On Having Your (Political) Heart Broken

The e-mail came when I was in Mexico, at a fitness resort that -- in pursuit of wellness -- confines BlackBerry use to guests' rooms.

"Need to chat briefly with you regarding John Edwards and the effects of this scandal on his future political career." It was from a reporter I know at People. I had no idea what he was talking about. Though I'd cut way back on my news intake, not to mention my beloved carbs, while at the ranch, I figured that my furtive web browsing during the week was keeping me reasonably well informed on the big stuff.

His follow-up message, in response to my away-from-my-e-mail auto-reply, vibrated in my pocket during dinner, where no one else at my table had a clue what scandal had erupted. I stole a look at the screen, my transgression, I hoped, concealed by the tablecloth.

"What do you think are going to be the effects on John's political future, most notably his chances for a vice presidential nod from Obama? From your perspective, where does this scandal, if you will, rank in the history of American politics? Why do you think so many people are appalled by these developments? His wife's illness?"

It would be 24 hours later that I fully re-introduced media toxins into my body. Ingesting the National Enquirer account of Edwards' purported Beverly Hills Hotel visit to the purported mother of his purported love child turned out to be as shocking to my system as the I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! Light that I unthinkingly shmeared on the ranch bread, won at bingo, that I'd brought home with me.

But the e-mail alone -- "appalled," "his wife's illness" -- was enough to get me to contemplate the awful, unsubstantiated conclusion the moment I got it. I know enough to mistrust rumors. But I couldn't help hypothetically feeling the same nausea, the same kicked-in-the-stomach wallop that hit me when Bill Clinton fessed up to his sexual infidelity and to lying about it. Appalled? No, more like heartsick.

I had spent the weekend before the Iowa caucuses -- still undecided, even after the torture of watching what seemed like a gazillion pre-primary debates -- taking in every minute of every Democrat's stump speech that I could find on C-SPAN. Some online issues poll I'd taken told me that Dennis Kucinich was the candidate closest to my views, but I was in no mood to be romantic or sentimental about my choice.

What surprised me was that Edwards turned out to be my candidate. I wanted a fighter, someone as furious about what had happened to America and to the Constitution as I was, and Edwards -- unlike Barack Obama, who struck me as having been snookered by high-minded editorial writers' jonesing for bipartisanship -- seemed ready to kick butt and take names. And much as I respect Hillary Clinton's smarts, I was world-weary of the pols and hacks who surrounded and spoke for her, and her stump speech sounded uncannily like what I had written for Walter Mondale; much as I respect him, 2008 isn't 1984.

Edwards' populism rang my bell. He had some political problems -- the haircut, the house, the lackluster performance in the Cheney debate -- but watching him ignite crowd after crowd that snowy weekend, I experienced him as sublimely authentic. Plus, of course, there was Elizabeth.

It wasn't just her bravery in the face of cancer that made people love her. It wasn't just the young children. It was also how authentic she was, and how smart, and the sacrifice she was prepared to make, the trade of precious family time for a higher purpose.

John Edwards couldn't recover politically from his loss in Iowa. As I write this, his camp is dismissing the Enquirer story as typical tabloid trash. That may be entirely true, just as other political scandals, from John McCain's love child to John Kerry's swift-boating, have also turned out to be smears spread by political enemies. Is mentioning the Enquirer story lashon hara, the evil tongue? If you can't talk about contemporary political discourse -- all of it, even the vile -- you can't talk about contemporary politics.

Even if the Enquirer's story turns out to be no more than a hit job, I won't soon forget the feeling that those e-mails from People churned up in me.

As potentially appalled as I was for Elizabeth Edwards, as potentially amazed as I was by what would have to be John Edwards' colossal arrogance, what disturbed me most was the possibility that I may have been played for a chump, that I had been as politically naïve as any greenhorn who'd just fallen off the turnip truck, that my belief in Edwards -- not just in the message, but in the message-bearer -- demonstrated that, for all my years of accumulating a justifiable cynicism, I was still susceptible to the stagecraft of political authenticity.

The night that Obama won the Iowa caucuses, I found myself, like many Americans, thrilled by his rhetoric and moved by his story. The Edwards "scandal" has made me mindful of how inclined I have become to believe in Obama. His recent positional shifts, while disconcerting, I have chalked up to a misguided effort to chase voters who will never be for him anyway. But the emotional whiplash engendered by the Enquirer allegations has reminded me that Kool-Aid, like in-room cable news, was also absent at the wellness ranch.

I believed in "I still believe in a place called Hope" until the blue dress. Do I still believe in the "audacity of hope"?

New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once remarked, "There's no point in being Irish unless you realize that sooner or later the world will break your heart."

He may just as well have said Jewish.

* * *

This is my column in The Jewish Journal. Besides posting a comment here, if you'd like to email me or the Letters editor there, or if you just want to read about Hollywood Jews, well then, go for it.

Follow Marty Kaplan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/martykaplan

Comments

[dualdiagnosis]

Marty-

I am impressed by your bravery to express your feelings so openly. Less impressed with the commenters here who think it is no big deal, here are John's own words from a 60 minutes interview with Elizabeth that focused on her illness (h/t Mickey)- http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/24/60minutes/main2605038.shtml

"..But, I think every single candidate for president, Republican and Democratic have lives, personal lives, that indicate something about what kind of human being they are. And I think it is a fair evaluation for America to engage in to look at what kind of human beings each of us are, and what kind of president we'd make..."

We need to realize that politicians are just human, but when we put blinders on based on partisanship and are willing to defend someone based only on their rhetoric, we are in danger of not only hurting ourselves but the rest of the country and the world.

[luziannagirl]

Far as I know, even if the affair rumor/smear is true, John Edwards hasn't committed a crime and isn't out advocating outlawing abortion, or further marginalizing homosexuals, or preaching sermons on covenant marriage and promoting "abstinence-only" teen anti-sex programs, so at least he's not a hypocrite pushing a double standard on us.

That's the most important thing for me.

Distasteful and illogical as it seems to most of us, I do agree with another poster that any given pol's situation is a recipe for marital infidelity, and I would venture a guess that the completely monogamous Washington pol is a very rare bird indeed.

No pun intended.

Study after study shows that across cultures, blood type evidence shows that at least 10% (some say 30%) of us have blood types in direct conflict with our putative paternity.

That would indicate that both infidelity AND deception about that infidelity are built-in, hardwired to our species.

When will we get real about this? People are human. Matters of the heart (ahem).

[presto]

We're all chumps. I liked Edwards too. And Elizabeth rocks. The only authentic politician in recent memory is Dennis Kucinich. And we think HE'S the chump. I never seriously considered him for a minute. My loss.

[JimmyTee]

I liked this article, except you never said what you had for dinner.

[bugscuffle]

John Edwards would never mislead us. The paternity test will prove it.

Right? Right?

[appleknocker]

Why on earth are you shocked, saddened, heartbroken? Is there any alpha male you know of who has never had a fling or three? As for Clinton, his sex life is totally insignificant compared to his betrayal of his nominal constituency, i.e. working-class Americans.

[kenja]

What if this is true? What if he met her at a bar, they are drinking, they are attracted to each other, they mess around, she gets pregnant, he tries to keep it off the radar for obvious reasons. So what? He messed up. What do want to with him do, shoot him?

[presto]

No, don't shoot him. Just recognize him for the jerk he has turned out to be.

[appleknocker]

If you think an extra-marital affair makes Edwards a "jerk", what would you call a guy who dumps his wife and the mother of his children for an heiress who also happens to be younger and prettier? A strictly hypothetical question, of course.

[tbone99]

I know exactly what you mean - felt the same way when I found out Obama was going to support the FISA bill.--just like that....played for a chump.

Now healthily back to the jaundiced eye , tho' if the Edwards thing is true and after the Spitzer one , it's getting harder to look at men at all.

[UnknownSoldier]

Please read the FISA bill

[chucktrotter]

“It is a public scandal that offends; to sin in secret is no sin at all.”

Moliere

[jesdakota]

Edwards has always given me an "inauthentic" vibe. A little too smiley, a history of being a lawyer means you've chosen to lie and deceive, for whichever case you're invested in. I saw him on Public Television a couple nights ago, determined to cut American Poverty in half, then in half again...or something like that.

What a salesman! I thought, this is the role for him...he would cause me to stand up in my own community and do whatever he recommended, with his twelve steps to guaranteed success and his economic reasoning. He was calm enough too, to stand up to the dissenters who might suggest his plan was unfeasible.

If the leaders in our country can be satisfied with leading from a little lower in the pyramid, America's inspiration will surely follow suit. I'm still leaning towards Hillary, but only because I can't imagine who else could step up and shine as determinedly. If only McCain would applaud them as a team, but that would be plain unreasonable.

[Sciguy]

This is NOT an attack on Mr Kaplan, who is on my "favorite blogger" list.

I don't disagree with most of the column. But - does one really need to keep one's Blackberry on while vacationing? Does one really need to know about the latest "scandal" - especially while on vacation? Wouldn't it have been a happier vacation if one ignores all but the most serious news (and the maybe-news) and just enjoyed being away from it all for a short while, having a brief respite from all of the US political nastiness? It's just my opinion, but when I go on vacation, I want a vacation! Just a few days of peace.

Still, I'm glad to have read this column. I wholeheartedly agree that the world will break hearts, and I'm also not so sure that the latest Edwards "scandal" is even a scandal. Personally, I don't care who's schtupping whom, so it didn't bother me a bit. I'm much more concerned about position shifts (real or perceived). I'm much, much more concerned about health care, and I'm still a Kucinich fan. I still believe in a place called Hope, and I still believe in the audacity of hope. I'll keep on believing, too, because I can't stomach the opposite of hope. At least Obama still seems to represent hope. McCain still represents despair.

[Giordano Bruno]

"New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once remarked, "There's no point in being Irish unless you realize that sooner or later the world will break your heart."

He may just as well have said Jewish.

Or, in my case Italian. This was an article which captured my own feelings completely. I too am saddened that: 1) The Edwards have been sullied with a malicious rumor or if the rumor is somehow true, 2) That the legacy of such a brilliant populist has been. What a shame!

My belief is that John Edwards was the star performer and most creative thinker of the campaign. He didn't just speak in platitudes. He made morally and socially compelling arguments which captured my own ethos better than anyone else. I hope that these are malicious rumors and there is no truth in them. I guess, I am reminded of the Chicago Black Sox, and the little boy, "...Say it ain't so, John!"

Giordy

[HappyDaddy]

"New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once remarked, 'There's no point in being Irish unless you realize that sooner or later the world will break your heart.'

"He may just as well have said Jewish."

He may just as well have said concerned American.

[lpeacock]

Two organizations you might look into, to "heal your broken heart":: Half In Ten www.halfinten.org/ and HCAN http://healthcareforamericanow.org/.

John and Elizabeth Edwards are out there working for these 2 organizations. The goal of Half In Ten is to halve poverty in the US in 10 years and to eliminate it in 30 years. The goal of HCAN is to ensure UHC in America.

I am standing up with JRE and EE in their fight for these issues, which have not received the media attention they deserve. By clicking on the links, one is likely to find an event near you. And if not, one can at least follow THIS uncovered story.
.

[shela88]

There are two John Edwards scenarios at play in my political fantasy world. In the first one, he is scandal-free and Barak Obama selects him as his running mate. Together they elicit crowds and excitement akin to a sold-out Springsteen concert and following a huge electoral victory they fix much of what is broken in our country..Edwards serves eight years as VP with honor, then runs for the Presidency and wins.

The second scenario is more of a docudrama and therefore less splendid. Edwards is able to hold off the mainstream media because the scandal hurts Republicans and Democrats as well. John Edwards is still the candidate of our hearts because those of us who championed him in the past still have very powerful feelings for him and now a deep sadness as well. Scenario two cancels out scenario one forever and we all live, but a little less happily, ever after.