Nobody has declared that. It’s simply being pointed out conservative moral outrage about private sex lives is completely selective. Most of us libs don’t care about either Mccain or Edwards. We are consistent. You are the hypocrites. Either you think fucking around on your wife matters or you don’t. Don’t switch it up according to whatever’s politically convenient for you.
Having said that, McCain is actually a sitting Senator running for President. John Edwards hold no public office, is running for nothing and has committed no crime. Why do you believe that his penis and testicles are your personal business? I thought you Canadians had outgrown this kind of moralistic bullshit.
Ha! She waited for his bitch ass for 5 1/2 years and kept her car accident a secret fromm him while he was there because she didn’t want to put the extra stress and worry on him. Then he came back and she had lost her looks and lost part of her legs and he thought she wasn’t worthy to be on his arm anymore. McCain himself has said that Vietnam had nothing to do with the breakup of his first marriage and blames it all on “my own immaturity and selfishness.” Do I care? No. Do I think it has anything to do with his ability to be President? No. But what he did was far more shiitty than what John Edwards did. Edwards stumbled with one woman (as opposed to multiple women like McCain did), told his wife, was forgiven, and that was the end of it. Oh, and it happened before her current diagnosis, by the way. She wasn’t sick when he banged this other chick. One more little thing: he didn’t dump his wife for a richer, younger upgrade like McCain did.
The only problem with this is that it is bullshit. You care very deeply about McCain’s adultery; but not about Edwards’, who was fucking around on his wife while she was busy dying of cancer.
Gingrich supposedly serves his wife with divorce papers while she was recovering from cancer. Is this important? Kerry dumps his first wife because she is depressed. Is this important? Edwards fucks around behind his wife’s back while she is dying. Is this important? McCain cheats on his wife after she gets into an accident. Is this important? Clinton lies his ass off about adultery and sexual harassment. Is this important?
Yes, yes, I know you are always going to say it’s OK if a Democrat does it, and never if a Republican does it. But that is a stupid and hypocritical standard, and everyone knows it.
This would be so fucking funny, it wouldn’t be funny.
No I don’t. I don’t give a rat’s ass. I just like to poke moralistic conservatives about it. Politicians can go under water and fuck fish for all I care.
None of this is important, but I am always amused when a moralist gets caught.
ETA, John Edwards is a private citizen, not an elected official or a candidate. Why are his penis and testicles any more newsworthy than mine?
In Edwards’ defense, I will say that just because his wife had cancer doesn’t mean that’s a reason to stay married or that it makes either of them better people. We don’t know what their marriage was like before her diagnosis- for all we know he may have been a horndog all along- hell, for all we know she may have had a “bit on the side” when she was well, or the marriage could have been having serious problems for 25 years for all we know but was held together by political ambition and desire not to split the fortune.
Also, the statements “Elizabeth Edwards had cancer” and “John Edwards had an affair” aren’t necessarily a cause:effect relationship; it doesn’t mean he just said “eh, I don’t want to have sex with a cancer patient, think I’ll see if I can pick up… that girl” [zoom in on Marlo Thomas].) And I may get pitted for saying this, but imo the fact he cheated on his wife who has cancer doesn’t mean he doesn’t love her, but it could be that the extreme stress of the situation and fear of losing her and the fact they probably couldn’t have a normal sex life while she was in treatment all combined to cause the affair. This isn’t to say that it’s her fault for getting sick, obviously, but that he wouldn’t be the first person to relieve stress and try to feel normal by doing something stupid.
(Of course generally speaking I think that we tack waaaaaaaaay too much importance on complete sexual fidelity in long term relationships- not saying that everyone should have a fling once in a while, but just that there are worse things that can happen in a marriage/a one-night-stand or affair shouldn’t automatically be interpreted as “the marriage is a shambles”, but that’s for another thread altogether.)
I see no inconsistency. Why would I be outraged over whether Clinton (or any other person I don’t know) has an affair? How does it “break my arm or pick my pocket” in any way? Plenty of people are outraged over the existence of gays or interracial dating or birth control or single mothers or other things that go against their moral code; they need to get over it and look to their own relationship (which they can conduct by any rules they wish).
I echo Sampiro’s comments on this not being proof that Edwards didn’t/doesn’t love his wife. Life threatening illnesses are enormous stresses for the loved ones of the ill person. People deal with stress in many stupid ways. For example, when my father had emergency open heart surgery I had 3 chocolate milkshakes and shot my sugar up above 240 (a truly dumb move for a diabetic). I feel much sorrier for Elizabeth and John Edwards, as well as their children, then I do triumphant that another politician has publically messed up.
I’m glad Edwards is not anywhere near the ticket. I hope, in a possible Obama administration, he would not have a post above gofer. However, since he is now a private citizen, hopefully he can mend the broken trust with his family. As long as this revaluation (the stupidity of *running for office * when he KNEW the affair was waiting to be uncovered is what I want the voters to remember) keeps him out of public life, I hope he can get his life straight with both his family and his Deity. . Hopefully the Edward’s children and Elizabeth Edwards will soon feel peace, they are the real victims.
Well, he will be as soon as he no longer has any campaign committee, isn’t trying to raise funds, isn’t politicking for any spot in an administration, and doesn’t intend to run for political office in the future. Until then, the simple fact that he’s on the list for potential VP is enough to make him someone whose LYING about his actions is fair game.
Just watched the Nightline segment (can’t really call it an interview since he ducked the questions he said he would answer). ABC’s post commercial that followed it was for their investigative report on Monday.
To be clear, again. He did not cheat on his dying wife. He cheated on his healthy wife, admitted it, tried to make up with her, & then stood by her (apparently faithfully) while she was dying.
At least, allegedly. So not necessarily lower than a snake. Definitely higher than Newt Gingrich.
What do you mean, I don’t know that? Edwards admitted it. He also admitted that his wife did not know he was still seeing the woman.
And how do you translate “his wife isn’t leaving him” into “his wife doesn’t care”? She’s dying, for God’s sake. I doubt she has the time or inclination to set up a new life for herself, y’know?
I’m angry at him for several reasons, some of which are reasonable and some of which are not, given that I’m not a family member or even friend. I’m angry at him on the basic level of cheating on a partner/mate/wife who did not consent to being in the sort of relationship that allows for that. I’m a proponent of open relationships for those who want to be in them, but that doesn’t mean that someone taking a traditional marriage vow and breaking it is okay with me.
Second, I’m angry at him for running for president knowing that this was out there. Where the hell would the Democratic Party be if Edwards had actually gotten the nomination and THEN this came out? How can you be so irresponsible as to open the presidential race up to this kind of scandal? And yes, I realize this will be seized upon to tar me with the “But Bill Clinton…” brush, but I wasn’t very happy about that, either. I think B. Clinton could have been a much better man and a much better president than he was. I still think that he was better than the Republicans he ran against, however.
The affair occurred before she had a terminal diagnosis. She wasn’t “dying” in 2006. She wasn’t sick yet. She didn’t get sick until after the affair was over, Edwards had told her about it and she had forgiven him. You don’t know that there is anything more to it than that or that he continued to have the affair after she became ill. You don’t know that he was fucking her in that hotel. That’s just wild speculation on your part.
Yeah, I’m crazy in assuming that a furtive five hour hotel room visit to an ‘ex-lover’ which his wife didn’t know about, ending at 2:45 in the morning, is a continuance of the affair.
Give it a rest, Diogenes. Trying to defend the man is wasted effort. He’s already managed to trash all the efforts to defend him from before he admitted the affair. Maybe he screwed her again, maybe he didn’t, but it isn’t worth worrying about, is it?
Sam, the explanation that he went to see her to get her to keep quiet about the situation is certainly plausible. And Diogenes is right: since not even the Enquirer is asserting that he had sex with her on that occasion, it’s just making things up to speculate that he was. Which isn’t to say he wasn’t. But you can’t accuse him of doing it without some evidence, and you can’t use the “fact” that he did it to support assertions about his character. As if anyone needs more ammunition than they’ve actually been handed. :rolleyes:
I know you’re right, but it’s annoying when keep keep adding onto it and trying to make it sound worse than what he’s admitted to. A short affair, quickly ended, confessed to and forgiven for two years ago doesn’t sound bad enough for them. They have to embellish with “Deathbed! Love baby! While she was DYYYYYIIING!!!11” I think it’s childish. Let’s at least stick to known facts.
I don’t buy that at all. First, unless she is missing a few brain cells, she would know to be quiet about the situation. What could Edwards possibly be telling her in person, without his wife knowing, that he, or one of his aides couldn’t accomplish over the phone?
I’m with Sam, here. No way was he there for 5 hours, ending at 2:45am, and not up to something.
When was the last time you were out and about at 3am, in a non-emergency situation, and doing something positive? Me neither…