One would hope, that if Edwards had locked down the nomination, he wouldn’t have been running around hotel rooms trying to hide from photographers…he would have been too busy campaigning. So, the National Enquirer may not have broken the story.
I find his assertion that he is willing to take a paternity test telling. He must be very damn sure he’s not the father.
That said, I feel so very bad for his wife. She’s battling incurable cancer and now she has this to deal with.
Oh, and he didn’t love the mistress. Well, isn’t that nice. :rolleyes:
John Edwards is a son of a bitch and I hope his wife divorces his ass.
Yeah, that jumped out at me as well. Why is that men (I guess there are women who say this also but I’ve never personally heard it) think that if they aren’t not emotionally involved with the other woman it somehow makes things better?
Geez. I get home and this is the news that greets me. Let me make it clear that I really don’t give a damn what John Edwards does with the contents of his pants. That’s between him and his wife and any third parties that might be involved, and it doesn’t affect any of his political positions. (Heh. Positions. Sorry.) Also, he’s never made a point of being moralizing about other people’s sex lives, so there’s no hypocrisy to call him on. Sure, it makes me question his character somewhat, but I really can’t get up the energy to make a scene over a guy who isn’t running for office and who never made a big deal about the sanctity of marriage or the family unit or any of that.
On the other hand…couldn’t he have kept it in his pants until the election is over? Well, okay, so 2006 was a long way off. But the least he could do was have quietly admitted it as soon as he suspected he would be ratted out, no matter if the odds were in his favor. Neither party needs major party members playing hide the ferret right before the elections.
What news isn’t gossip, at some level? He could very well have been up for a cabinet position in Obama’s administration. And remember, it’s not so much about the deed, but about the cover-up.
Hm…when you put it like that, yeah, I can muster the ire to get angry about the cover-up. But mostly, I’m angry about the incredibly bad timing. Right before an election…looks like we’ll be turning from analyzing candidates’ celebrity statuses to analyzing their love lives. Issues get shoved even further down the line of discussion points, and it’s free fodder for Republicans.
It is news. He entered the primaries as a public figure. He was a news figure when the question was posed to him about the affair, and he denied it. It is news now.
What gets me as well is that he made his terminally ill wife a conspirator in his lying to the American public while seeking their support to lead them. That had to really hurt her.
This man has been exposed a self serving asshole, and I expect his political career is over
He was a playa. And for you to deride anyone else for the same shit but hold up Clinton as an example of “what you can get away with and the people will still love you” is pretty funny.
That guy was a sexual predator if he didn’t attain the Oval Office.
What’s that old Bill Maher act? Pussy for the President? If goddamn JFK can bang Marilyn and get away with it, why can’t Clinton get something other than the “prison sex from the chunky chick that brings in the mail” (paraphrasing Maher)?
Dude, you’ve got the Secret Service…smuggle them bitches into the Lincoln room and bow, you’re out in a DC cab by 5:00am, beaatch. Thanks for dining at the Presidential Ball…now I’m a busy man, so…fuck off or you’ll end up like Vince Foster!
I will say, that while I’m disgusted with Edwards, I’m equally as disgusted with those who attempt to use personal failings as a reflection on a political party. Edwards’ failings are his own, as are McCain’s, Clinton’s, Craig’s, etc., etc., etc.
Part of what really bugs me about Edwards’ recent idiocy is that if the affair was over long ago, he didn’t love her, the kid wasn’t his - what the fuck is he doing sneaking into a hotel to visit her? Something still doesn’t add up.
Every time this happens I hope that it’s the tipping point, when we Americans finally don’t care a whole lot about what Public Figure X does behind closed doors. He has to live with the guilt and shame of what he did (supposing that he feels it), and his wife and family have to heal from it. It shouldn’t matter one way or the other what I, or anybody else, thinks. (I guess that chick he was banging has some opinion about the whole thing as well.)
I’m convinced that people who aspire to be president, prime minister, senator, whatever… they’re just wired differently than a lot of us. If you’ve got crazy stress at work and you’re worried about the economy, keeping peace in the world, and terrorist strikes, maybe it does you some good to bang random people. I’m of the opinion if you can still do the job and do it well, why does it matter? Unless you’ve made a career out of being some moral crusader - religious types and Dr. Laura deserve scorn for screwing around.
The other thing that bugs me is the idea that Elizabeth Edwards is somehow obliged to leave Johnny boy, or if she doesn’t she’s capitulating in some way. I suspect with all they’ve been through - the long term relationship, the various campaigns, losing a son tragically, and of course Elizabeth’s illnesses - that this is something they would likely be able to overcome. I suspect that Elizabeth’s known John for 30 years and can see how this could happen.
Anyway, I hope they find healing, both of them, and of course the family, who didn’t ask for any of this…
One other thing. Can we invoke a new rule: when some other politician gets caught fucking around, try not to make any pompous-sounding statements. Just say “that’s sad” and shut the fuck up. Gingrich, Wide Stance Larry, Bob Barr, and John Edwards all had words of shame for Clinton, and look where they all ended up…
In truth, his SAYING he is willing to take a test is quite different from TAKING a paternity test. I think the guy is a sociopath, and thinks he can talk his way out of taking the test when his bluff is called.
I wonder if he will use the excuse that his wife ‘couldn’t take care of his needs’ for his out.
<flash> Just saw Riel Hunter speaking on CNN. What a spook. If I was Edwards, I’d do better. Maybe Edwards did do better. Any talk about additional affairs?
An extramarital affair is a big deal . . . within a guy’s marriage. Outside of that, it’s nobody’s business, and certainly I couldn’t give a shit.
Why does anybody put up with that kind of tabloid crap? If I had been Clinton, or in this case Edwards, my only statement would have been, “That’s nobody’s business, so I won’t be talking about that publicly, ever.” No stupid public apologies. It would be between me, my wife, and the other lady I’d been boning.
Well, I don’t think he’d volunteer to take it unless he knew what the results would be. The guy’s a lawyer…isn’t one of their guidelines is never to ask a question unless you already know the answer?
And I don’t think he is stupid enough to claim his wife “couldn’t take care of his needs.” The woman is battling breast cancer for Og’s cancer…to blame her cancer for his sexual frustrations when he could just spend an extra ten minutes in the bathroom with a Penthouse and bottle of lotion is despicable.
And then you’d lose the election. Cheaters are assholes and nobody likes assholes. Cheating is also lying, he didn’t tell his wife or anybody else he was doing a reporter. As a politician it’s kind of important to have people’s trust. You can’t say you are a loyal person with integrity, something politicians like to claim they are. It’s better not to cheat when you are a politician who wants to be president/vice president/cabinet member.
I’d completely agree with you if he was a regular celebrity or a private citizen, but he’s not.
Actually, I read somewhere that women can tolerate an affair by the spouse if there was no love involved, and men could tolerate a wife loving another man if there is no sex involved.
With the other man, I believe.
Can’t remember if it was a real psychological study, a pop psy study, or just somebody’s opinion.
The cover-upis just more gossip. It’s no more newsworthy than Brangellina news. Edwards holds no elected position and is not running for anything. He’s a private citizen whose cock and balls are nobody’s business but his own.
He could have been a potential Cabinet member. So? Anybody could conceivably be a future Cabinet member. By that standard, any private citizen’s cock and balls are newsworthy.
Even if Edwards was a Cabinet member, so what? There’s no law against banging strange. Should we investigate the sex lives of every current Cabinet member and every potential Cabinet member we can personally speculate that either McCain or Obama might choose?
This is nothing but rank, salacious gossip, no more significant or newsworthy than the leather games being engaged in by the next door neighbors.