I’m not surprised that the Washington Post editorial board doesn’t want to see John Edwards retried after he succeeded in getting a hung jury in his campaign finance trial. The Post and its columnists have never met a politician they wanted to see imprisoned. Scooter Libby is a hero to these people. Torture was just an oopsy. I get that.
And I don’t really know if the government proved their case or not. The jury was divided on that subject. But, as a Democrat, I’d like to see John Edwards punished for making a serious run at the 2008 nomination, which he could well have won, while he and his wife both knew full well that he was carrying out an affair. They both should have known that he was too vulnerable to be the nominee. And they were so selfish and egotistical that they went ahead with the campaign anyway.
Elizabeth was nice woman with a lot of charm, and it’s terrible how she was treated by John. But her judgment was just as bad as his. The staggering irresponsibility of it is not something I will ever forgive. If there were a statute against assholery, John Edwards would never see the light of day again.
Many of us knew that John “Son of a meeeeel-worker” Edwards was a dick from jump street…
No kidding. I never could understand why a largish segment of the left got so invested in him; the guy positively screamed “phony sleazeball” to me, way back as far as his VP run with Kerry.
But then, I’m a woman, and over 60, and I’ve seen his kind enough and more than enough over the last few decades to have fine-tuned the old antennae for his brand of bull.
I’m not sure it’s a function of age. I was in my mid 20s at the time and I said to the people in Iowa (I lived there then) that while I supported Edwards as the best of a problematic lot, I didn’t trust him. There was something about him that said to me he was lying about something.
Agree with you Boo on Edwards. Ashamed to say I supported Edwards at first, much to my disgrace, until my mother (!!!) and then the younger generation convinced me to back Obama, whom I thought at first had no chance. Did not support Hillary, who, imo, is doing a great job as SOS, because I was turned off by what seemed to me her strength in back room deals vs. transparency (in working out the Health Care Plan, for example) though I was not following things closely at that time. Of course this is a tremendous plus as SOS. Edwards is so [narcissistic?] lack of transparency isn’t even a category for him.
In interviews before he began his presidential run, Obama struck me as a fence-straddler – and he hasn’t failed to disappoint as President. Take the same-sex marriage issue for example. Obama said his position “evolved” and that he came to his latest decision after seeing that his children had friends with same-sex parents. The latter sounded ridiculous and perhaps it was just for public consumption. I expect my President to have the imagination and empathy to come to early decisions on social justice issues like this, and not have to be dragged into expressing his position, presuming it is his true position, under political duress.
You own this President? Interesting….
Tempted to troll-rate. How many Dems in 2000 bit the bullet and said “George Bush, whatever else I think of him, is my president now?” The personal possessive pronoun is a commonly accepted practice when describing the POTUS, irrespective of party or whatever other persuasion. The President is a public servant, and hence does, in that sense, belong to all of us.
“What’s that you say, a SERVANT?” Save it.
What the hell???
The hell is whatever prompted you to make that comment about “owning” the President. Explain that, please.
This president is his own man. I don’t want someone at my beck and call; like a puppet on a string. This is not the sort of government that I believe in where I want A, B, or C and I don’t get it then I’m going to stamp my feet. I elected a president not a pre-programmed progressive robot. And after living through the Clinton years and the way the Right treated him I did not consider W. my president at all. What other lessons do I need to learn about the way I’m supposed to think and feel?
I agree with all the above. I have to say, though, that from the outside it looks very much as though you deliberately mistook Obsess5’s use of the phrase “my president” as equating to as “my property, Mr. President Black Man,” or more bluntly, in a slavery context. Here’s your words, prompted by, as best I can tell, the phrase “my president:”
“Interesting?” You’ll have to forgive me if I misinterpreted the thrust of this statement.
Well, you don’t have to do anything, but I would highly recommend…actually, I don’t know what to recommend to you. Godspeed, and good luck.
never struck me as a fence straddler. to the contrary. Actually, when I heard his 2004 convention speech I thought “I’ve just heard Abraham Lincoln”.
Isn’t this post about John Edwards? Or is everything about Barack Obama? I guess you’re saying that it would’ve been better that a sex-tape fiend was the nominee. That’s weird.
I agree that it sounded ridiculous, but living in a more conservative area, I have with my own eyes seen people honestly “evolve” in a manner close to how he described.
I don’t for a minute believed he evolved. I believe it was political calculation, but the terms he discussed it in are a real way that people have changed on this issue.
Same with me. I noticed yesterday in what have really been the first closeups that he not only still sports the same great hair but there’s not a gray patch to be seen and my first thought was. Mmmm, his looks are still more important to him than the lessons he should have learned, and while he’s touting his yearning to help the poor his perfect hair doesn’t come cheap.
And there you really have it. A country…a party, a segment of that party (many, many of the so-called “pwogwessives”)… that could not read Edwards’s assholery from the moment he appeared on the political radar is a country in sad shape.
Sorry, but there it is.
Bombarded by hype on every level, most Americans are now so confused that they cannot tell the difference between a liar and a fool. Or a hero, for that matter. Hell, most Americans can’t even tell the difference between poisonous and non-poisonous food or an automobile that will kill them at 70MPH due to bad design and bad manufacture and one that will get them through most dangerous situations safely.
The advantage to living “poor” in the U.S…and that is something that I have done quite consciously for 40+ years, no matter what my financial circumstances…is that on the street accurtate decisions about character must be made as an accurate survival mechanism. It keeps you sharp.
Yyes it does.
Edwards?
i smelled a rat at his official campaign announcement.
Remember?
Shucking and jiving in his brand new, never used work clothes using a bunch of New Orleans kids as a backdrop?
Disgusting.
Or his truly astounding narcissism, doubly astounding in that he let it be captured on tape, allowed it to be widely published and didn’t absolutely eviscerate whatever person leaked it?
And there were the Koz Kidz and the other pwogs, lapping his shit up.
Unbelievable.
Absolutely unbelievable.
But twue.
Unbewieveable!!!
Bet on it.
AG
If there were a statute against assholery, 90% of the country would be in prison. What we should ask is what were Eric Holder’s motives for pursuing this vague interpretation of a vague law and not prosecuting clear violations of the Geneva convention by the Bush White House? And for not pursuing breaches of fiduciary responsibility by various banksters? How about interstate conspiracy to evade transfer taxes by the MEARS scheme? Spending millions to try to put Edwards in jail for his callous and tawdry affair looks like political vindictiveness against a former rival to me.
no
According to reports this investigation was started by a Bush holder-over who went on to run for office half-way through the whole thing.
Once the ball was rolling, could the DOJ just stop the prosecution from happening without any fallout?
Fine. But until the behavior you describe becomes an actual criminal offense, how ’bout we satisfy ourselves with punishing him with the public shaming that is sure to follow him for the rest of his public days?
Whatever the legal merits of this particular court case, it has nothing to do with what damage he might have done to the Democratic Party, and frankly, the notion of punishing him via the criminal justice system for a non-criminal offense strikes me as creepy.
Not that I believe that’s what you’re suggesting, just retracing a line that looks a little blurry in your statement. Not to mention, I’m sure there are some among us on the left who’d like to see Edwards convicted “because he’s guilty of something.”
Personally, I’m still pissed off at him too, the fuckwit. I do believe that he was sincere when he first set out in politics, and his “Two Americas” rhetoric was a message that desperately needed to be heard–and still does. But it does nothing to redeem his character when considering his later actions. I can’t believe to this day that that man could be so utterly stupid. Selfish, yes, egotistical, yes, but god was that a dumb thing to do.
Edwards was a politician who spoke early and often about the income gap in this country. Of course he had to be punished.
So none of what happened to him since then is his own fault?
Mitt Romney would be in Pelican Bay.
I think John Edwards has been quote thoroughly punished for someone who didn’t actually commit a crime, according to the jury.
He has had his name sullied; he has been humiliated on the pages of every newspaper and blog in the world; his character has been judged and found wanting; he has been publicly shamed for being a the kind of guy who cheats on his wife (even if his wife knew the whole time); he has had his marriage and every other detail of his personal life dissected in the press; he’s in debt up to his eyeballs as a result of the trial; he has a child out of wedlock to support; his political career is OVER; and he’s a laughingstock/walking punchline.
What more do you want? Maybe he should be forced to wear a scarlet A on his chest? A public flogging like they do in Singapore? Put him in the stocks for people to jeer and throw food at him?
I agree with brendan that Edwards has been punished by the public in many ways.
But I think Edwards chances were always a struggle. He often seemed contrived. Russ Feingold summed it up well and this should have been an eye opener for a lot of people at the time. But it wasn’t the kind of juicy gossip that runs for “the news” on a lot of “progressive” blogs, so it was panned:
When political stupidity becomes a crime, we all are in danger. Because there will be no one capable of running.
Save the moral outrage for real moral issues. Of life and death, for example.
The media has been waving this shiny object for over four years. Sitting in prison on the taxpayers dime won’t punish John Edwards more than he already has been nor will it deter political stupidity in the future. He deserves the obscurity that he has created for himself.
And ISOKIYAR.
Obama is the only politician whom I am sure is not cheating on his wife. For most of them, it’s such a given that Edwards may not have realized it was a weakness. Quite frankly, I don’t care how many mistresses he had. I just wish his indiscretion had not sullied his message, because his message was a good one.
“… as a Democrat, I’d like to see John Edwards punished for making a serious run at the 2008 nomination, which he could well have won, while he and his wife both knew full well that he was carrying out an affair.”
Yes, but the problem is, none of that was illegal, it was just unethical and stupid. As for extra-legal punishment, I think maybe he’s already come in for a bit of that, although he seems to be so thick-skinned I wonder if he even noticed.
You wrote,
But, as a Democrat, I’d like to see John Edwards punished for making a serious run at the 2008 nomination, which he could well have won, while he and his wife both knew full well that he was carrying out an affair. They both should have known that he was too vulnerable to be the nominee. And they were so selfish and egotistical that they went ahead with the campaign anyway.
So you must have been almost as angry as I when Bill C not only couldn’t keep it in his pants but could not bring himself to immediately resign when the Lewinsky story broke, right?
Talk about selfish.
But then anyone who lays hands on and keeps millions or more can cry only crocodile tears when he “feels your pain.”