“Setting up a fall guy to protect the big shot, if that’s what it was (and that’s certainly how it looks), understandably bothers a lot of people. It’s one thing to mess up; it’s one thing to say, truthfully, that the details are not any of our business and simply to refuse to answer questions. If he can live with that, and his wife and kids can live with that, and the other woman can live with that, we should live with that. But setting up some other guy, especially a guy who is married and has a family of his own, to take responsibility sort of stinks.” – Longtime Democratic operative, former Bill Clinton defender and current TV commentator (no friend of the “vast rightwing conspiracy”) Susan Estrich on Fox News, August 1, 2008, on the John Edwards affair
(Estrich brings up some of the oddest, most troubling aspects of the Edwards situation: the fact that the former Presidential candidate’s supporter, Andrew Young—a young man who is NOT the former mayor of Atlanta, incidentally—has claimed paternity of Rielle Hunter’s baby, even though his name does not appear on the birth certificate as the father; that Young, his wife and their three children—and Hunter—moved to a gated community in Santa Barbara, Calif., all under the same roof, in what one blogger calls “a Jerry Springer wet dream”; and that Edwards’ former finance chair has admitted making payments to get them all out of the spotlight.
In perhaps the most fatuous quotation from this whole situation, Edwards said he denied the National Enquirer’s initial stories based on some inaccuracies, but that “being 99 percent honest is no longer enough.” Make that 50% honest—and even that is being generous. I’m afraid that rather than being 100% honest now, Edwards has decided to go what was termed, in the brilliant but now largely forgotten phrase from the Nixon White House, the “modified limited hangout” route. Now that the mainstream media know that at least some of the story is true, they’re going to feel free to investigate the financial arrangements involved in the interesting Edwards-Hunter-Young triangle.
David Bonior, a former Michigan congressman who served as Edwards’ campaign manager, spoke for many —including myself—who were either intrigued or inspired by the former senator and vice-presidential candidate in saying he was “disappointed and angry” over the initial denials of the affair. “Thousands of friends and supporters of Sen. Edwards put their faith and confidence in him and he has let them down,” said Bonior. “Young supporters who put their time and energy into his campaign with a newfound energy and idealism for politics have been betrayed by his actions.”)
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4 comments:
Strange choice for your QOTD
I would like to think that something of slightly greater importance may have happened.(Somewhere)
The space on your blog could be better served.
This whole matter is nothing but meaningless tabloid trash.
B,
Nothing "strange" about the quote choice. The truly "strange" thing was Edwards' misbehavior.
I forgot to mention in the post how much it creeps me out that a guy cheats on a wife who is not that far removed from a cancer diagnosis--then justifies it by saying it's in remission. (Even that stated timing is dubious.)I think that I'm hardly the only one who feels this way, as virtually the first thing out of Edwards' mouth in his TV interview was that the affair began when his wife's cancer was in remission, as if it were a "get-out-of-jail" card.
I felt--and continue to feel--this way about how Newt Gingrich treated his first wife, and see no reason to change now for a candidate of a different party, even one I thought well of.
Several years ago, the husband of a friend of mine took up with another woman while his wife was undergoing cancer treatment. After the predictable divorce, do you think any of us stayed in touch with this guy?
I might also mention that, had Edwards become Attorney-General or gotten some other post in the Obama administration, the financial arrangements involved with Rielle would have brought so much scrutiny that he'd never make it through confirmation.
"Tabloid trash" also sounds as if you're reading from Edwards' now-discarded playbook!
If Bonior's comment is any indication, there are many Edwards supporters who are annoyed with the candidate now--particularly, I might add, because Elizabeth Edwards is very well liked. They are feeling much the same way that I heard a number of Gary Hart supporters did 20 years ago when they became annoyed at him for taking up with Donna Rice. Having watched what happened to other candidates the last 20 years, Edwards should have known better. He was certainly right when he called himself stupid.
As for the importance of the Quote of the Day--who ever said it had to be "important"? Some of the quotes you've enjoyed the most have not been important to the slightest degree, such as the one from the film "Harvey."
Mike T.
n8You, and the press keep harping on the "what would haveppened if?....." Well it did'nt, and is not going to. John Edwards is in a word, "yesterday's news". He no longer has any political relevance. This is all just a continued political ploy to "smoke screen" the public away from concentrating on truely pertinent issues.
What bothered me was you making an accusation, without a hint of proof, other than what plays out in the press. Your own quote from the rather dubious "source" of Fox news, says, "IF thats what it was, and that certainly how it looks..."
If he did what they alledge, get the facts out first (I have not heard one yet) and castigate the man all you like.
The sex life of these bozos, and their marital infidelities are not relevent in the least to what is going to solve the problems this country faces. We, a country who would impeach a President for not being able to keep his fly zipped, and not be able to do the same for one who shreds the Counstitution and rule of law, and sends thouslands needlessly to their deaths. Tell me if that does not bother you more?
William Randolph Hearst has to be happy. "Yellow" Journalism is alive and well
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