

Thanks to all this feckless attempt to manipulate public disclosure it's hard to believe anything John Edwards has to say about this. Now, for instance, we hear him agree to take a DNA test to prove he did not father the child born to the woman to whom he says he was making non-love. But drat: The mother says she's not willing to participate. Wowee zowee!! What a surprise!!

And, some of us, by now, may be a teensy-weensy bit skeptical when Edwards insists he knew nothing about his fat cat friend, shelling out millions to the girl friend as well as a former aide who has conveniently stepped up to claim daddyhood.

We could go on and on. The point is that thanks to the clumsy deceptions at every turn, the Edwards gang has obliterated any instinct many of us might have to give their guy the benefit of the doubt. I'm not even sure I can believe his name really is John Edwards.

About the only sympathy anyone feels is for Elizabeth Edwards. Thanks to the cynical and incompetent tactics of his advisers we share what should have been her private disgust.

When will these political operators and media manipulators ever learn? Apparently, the answer is never.

Follow Bob Franken on Twitter: www.twitter.com/frankenb

Comments

[qdemn7]

I felt sympathy for EE at first, but no anymore. After reflection, I think she is just as calculating and cold-blooded as HRC. It's all about politics, and pursuit and grasping of power. Nothing matter but that. Nothing.

[myskylark]

You don't know anything about the way these women feel about their unfaithful husbands. There are many women who try to save their marriages in spite of infidelity because the sum total of their marriage is worth saving. Stop sitting in judgment on matters that don't concern you and that you nothing about.

[pinkfirefly8]

If there's a class action brought by other campaign contributors, I will be there in heartbeat. They misused my hard-earned dollars.

[pinkfirefly8]

Nice piece. Thanks.

[ExRepublican]

Bob - Nice to see someone not apologizing for JE's massive hypocrisy.

Here's another link re: Mr JE and our lord and savior:

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/213/story_21312_1.html#vidLnk

[BlogAngel]

Right on, Bob, except.... why is Elizabeth so innocent and deserving of sympathy? She insists she knew in '06, so she's just as big a liar, deceiver, user, pretender, money-taker, fake and media-blamer as Big John.

[marysandra]

John Edwards is a very wealthy man, he should pay back every cent of hush money or whatever, to his campaign, out of his personal funds...He should move to a smaller house and support the innocent victim, who probably is his child..I don't think one visits ex-mistresses at 2 a.m. current mistresses, more llikely...Maybe he just fell in love with the lady, and Elizabeth can throw him out with dignity and he can go live with his girlfriend and baby... What 42 year old woman doesn't know about birth control, and what man of Edward's intelligence assumes it's her problem? or believes her when she says she's "safe"...This smells so like a set up, poor sap, poor baby, poor Elizabeth...I don't believe for one minute that Elizabeth knew about this 2 years ago...Another silly man, hiding behind his wife...Ah power, the lust for it seems to kill all sane judgement.

[Yohomegirl]

What is going to be bad is when Eliz discovers that the baby is John's and that AFTER asking for her and God's forgiveness, he went back and did it again. Rielle doesn't want paternity test because she has a lucrative deal.

[gage]

I don't even feel too sorry for Elizabeth at this point, because she let him run for president knowing this story could break at anytime.

The innocent victims are ALL the children involved: the Edwards kids, the Young kids, and the baby whose father won't commit to her by putting his name on her birth certificate.

[Robert59]

I hope the FEC investigates what he did with his campaign contributions. He used campaign funds to pay for his relationship with Reille. I'm sure he did it so his wife wouldn't find out where his money was going as 100,000 dollars would have been hard to explain. You have to wonder what happened with the rest of the money he collected from patsies like me. Am I helping to pay for Reille's house in the gated community she lives?

Are we still paying for his relationship? I'm skeptical it ended as one doesn't normally meet up with one's ex mistress at 2: 30 in the morning.

Never have too much in people as they are sure to let you down.

[roncraw]

Does anyone doubt that had Edwards have disclosed his infindelity last fall that Hillary wold be the Dem Nom.

[rationalthought1]

I agree with everything on this post except that I don't think we should be letting Elizabeth off the hook (cancer victim or not). How both of them could go into this primary knowing how vulnerable they were politically is unbelievable to me. I felt they at times they were using her cancer as a shield and a way to spin things. At the time I thought they were trying to turn lemons into lemonade, but with the knowledge that they both knew of this situation its amazingly arrogant that they would take such a risk at this time with the future of this election and, as a result, the fate of the nation.

[Ndw]

I don't think it would have made any difference at all. Obama would have had to come up with one less excuse for not picking him as VP, but I'd guess that was never his intention, anyway. He was being generous to Edwards' supporters, but if Kerry had the 'bad feeling' about him, others must have, as well. I hope Obama has more sense than Kerry, and will listen to his own instincts.

[tyrdofwaitin]

A betrayal of trust? Sure. Hypocrisy? Probably. High crimes and felonies? No. In the scheme of things I would still rather have Edwards in the White House than Bush whose father, BTW and FDR, BTW and JFK, BTW were all guilty of same.

I wish the same level scrutiny and outrage that is coming John Edwards' way right now was matched, in some measure, by a similar scrutiny and outrage of our current resident at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: He in fact has the blood of thousands of American lives on his hands; the blood of tens-of-thousands of Iraqi lives and the evisceration of the American economy on his hands. Why is he still in office? Why isn't his future in public service also dead?

Where is the balance and perspective on our judgements?

[ayiticherie]

I agree 100%. The affair, though interesting, is not the real story here. The coverup by the MSM and Edwards is. I feel sorry for Elizabeth though she is not blameless when it comes to allowing him to continue his campaign while they sat hands folded on this bombshell .

[Alessan]

Do you think you would have saved any money had he dropped out earlier than January 2008. It's is the big backers, the super rich, the campaign financers and trial lawyers that wanted the affair
covered up so he could get to the Whitehouse, they didn't stop once he dropped out because
there was a chance he'd get a cabinet position. Now I don't see Fred Baron still sending out $15,000 a month of his own money by the way, he is a millionaire or billionaire to Young and Hunter,it is not campaign money, that's all gone. You people need to put on your thinking caps.