How did he think he could get away with it?
Men often cheat. This is hardly news. And politicians are no different – in fact if anything are more prone to cheating due to thenature of a job where they live away from home.
But I am still somewhat amazed when it is revealed that a senior US politician has been cheating on his wife – how could they think they would get away with it when there are 100 journalists following them about.
So John Edwards’ political career is over. The fact his wife is dying from cancer (and he had exploited this) makes it far worse for him than a normal affair. Add onto that the fact he lied repeatedly about it, and his Finance Chair was paying off the woman (from campaign funds I presume) and the man who calimed to the father of the child of Edward’s girlfriend – well I can’t see a rehabilitation around the corner.
I have to say I can’t imagine Obama ever cheating on Michelle Obama. And McCain’s cheating (hopefully) is in his past.
August 11th, 2008 at 7:42 am
You forgot to mention the important fact that he claims to have conducted the affair when his wife’s cancer was in remission, as somebody else said, his affair was oncologically correct.
August 11th, 2008 at 7:49 am
I’m not being allowed to indicate my approval of metcalph’s quote.
John McCain has already cheated on his wife- his first one; he began his affair with Cindy while still married to Carol- the divorce settlement included financial support for Carol’s ongoing medical treatments [due to the injuries from a car accident in 1969]. The couple remain friends- she has been to some of the rallies, and despite McCain’s joking attempts to pimp Cindy out as a wet t-shirt star he does seem unlikely to wander- she has a beer distributor network!
August 11th, 2008 at 8:16 am
“beer distributor network”
Might she be some sort of heiress then
August 11th, 2008 at 8:35 am
“How did he think he could get away with it?”…the perennial question.
He obviously didn’t have the backup systems in place that have served NZ’s most high-profile political philanderer so well…to date.
August 11th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Men often cheat.
That is a sad admission, David.
[DPF: Not an admission, more a statement of the obvious]
August 11th, 2008 at 9:32 am
And now the ‘ads by Google’ on the right are about ‘Poland Woman’ and finding local married women for fun.
August 11th, 2008 at 9:44 am
“He obviously didn’t have the backup systems in place that have served NZ’s most high-profile political philanderer so well…to date.”
Ah, that reminds me of the “Double Standard” of days gone by. “Rooting boar caught on Thorndon hill. PM safe” “PM’s pen is mightier than sword” (with little in the way of a gap between the second and third words) and so on. The point of these posters, that appeared mysteriously all around Wellington in the early 1980s was that almost the entire population knew the details and the names involved. The principal back-up system employed by “NZ’s most high-profile political philanderer” was a Porshe car as a pay-off, I understand.
[DPF: The caption was "Rooting Pig caught in Ngaio, PM safe"]
August 11th, 2008 at 10:11 am
“how could they think they would get away with it when there are 100 journalists following them about.”
He thought he could get away with it because he was a leftist/ liberal, and he therefore knew with the mainstream media in his pocket, he had much more latitude than any right winger. He almost did get away with it. The story simmered for months on the internet, but was shielded from mainstream America by a blackout enforced by Edward’s media buddies. It was finally blown by the National Enquirer after CNN, ABC, MSNBC and other mainstream outlets had persistently refused to report on it. In stark contrast to the slavering pleasure they take in widely and exhaustively reporting on any slight immorality by any Republican.
This is not so much a story notable for exposing Edwards as a lying hypocritical sleaze bag. Everybody with a brain already knew he was that. The real point of interest is once again the mainstream media have, by their initial determination to keep a lid on the story (Edwards was still a potential VP candidate) been exposed as partisan leftists.
(In true communist style though, they’ll go on brazenly denying the reality.)
August 11th, 2008 at 10:32 am
What Redbaiter said. Redbaiter, have you read Ann Coulter’s latest column on this? You’d love it.
August 11th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Ann Coulter should be in the NZ Herald instead of that tired old shit from Coddington and communists like McCarten and Woodham. (Yep, I have read it.)
August 11th, 2008 at 11:08 am
[DPF: The caption was "Rooting Pig caught in Ngaio, PM safe"]
Thanks for that. Can you remember any others?
And to think that the pig got all the way to Ngaio before they caught up with it. I guess Wellington is good territory for rooting pigs?
August 11th, 2008 at 11:58 am
I cannot imagine Obama cheating on Michelle either. She would mash then sever his balls and offer them to which ever preacher he had most recently offended by recanting for political purposes. And because it would feel good. Edwards only had his political future at stake.
August 11th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
“How did he think he could get away with it?”…the perennial question.”
This issue was nicely addressed by Steven Pinker in relation to Bill Clinton.
“Most human drives have ancient Darwinian rationales. Fear of heights kept our ancestors from plunging off cliffs; a taste for sweets kept their bodies fueled. Sexual desire is no different. A prehistoric man who slept with fifty women could have sired fifty children, and would have been more likely to have had descendants, who inherited his tastes. A woman who slept with fifty men would have had no more descendants than a woman who slept with one. In the Darwinian game, men should seek quantity in sexual partners, women quality: a source of protection, resources, and good genes for her children.”
http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/1998_02_09_newyorker.html
August 11th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
“How did he think he could get away with it?”…the perennial question.”
Steven Pinker explained this in relation to Bill Clinton’s escapades…
“Most human drives have ancient Darwinian rationales. Fear of heights kept our ancestors from plunging off cliffs; a taste for sweets kept their bodies fueled. Sexual desire is no different. A prehistoric man who slept with fifty women could have sired fifty children, and would have been more likely to have had descendants, who inherited his tastes. A woman who slept with fifty men would have had no more descendants than a woman who slept with one. In the Darwinian game, men should seek quantity in sexual partners, women quality: a source of protection, resources, and good genes for her children.”
http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/1998_02_09_newyorker.html
August 11th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Oh well, too bad about the negative Karma every time Redbaiter and I start to sound off about socialists, hypocrisy, the media, and Ann Coulter. Knock yourselves out.
Only His Hair Dresser Knows for Sure!
by Ann Coulter
Posted 08/06/2008 ET
“The mainstream media’s reaction to the National Enquirer’s reports on John Edwards’ “love child” scandal has been reminiscent of the Soviet press. Edwards’ name has simply been completely whitewashed out of the news. Say, why isn’t anyone talking about John Edwards for vice president anymore? No, seriously — hey! Why are we going to a commercial break?
I suspect that if I tried to look up coverage of the Democratic primaries in Nexis news archives, Edwards’ name will have disappeared from the debates. By next week, Edwards won’t have been John Kerry’s running mate in 2004.
Do you know what this means? At this precise moment in time, I could call Edwards a name that would send me to rehab, and the media wouldn’t be able to report it!
A Washington Post reporter defended the total blackout on the National Enquirer’s John Edwards’ love child story, telling the Times of London: “Edwards is no longer an elected official and he is not running for office now. Don’t expect wall-to-wall coverage.” This was the perfect guy to talk to because if there’s one thing they’re careful about in London, it’s tabloid excess.
Isn’t there some level of coverage between “wall-to-wall” and “double-secret probation, delta-force level total news blackout” when it comes to a sex scandal involving a current Democratic vice presidential and Cabinet prospect?
Hey, what sort of “elected official” was Ted Haggard again? He was the Christian minister no one outside of his own parish had ever heard of until he was caught in a gay sex scandal last year. Then he suddenly became the Pope of the Protestants. And yet, despite the fact that Haggard was not an “elected official,” the Post gave that story wall-to-wall coverage. And what sort of “elected officials” were Mel Gibson, Rush Limbaugh and Bill Bennett?
The MSM justify banner coverage of the smallest malfeasance by any Christian or conservative, with or without independent verification, with the lame excuse of “hypocrisy.” Hey, why didn’t you say so! If all it takes to get the Edwards story into the establishment press is a little hypocrisy, boy, have I got a story for you!
Based on information currently saturating the Internet: (1) The entire schmaltzy Edwards campaign consisted of this self-professed moralist telling us how much he loved the poor and loved his cancer-stricken wife; (2) the following was Edwards’ response to CBS News anchor Katie Couric’s question about whether voters should care if a presidential candidate is faithful to his spouse:
“Of course. I mean, for a lot of Americans — including the family that I grew up with, I mean, it’s fundamental to how you judge people and human character — whether you keep your word, whether you keep what is your ultimate word, which is that you love your spouse, and you’ll stay with them. … I think the most important qualities in a president in today’s world are trustworthiness — sincerity, honesty, strength of leadership. And — and certainly that goes to a part of that.”
There you have it, boys: Go to town, MSM!
Moreover, the National Enquirer reports that Edwards is paying Rielle Hunter — the former “Lisa Druck” — $15,000 a month in “hush money.” Shouldn’t the IRS be investigating whether Edwards is deducting those payments as a “business expense”?
Maybe The Washington Post didn’t hear about the Enquirer catching Edwards in a hotel with his mistress and love child since it happened way out in the sleepy little burg of Los Angeles near the corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards — you know, the middle of nowhere. But surely the public can count on the Los Angeles Times to report on a tabloid scandal occurring under its very nose.
Kausfiles produced this e-mail from an L.A. Times editor to its bloggers soon after the Enquirer’s stakeout of Edwards visiting the alleged mistress and love child at the Beverly Hilton:
From: “Pierce, Tony”
Date: July 24, 2008 10:54:41 AM PDT
Subject: john edwards
Hey bloggers,
There has been a little buzz surrounding John Edwards and his alleged affair. Because the only source has been the National Enquirer we have decided not to cover the rumors or salacious speculations. So I am asking you all not to blog about this topic until further notified.
If you have any questions or are ever in need of story ideas that would best fit your blog, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Keep rockin,
Tony
Hey, I have a story idea I think the L.A. Times might like: How about something on the glorious workers’ revolution that will restore the means of production to the people and create a workers’ paradise right here on Earth, free of the shackles of capitalism?
I assume it would be jejune to point out that the MSM would be taking the wall-to-wall approach, rather than the total blackout approach, to the love child story if it were a story about Mitt Romney’s love child or, indeed, Larry Craig’s love child. They’d bring Ted Koppel out of retirement to cover that. Katie Couric, Brian Williams and Charles Gibson would be anchoring the evening news from Romney’s front yard. They might even get Dan Rather to produce some forged documents for the occasion.
But with a Democrat sex scandal, the L.A. Times is in a nail-biting competition with The Washington Post, The New York Times, ABC, NBC and CBS for the Pulitzer for “Best Suppressed Story.”"
OOUUCH.
August 11th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Here is an excerpt from the Wall Street Journal editorial:
“While no one disputes Mr. Edwards’s assertion that he is “the dumbest man in America,” those who supported his candidacy — with their time, money and beliefs — clearly thought him worth their commitment. It is an egregious failure of judgment and character to let so many people work so hard for a candidacy that Mr. Edwards knew was at high risk of destruction. Ambition made him run. Blind ambition brought him to this.”
August 11th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
you might get negative karma for spamming the thread with whole articles all the time!
August 11th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
“you might get negative karma for spamming the thread with whole articles all the time!”
Gawd you commies are always such deceitful duplicitous people. No conscience. No compunction with lying or twisting things to suit to your advanatge or to the disadvantage of anyone who isn’t similarly suffering from leftist brain rot. The negative karma was given long before Mr. Best posted the above Coulter article. You and your lot give negative karma for one reason only, and that reason is that it drives you crazy seeing people write ideas here that commies like you consider “unacceptable”. “Spamming the thread all the time”. What utter bullshit- you make me want to puke with your deceit.
August 11th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
“You commies…”
Love it!!!
August 11th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
lol, righto Red.
I meant generally, thank you for forcing me to clarify.
August 11th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
“Love it!!!”
You half educated slack jawed commie numbskull moron, why don’t you crawl back to North Korea with all the North Koreans an’ that! I don’t have time for your shit which is why i’m going to keep writing this over and over again, every thread! you just wait
August 11th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Stop that now Stephen, you know he’s Redbaiter, not Redbaitee. Play fair!
Oh and you forgot to mention brainwashed indoctrinated knuckle-dragging halfwit. (So typical of the left.) Your infantile objections are so half-witted and boring that I don’t have time to bother responding to them; although I could, I really really could…
August 11th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
You actually remember the stuff he says? Now you’re a stalker!!
August 11th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
I know I push the boundaries with pasting whole articles or substantial bits of the same, but I am working on the assumption that MOST NZ-ers NEVER get to read articles remotely like those ones, and every little bit of exposure that I can give them, to incisive writing from a completely different angle to that which infests the NZ MSM, is worth the risk of negative Karma points from the socialist trolls who find the content painful.
August 11th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
By the way Redbaiter, you don’t seem to have been active on the next thread over, “A New Russian War”. At 10.40 AM, I posted a real goodie of an excerpt or three from an article that you MUST read if you don’t already know of it.
August 11th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Did you mean that gender discrimination is obvious DPF or that men often cheat?
August 11th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Most articles ARE essential reading when they confirm what one already thought…
August 11th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Stupid goddam knuckle-dragging socialist overlord Edwards. What is it about the leftist penis that it can’t stay faithful eh?
August 12th, 2008 at 6:53 am
Bill Clinton just gave a wink and a smile and carried on. No rehabilitation required for “honest” Bill.
August 12th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Typical of right-wingers to be obsessed with left-wing genitalia, a la Clinton, when there are far, far bigger issues going on.
Perhaps the mainstream media was too busy covering the $1 TRILLION war in Iraq and and all the well-documented corruption going on there to be too bothered with who a possible vice president is sticking his dick into. How many civilians been killed in Iraq again? How many weapons of mass destruction were found after Bush, Cheney, ad nauseam lied, and lied, and followed up with some more lies?
You can guarantee that the closer mainstream media gets to stories about a complete lack of professional ethics inside the real Republican party, the louder the shrieks from right-wingers about ‘morals.’
Who cares what is going on inside left-wing undies? I’d rather her what is going on inside Bush’s brain. Oh, sorry, I forgot Rove resigned.
August 12th, 2008 at 9:30 am
“the leftist penis”
- eh heh heh heh