Thanks, spooje. Glad to see someone willing to read and debate here. 
You’re right, of course, I may be leaping to conclusions far ahead of the facts. I don’t think so, but I can’t deny the possibility.
And, like I said, my own history may be making me a bit more sensitive to certain nuances than the population at large.
OL all these assumptions that Edwards had to have prior knowledge of his bother’s misbehaviors is absurd. In fact, I think the reverse is more likely in many situations.
I’ve know lots of well off/weathly people thatgave money to or bought a house for some miscreant blood relative just so they *wouldn’t * have to deal with their nonsense and to put some distance between them.
Beyond this there are lots of people (myself probably included) who would not share news of DWIs and other asinine personal mishehaviors with my brothers and sisters. It would be too embarrassing. It would be doubly embarrassing if this was a realtive who had bailed me out of trouble before, or had done me some huge favor like buying me a house. The last thing I would do is keep him apprised of what a big, drunken, DWI ticket getting asshole I was.
The only way many geographically separated bothers find out the more embarrassing details of each others lives is that their mothers and sisters tattle on them to the other brother in casual conversation, or the brothers wives/girlfriends swap info. If neither of these pipelines exist they might as well be leading entirely separate lives.
True enough. But if that’s the case, they don’t buy a house for the miscreant blood relative in the same city that they live in. At least not in the situations I’ve seen.
I’d have no problem with this argument, astro, if it weren’t for the fact that Senator Edwards moved his brother back to the same city that the Senator lives in. And, I don’t argue your assertation that most of us would keep something like a DWI from our families if at all possible. Where you and I differ is that I believe there is reason to assume that Senator Edwards has been helping his brother, who has a known problem, for at least five years, now, and a part of that problem involves drink and poor driving decisions.
As I told spooje, I may be wrong in my assumptions. I don’t believe I am, but I may be. Having admitted that, I still believe that my assumptions are warranted by the slim facts of the case.
And, astro, thanks for a reasoned disagreement! I really do appreciate it. I was starting to get disappointed in our fellow board members.
Give it a fucking rest already. Starting a pit thread about this was fucking stupid and desperate. Who the hell gives a shit anyway, even if John Edwards DID know how much trouble his bro was in. I have no reason to believe he did and neither do you but even if he did, who gives a flying fuck? WTF does it have to with whether John Kerry should be president?
Starting a pit thread questioning someone’s word about a trivial personal matter is really a waste of bandwidth, especially when you have no shred of evidence that the statement was even false.
Excuse me, did I say one word about the presidential election, or that this should affect anyone’s vote? As I pointed out in my title for this whole thread it’s a pretty lame kvetch. I deliberately didn’t make ANY links about the presidential election, because anything that Edwards may lose for a pretty damned minor lie, he gains back and more for his concern for his family. And a VP candidate shouldn’t be enough to swing one’s vote either way. You, and everyone like you, who’ve jumped all over me for my assumed motives for posting this pit thread are doing everything you can to embitter me against Democrats in general, and Kerry/Edwards supporters in particular. I pitted a behavior that pisses me off - a politician telling lies that seem pretty transparent.
You disagree with my conclusions. Fine. Don’t tell me I don’t have a shred of evidence when I’ve posted it time and again. It is circumstantial evidence, but that does not mean it doesn’t exist.
As for wasting bandwidth, isn’t part of the reason we’re paying for this board is to use it as a venting ground for things, no matter how minor, that annoy us?