John Edwards comes dirty clean.
RALEIGH — Whatever remaining scraps of political ambition John Edwards had died yesterday when he admitted to fathering his former mistress’s child, Frances Quinn. In a statement submitted to NBC News, Edwards said it was wrong for him to deny paternity and “hopefully one day, when she understands, she will forgive me.”
The statement, not surprisingly, is in direct contradiction to what Edwards, a former North Carolina senator and vice-presidential candidate, told ABC News reporter Bob Woodruff in August 2008. During the interview, Edwards admitted to an extra-marital affair with campaign videographer Rielle Hunter but denied allegations that her child was his.
“That is absolutely not true,” Edwards said, and then feigned interest in a paternity test to prove it. Also not surprisingly, the paternity test never happened.
On Thursday, Edwards finally came clean and admitted what most suspected from the beginning. In the meantime, he’s fled the country to help with recovery efforts in Haiti. That doesn’t change the mess that he’s left behind — his tarnished name, family, and political legacy.
Edwards had no chance of attaining political office again before the new revelation hit. Now he really has no chance. No political quarter — not even his base of populist supporters — is willing to give him relief, and opinion polls bear that out.
Public Policy Polling, a left-leaning survey group in North Carolina, reported Jan. 19 that Edwards, already a record-holder for most unpopular person, had hit a new low of 15 percent approval compared to 72 percent disapproval. With this latest admission, it’s not unreasonable to guess Edwards’ approval numbers are in the single digits.
Even George W. Bush couldn’t top that.
A significant remaining question is whether Edwards would have fessed up had his former aide, Andrew Young, not agreed to write a tell-all exposé on the former presidential candidate. Young was the campaign staffer who initially took the rap and claimed Hunters baby as his own.
Young’s forthcoming book, to be released in early February, will doubtless contain lurid details about Edwards’ misdeeds. Was Edwards heading that off by admitting paternity early? That would be in line with the Clinton ethic of remorse for getting caught, not for the sin. We’ll see.
Beyond the many questions that have yet to be answered, the lessons of the Edwards scandal are legion. A big one: when political analysts say that a year in politics is an eternity, they really mean it.
In 2004, Edwards was the Democrats’ populist golden boy. He could do no wrong. Despite revelations of huge houses and heftily priced haircuts, Edwards maintained popularity in the party. He came surprisingly close to the White House.
But just a few years later, he is the most despised politician in America, even by liberals. Elected officials — particularly the one who currently occupies the White House — would do well to remember that lesson. Voters can turn fast, and adultery needn’t always be in the mix.
Another lesson is the mainstream medias utter lack of interest in covering legitimate scandals involving Democratic politicians. Edwards’ fall from grace was a slow-motion implosion that lasted much longer than it should have, had the press functioned in its watchdog capacity. Instead, a trashy tabloid using unnamed sources out-scooped them all.
As if to spit once more in the eye of the mainstream press, the National Enquirer plans to submit its coverage of the Edwards scandal for a Pulitzer. The scary thing, at least for mainstream media outlets in their death throes, is that the tabloid deserves it.
Political implications aside, the Edwards scandal is a monumental tragedy for his family and close friends. No one doubts that. Although Edwards’ wife, Elizabeth, isn’t as saintly as commonly believed, her struggle with breast-cancer with a cheating husband should elicit nothing but sympathy.
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It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Ret. Marine| 1.22.10 @ 6:29AM
He's already lower than snake sheet, can it get lower?
Alan Brooks| 1.23.10 @ 12:50PM
Sex is becoming the most boring topic imaginable.
Good.
Perhaps sex will become so infantile, or pre-infantile (an orgasm is a return to the moment of conception), that it will eventually be only for reproduction.
By God, what a shocking thought!
Frsoty| 1.24.10 @ 11:00AM
Actually, Alan, reading one of your comments is a return to the moment of conception i.e. pre-infantile. Sex scandals are always "boring" when they involve a Democrat, and require that Republicans move on to issues that matter to real, hard working Americans.
Alan Brooks| 1.24.10 @ 5:33PM
Then, Frsoty, why discuss sex scandals so much when there are countless other topics for hard working Americans?
Sanford's saga was a tiny bit more interesting, not because he is a Republican, but because of the Inca-Siren, and the imaginary hunting trip.
You don't think these sex scandals are mostly boring and silly, Frsoty? Do you enjoy them? Is there any way you could offer a straight answer to these questions, not an evasive one?
Frosty| 1.24.10 @ 11:02PM
Straight answer coming up: It matters because men without morals, who lie and cheat and treat people with disrespect in their private lives, are very likely to do so in their public/political lives. The press and those who would gain from minimizing this behavior have tried, and somewhat successfully, to convince the American voter that we should not consider this private behavior when deciding on the worthiness of a candidate. Far from the two being separate, it is my opinion that politics should be considered a likely exacerbating factor in terms of their moral shortcomings. I think that whether a candidate for office is able to conduct him or herself honorably and morally is germane. Was that evasive?
DG in GA| 1.26.10 @ 1:24PM
Frosty, I agree with everything you wrote, but I would like to add that the media who prefer to minimize this behavior ONLY do so when the miscreant is a liberal. When the offender is a conservative, you would think he had just committed a heinous murder ( for which the media have also historically let liberals off the hook - see Ted Kennedy).
frosty| 1.27.10 @ 12:52AM
no doubt
JAKE| 1.24.10 @ 2:37PM
Should anyone who ever supported John Edwards have their voting rights revoked? It’s a free country, and we don’t like removing the voting rights of anyone other than felons, but it would seem that anyone who ever supported the blatantly slimy and phony John Edwards is nothing but a danger to him or herself and others when handed a vote. It basically shows the judgment of someone who randomly picks things off the ground and puts them in his mouth.
What do you think?
Alan Brooks| 1.24.10 @ 5:43PM
"What do you think?"
Breathe deeply. Take a valium. Go for a walk. Try to think like a conservative and not a rightwing paranoid.
Snake Pliskin| 1.22.10 @ 7:16AM
Well, As the O'll Saying goes.............
after he hit Rock bottom during the election he's begun to dig.
Typical LIBRAL SELF INDULGENT MODEL .
This guy couldnt donate enough vital organs to garner respect.
JMM| 1.22.10 @ 11:11AM
...while alive.
Alan Brooks| 1.22.10 @ 12:35PM
And which organ might you have in mind?
("shut up, Brooks")
SC Mike| 1.22.10 @ 7:17AM
Will the National Enquirer get a Pulitzer for its Edwards’ reporting?
Alan Brooks| 1.23.10 @ 8:49PM
I don't say sex itself is boring, but the publicly aired topics related to sex are boring in the babyish tone of discussion. Or, at best, elementary school-- High Schoolers don't waste time with that goo goo talk, do they? or perhaps today they do? (please don't answer that question).
To be perfectly cynical (cynicism is usually far more on-target than naivite') maybe sex-talk will become so immature the public would even merely decide to continue having all the sex they want-- but not talk about it at all.
tailgunner| 1.26.10 @ 2:33PM
Just as with Clinton, liberals want to reduce all Democratic sex scandals to 'just sex'.
By doing so, they hope to distract people from Democrats' lies, denials, infidelity, perjury, obstruction and general moral bankruptcy.
It's not 'just sex'. It's character. These people are even capable of sleeping around on a wife battling cancer, or watching a young woman face federal perjury charges for trying to cover up their affair...at his request.
You'd expect such disgusting behavior from a sleazy lounge lizard in a hotel bar...but not by so-called 'statesmen' held to a higher standard.
And Republicans can be just as bad. The problem is that the GOP doesn't go all out as a party to defend the behavior of a Craig or a Foley or a Sanford.
RogC| 1.22.10 @ 7:31AM
Who really cares if Dean has a dozen floozies on the side? Denounce him for his socialist political agendas. Dean is the perfect example of the wealthy liberal who would see the majority of people reduced to serfdom and people care about his sex life?
jd| 1.22.10 @ 3:09PM
I could care less of his sex life, however, it just reinforces the fact that he is just another typical liberal elitist hypocrit. The fact he's trying to portray himself as someone who cares about poverty is ridiculous when you see how he lives. I don't know who is worse, him or his "saint Elizabeth" of a wife. From what I understand, the gulf between her public persona and who she is in private is astounding. I think they both deserve each other, and with that said, I say ignore them both.
Alan Brooks| 1.23.10 @ 9:16PM
"Dean is the perfect example of the wealthy liberal who would see the majority of people reduced to serfdom and people care about his sex life?"
IMO the real issue is the tawdriness of sex today. What was mildly interesting up into the '90s (Gennifer with a 'G'; Marla Maples [what a cute name]) is now a bit stale. The Profumo scandal was shocking; the extent of JFK's satyriasis was (is still) shocking.
Today it is: "oh, no; not another sex scandal."
Say the 999th time you read about a politician unable to control his hormones, it might yet be interesting. But perhaps the 1000th revelation is the straw that breaks the camel's back.
I'm not discussing the scandals here, but merely the underlying cluelessness and immaturity.
In 1965 my elementary school class was taken on a field trip to see the film 'Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines'; a scene showed a nude sunbathing woman lying on her stomach. It was daring.
Many times in the '60s I saw an episode of Our Gang (the "Little Rascals") titled 'Beginner's Luck' wherein
Kitty kelly gets her dressed ripped off at the end. That was interesting.
Today sex is mostly tawdrily commercial without the 'interesting'.
Like soda without the fizz.
Alan Brooks| 1.24.10 @ 1:00PM
'Decline Of Pleasure' is a book I only skimmed, but the message was clear.
Still is.
DG in GA| 1.26.10 @ 1:26PM
Rog: DEAN? What column are you responding to? did you even READ this piece before responding to it? Does Howard Dean have something going on we should know about?
DG in GA| 1.26.10 @ 1:26PM
Rog: DEAN? What column are you responding to? did you even READ this piece before responding to it? Does Howard Dean have something going on we should know about?
Melvin| 1.22.10 @ 7:34AM
In being a resident of NC, and witnessed the ascendancy of this political ass, I can say that yes, there is very, very ignorant voters in North Carolina, most notably in the Raleigh/Durham, Charlotte urban areas.
Of course these are the same voters that voted for the former disgraced Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong of the Duke rape case fiasco.
This lawyerly charlatan John Edwards replaced a perfectly good Senator Lauch Faircloth that had more honor and decency in his little finger that Edwards had in his entire miserable worthless carcass.
If the Hatians had any sense they would throw Mr. Lotsa Hair on the first leaky row boat with a busted oar headed towards Cuba.
John Edwards is a vile, disgusting, piss poor example of what a husband, father, and decent man should be.
Alan Brooks| 1.23.10 @ 10:04PM
Calvin Coolidge had the correct answer to everything-- NO answer for everything;
he kept his trap shut as much as possible. Silence isn't Golden;
silence is platinum, gold, silver, and every jewel in creation.
Silence is escapism, yes, but escape from the chattering classes
exercising their mouths' muscles.
Louis Jenkins| 1.22.10 @ 8:02AM
Melvin:
Faircloth was better man, but you left out Chapel Hillwhen it comes to a support base! And who gave Edwards a job after he left the senate for a "greater" calling? This man is a charlatan, a fake, and a sham. Worse, he's a lawyer without principles, but ain't most of them? As Jessie Helms said, "North Carolina doesn't need a state zoo, just put a fence around Chapel Hill." The newest animal in that zoo is a baboon and a fool.
ExPat| 1.24.10 @ 5:33AM
It's no coincidence that college towns invariably enable the worst politicians.
Jim| 1.22.10 @ 8:04AM
Not only is he the cad that has been described in the above comments, he also is responsible for Obama being in the WH. If the public new about this act prior to the Iowa caucus, he would have been out and Hillary Clinton would have won. Instead Edwards and Clinton split the vote allowing Obama to win. The rest is history.
Alan Brooks| 1.24.10 @ 5:52PM
"Although Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, isn't as saintly as commonly believed,"
This is the only clause in the piece I ignored; it is fluff--
how many people are as saintly as they are commonly thought to be?
Not many.
DG in GA| 1.26.10 @ 1:28PM
Jim, do you honestly believe we'd be any better off with the Clintons back in the White House? Wasn't eight years of Bubba enough for you?
WRTolkas| 1.22.10 @ 8:39AM
Gentlemen,
"National Enquirer plans to submit its coverage of the Edwards scandal for a Pulitzer...."
So what is new? I read of an elected government official, who was only on the job less than a month, receive a Nobel Peace Prize.
Have a good weekend,
WRTolkas
Anthony| 1.22.10 @ 11:42AM
Great point WR; problem is, the same leftist snarks who judged the Nobel, will judge the Pulitzer.
Dan Rather will get his long deserved Pulitzer for the Bush expose long before the NE does.
moron| 1.22.10 @ 10:12AM
Hey, the guy is a tort attorney. He made a fortune suing doctors, uh, their insurance companies. What were you expecting?
Anthony| 1.22.10 @ 10:12AM
The only other folks lower than Edwards in this disgusting immorality play are the MSM. The "elite" media gave this reprobate a complete pass, they sniffed at the National Enquirer, despite being skunked by the Enquirer yet again, when it came to revelations about a liberal, that the MSM chose to hide.
Edwards and the MSM are destined for the same fate; they are immoral and toxic, hence deserve to be buried.
Jeff| 1.22.10 @ 10:23AM
Why is anyone still talking about John Edwards at all? What news value is there in this man? Who cares what he does next?
Ray| 1.22.10 @ 11:09AM
This story, the rise and decline of Edwards, serves as a morality lesson for everyone. This is a lesson of what happens when you deny your actions and deceive people who you are asking to trust you. That should tell you just how important it is.
Pingback| 1.22.10 @ 10:30AM
North Carolina Child Support | AXI links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 1.22.10 @ 10:40AM
North Carolina Child Support - Nardu links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Evelyn| 1.22.10 @ 10:55AM
One correction: The Edwards have four children, three of whom are living. They're the ones I feel bad for.
I want Andrew Young to answer one question: How in the heck did your wife sign on to your pretending to be the father of Rielle Hunter's baby? Is she an idiot, too?
If such an idea had been pitched to me, I would have destroyed him so thoroughly in the divorce that he would have prayed for death.
Carpenter| 1.22.10 @ 2:13PM
Nice.
Vince| 1.22.10 @ 3:10PM
My wife's name isn't Evelyn, but she holds the very same views, and correctly so.
DG in GA| 1.26.10 @ 1:31PM
Evelyn: EXCELLENT point! I never would have let my husband agree to something like that, and if approached, I would have gone straight to Elizabeth Edwards - after telling her husband off in no uncertain terms. Of course, now I wonder who the Enquirer SOURCE might have been?????
Pingback| 1.22.10 @ 11:11AM
Why Has He Stopped Lying? John Edwards Confesses He Is Father of Rielle Hunter’s Dau links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 1.22.10 @ 11:11AM
North Carolina Child Support links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Matthew Quigley| 1.22.10 @ 11:13AM
I'm still amazed that Silky Pony/The Breck Girl's affair was with a woman!
Thomas M. Evans| 1.22.10 @ 11:19AM
Kudos to the National Enquirer for breaking the story that the sorry MSM "journalists" could not or would not uncover. They deserve the Pulitzer Prize based solely on exhibiting Journalism 101. It would also gall and shame the MSM. Fat chance though, since the MSM hands out the awards. On a secondary note, Edwards epitomizes todays Democrat Party. Nothing but a bunch of character flawed scoundrels.
Oldefarte| 1.22.10 @ 11:45AM
He's like most of the hypocritical liberals that have dominated the Democratic Party for years. Everything that comes forth from their mouths is nothing but LIES. This particular vermin [pre politics] were a typical shyster-lawyer made his humongous [financial] living by suing insurance companies. As a politician, this sleezy dirtbag has the almighty gall to stand in front of Katrina destroyed houses and demean the American public for allowing this travesty to occur to the poor. What a GD hypocrit, two-faced, lying piece of garbage. It's befitting that the truth of him has finally surfaced for all to see. It's just a shame that gullable American voters are taken in and brainwashed by these charlatans!!!!
Larry in Iowa| 1.22.10 @ 1:28PM
This story is not important for what it says about Edwards. It's important for what it says about the lap dog media.
Vince| 1.22.10 @ 3:12PM
Amen, Larry.
Pingback| 1.22.10 @ 2:12PM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : How Low Can He Go? [spectator.org] o links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Al Adab| 1.22.10 @ 3:37PM
But let us not forget, he was qualified to be Vice President unlike the governor from Alaska.
Haven't we answered enough the question, "can we trust the Left?" Why voters even continue to consider them a viable alternative is frankly beyond my ken. They are in it for themselves and while many in the GOP are likewise guilty, few Conservatives share that guilt.
tailgunner| 1.27.10 @ 2:38PM
What qualified him?
Edwards was a Senator for a few years. Senators can't do a thing without a majority of other Senators, which dilutes the credit or the blame.
Sarah Palin was Governor of the largest state in the Union. As the chief executive, Palin was personally responsible for her decisions and those of her administration.
But if you consider serial lies, infidelity, arrogance, misogyny, obstruction and utter contempt for his constituency 'qualifications', well then I agree that Edwards was far more 'qualified' for the Vice Presidency.
tailgunner| 1.27.10 @ 2:40PM
Sorry, I misread your post.
Please don't consider yourself the target of my reply.
Dustoff| 1.22.10 @ 3:43PM
Hey, the guy is a tort attorney. He made a fortune suing doctors, uh, their insurance companies. What were you expecting?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
YIKES.... he's in Haiti right now. Doc's look out!
JeffT| 1.22.10 @ 6:30PM
Just another liberal Democrat doing what comes naturally.
Pingback| 1.23.10 @ 1:19AM
Nc Child Support News | Tech News links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
carla| 1.23.10 @ 8:53AM
This guy will travel anywhere to get laid. Haiti?
Scott A Joseph, MD| 1.24.10 @ 3:29PM
The only thing holding him back is Haiti's high AIDS rate...
Richard Baker| 1.23.10 @ 10:16AM
Louis Jenkins:
Used to live in Durham when Helms was alive and in office and heard that quote after I went to the Zoo in Ashboro. Funny line.
Edwards descent reminds me of the Willie and Joe cartoon by Bill Mauldin where they are on their bellies being shot at and Joe says to Willie, "I can't get any lower, Willie, me buttons is in the way." That's Edwards and that shameful hussy to whom he's married.
Pingback| 1.23.10 @ 4:52PM
What Is North Carolina Child Support | Tech News links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Frosty| 1.24.10 @ 11:17AM
Why John Edwards matters.....
Because it's about time America and the msm stopped giving Democrats a pass who have exhibited despicable behavior in their lives, prior to running for office. Why do we allow the separation of the two as if a candidate suddenly becomes a spotless new person, akin to being baptized, now that he/she has decided to become a politician? If anything, politics should be seen as a potential exacerbating factor in terms of a persons prior moral failings.
Tort reform. Imagine yourself as a hard working obstetrician with a lying sack the likes of John Edwards parading and preening across the courtroom floor, channeling some poor, deceased child, blaming you for it all. Sitting there, helpless, as John, whith his 700 dollar haircut, summoning insincere tears to drive home the point to those suckers we call a jury so he can add another 10,000 square feet to his 25,000 square foot mansion while your reputation lies in tatters.
That's why John matters.
kris lepine| 1.24.10 @ 3:49PM
That's correct, Frosty and during his run for the Presidency, he was telling us "ordinary" Americans we were greedy and selfish and weren't giving enough to the underpriviliged. He had his own "spread the wealth around" ideas and came off as "holier than thou" all the while he was a total hypocrite like all libs.
Years ago, John Stossel did an excellent piece on charitable giving in the US. He summed it up this way: conservatives give a lot more than liberals because they know it's the right thing to do. Liberals want all giving to go thru the government because then it's "other people's" money being given, not theirs.
frosty| 1.25.10 @ 12:57AM
Kris,
So true. The humorous part is that McCain (who I had to pinch my nostrils and vote for , for lack of a viable option) was ridiculed continuously for having seven houses and here is John Edwards with his massive estate preaching to us about our greed, selfishness and how he wants to help those who have been victims of unequal wealth distribution, and HE gets a pass.
Throw in cheating on the wife with cancer, denying it, getting the woman pregnant, denying it, and the main streamers still wouldn't go after him.
Staggeringly duplicitous behavior reported on in a staggeringly biased way.
xcon| 1.24.10 @ 11:25AM
Edwards was included in this years list of top 100 liberals along with Blago and that whore monger Spitzer.
I'm surprised McGreevy was left off the list.
Scott A Joseph, MD| 1.24.10 @ 3:28PM
He's a typical malpractice plaintiff attorney, no better or worse than the majority of them are. I would call him vermin, but vermin serve a purpose in nature.
work bag | 1.25.10 @ 12:45AM
The article gives some really deep-going thoughts.
drudge ette obama| 1.25.10 @ 6:53AM
The most fun about the John Edwards continuing soap opera was reading the disheartened and despairing comments made by the Democratic Underground commentators when the news first broke about John Edwards.
Now I always go the Democratic Underground when some lefty garbage hits the news. It's fun to see them cry and to witness the utter despair. Then, like cruel killers, they adjust their mood to attack and ravage.
As long as they stay in their own huts, Democratic Undergrounders are anthropologically fascinating.
frosty| 1.25.10 @ 9:52AM
Anyone heard how that granddaughter of a mill worker is doing?
DG in GA| 1.26.10 @ 1:36PM
Frosty: they are livin' large in Myers Park in Charlotte, NC. Not a bad address for a woman who has had no "visible" means of support for the past couple of years. He did have them ensconced in a mansion in his own gated community, but I guess that was just a little too close for Elizabeth to be comfortable. So he moved them across the state.
frosty| 1.27.10 @ 12:55AM
Now John can add "meal ticket" to his resume.
Howard| 1.25.10 @ 6:08PM
Edwards was always my favorite Democratic hypocrite. He is dissimilar to others only by the degree of his phoniness. His "Tow America's speech, "Son of a Mill Worker", private jets, huge house, mortgage payment priced haircuts, and pretty boy face are so delicious and tantalizing. I hope he tries for a comeback. The Main Stream Media will pimp for him. A Dateline of 20/20 tearful appearance will bring our boy right back into our hearts.
Howard| 1.25.10 @ 6:09PM
I meant "Two America's" speech. typo.
Pingback| 1.27.10 @ 8:11PM
Finally: Wife Elizabeth Leaves Cheating, Lying Worm of a Husband John Edwards, & Rea links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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Knock Me Over with a Feather… Fed Grand Gury about to Indict Democrat “Lying Baby Da links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
forgive me| 4.6.10 @ 4:12AM
I like this "hopefully one day, when she understands, she will forgive me."
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