John Edwards has admitted to an extramarital affair after apparently being ensnared by the National Enquirer. Edwards has acknowleged lying about the affair, and is the latest in a long line of pols who have been caught in similar situations. Edwards has issued a remorseful statement, and we must have some sympathy for Elizabeth. I know Edwards must take some legitimate criticism, but does he have no expectation of any privacy?
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Bill Manzi.com 
Your Honor,
First this smarmy socialist, class warfare hypocrite is protected by the “drive by” media for weeks. Now he’s outed and you say he must take some “legitimate” criticism” like he had an overdue library book. You also have an expectation of privacy for this skirt chaser whose wife is going through a fight for her life, just like that other skirt chaser who had a tryst down stairs from his sleeping wife while in the people’s house. I heard people say “what he does is his own business”.
Where was the sympathy for that GOP congressman who had a gay encounter with a cop in the airport bathroom? His career is over just like the Florida congressman who was accused of exchanging e-mails with a young intern. They took heavy media attention and scorn from your party.
Now you guys are beginning this jerk’s rehabilitation. Another Democratic Class Act.
You ought to be ashamed of yourself for giving this guy a by.
Jules
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A bye?! So 4,000+ American troops are dead, a country was invaded under false pretenses, countless Iraqis are dead, billions of American dollars continue to be spent supporting that illegal invasion and that’s not getting a bye?! How many millions of dollars were spent investigating that adulterous hummer Jules?! Then ask yourself how much was spent on impeachment proceedings for the above…
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Jim,
I believe the subject here is personal morality in a presidential candidate.
Jim, you got to stop reading the “Bush Sucks” chapter in the little red book.
I am discussing the issue at hand. I would like to know your feelings about Edwards. Let’s keep away from the canned responses.
I assume by your response you, like the Mayor,feel Edwards should get a bye. Is that true?
Jules
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Jules,
I believe it is you using canned responses. Where did I give Edwards a “bye”. He deserves and will get heavy criticism for dishonesty and for shabby treatment of his wife.But to compare his actions in being involved in a consensual relationship to Larry Craig soliciting sex in a PUBLIC restroom or to a Congressman hitting on pages is pretty ridiculous, and a poor attempt to somehow grant some relief to Republican miscreants.Edwards is finished politically, but my question on privacy was not asked just for Edwards. I guess that the belief is that if you run for President you should tell everyone whether you have had extramarital affairs?
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Actually Jules, I believe what happens between a man/wife is between them – but you asked — that’s just my opinion.
You must have been disappointed to find out that this ‘breaking news’ was no surprise to his wife who found out as far back as 2006, and even helped with his campaign after that. You must have been disappointed.
As far as ‘canned responses, I recall you saying in previous posts that the talking heads are simply taking talking points from you. Hmmm, Jules, either you’re lying and you spend a LOT of time watching O’Reilly, Graham, Ingraham, et al, or you are one hell of a consultant! 😛
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Gentlemen,
I claim the mayor’s bye is buried in the following part of his blog entry ….”Edwards has issued a remorseful statement, and we must have some sympathy for Elizabeth. I know Edwards must take some legitimate criticism, but does he have no expectation of any privacy?
I call attention to the statement “some legitimate criticism” as in “you naughty boy” quite a different attitude as applied to Larry Craig who was pilloried and essentially rode out of town on a rail. The other congressman Mark Foley of Florida, didn’t even associate with his victim except by e-mail and received the same punishment.
These two guys who write and enact our laws should be above reproach and have received the proper punishment. Now let’s take a look how the Democrats handle the same thing.
Congressman Gerry E.Studds of Massachusetts was simply censured by the house for actually having homosexual relations with a teen age page, and went on to be reelected to two more terms.
QUESTION: WHY WASN’T CONGRESSMAN STUDDS SENT PACKING AS WELL, OR WHY WASN’T CONGRESSMAN FOLEY SETTLED WITH A CENSURE?
Finally the Mayor posted the following,”I guess that the belief is that if you run for President you should tell everyone whether you have had extramarital affairs” Actually, you honor, and Jim, I expect the candidate who runs for the presidency with an adulterous secret NOT TO RUN AT ALL. Then he can have the privacy he wants.
Jim, I don’t influence anyone, my point was that what they said agreed with how I saw things. Note Bill O’reilly is in a different category as the rest.
I do watch them, but that’s to get a different view point than DNCNBC or the New York Times.
Gentlemen, I posted a question. is there an answer?
Jules
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I posed a question that you choose to ignore. And that question was centered around your equating the conduct of Larry Craig with that of John Edwards. What Craig did was a crime. And it was you that brought Craig in, not I. I am not sure how you managed to expand the discussion to Gerry Studds. Let me quote from an earlier Jules posting.
Now you want to talk about Craig, Studds, and Mark Foley. Lets talk about EDWARDS. If there is an apt comparision maybe that would be Bill Clinton, who was impeached by a Republican Congress for having an affair. The American public was vocally against that, and it cost the Republicans dearly. I guess not everyone agrees that a mistake of the libido is disqualifying. Edwards does not get a bye. What he gets is disqualification from consideration for a political job in a potential Obama administration, and a heaping of public scorn and ridicule. He is also judged as someone willing to tell a big lie publicly, and embarass family and staff with his dishonesty. My point remains that I think that this is between his wife and him. As despicable as his actions were I think that some of our most effective public leaders have over the years been caught in a picadillo or two. I don’t think that having reporters follow you around at 2 a.m. to see who you are sleeping with is something that people need to put up with. Thank God they didn’t follow some prior Presidents around. We may have found out that some of them were “misbehaving” as well.
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Your Honor,
Actually you can’t answer the equal treatment under the law conundrum that I presented. There was no equal treatment. So let’s drop it.
Don’t forget, the issue was Edwards treatment.
The media will drag Edwards through the dirt, and there is still the paternity issue to overcome. Lots of fodder for the talking heads.
The reporters knew the dalliances of JFK, but kept it quiet. Was that better?
One more thing Clinton was impeached for lying not his sexual affair. He also lost his license to practice law.I believe it has been returned.
Now he’s a hero again.
I’m done.
Jules.
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OK I accept the fact that you are done. It prevents me from bringing up the case of Newt Gingrich, who also had a sick wife while engaged in an affair. Newt is a Republican elder statesman today who was mentioned prominently as a potential Presidential candidate. It appears that the right has “rehabilitated this jerk” (to use your own phrase). Good thing we are not talking about this anymore.
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Just to springboard off the mayor’s comments, I’m wondering if McCain will continue to get a bye with those purported Vicki Iseman rumors.
If true, I’ll emphasize again that I believe it’s an issue best kept between him and his wife, but I know it’s important to you Jules. Cheers!
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What bothers me the most is that he did this knowing he was going to run in 08, and had he been the nominee, he would have sunk the Dems in a year that we have a great chance of winning. Edwards is another pol who would rather be prom king than Pesident. I hope he can now live with his choice. When I read “Four Trials” in 04 I thought he had a lot of promise. Now he’s just a punch line.
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What’s interesting to me is how the media handled this. By and large by completely ignoring it for months. Contrast that with how they treated McCain and his purported dalliance with that Vicki character. That made the first page of the New York Times. It just seems to me that were it a Republican candidate, the media would have been on that story from its infancy.
It’s interesting to note that Jeff Greenfield, who works for CBS News, commented this morning on Imus that the media shoulda woulda coulda reported that story, but for whatever reason, they just dropped the ball. That wouldn’t have been the case if it was Mitt Romney, no doubt in my mind.
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I agree that the media did ignore (largely) this story. The question is why? Since the media on the right essentially ignored it as well until the Enquirer trapped Edwards at 2 a.m. in a hotel visiting this woman, I think the answer to the why question is not as simple as the idea that “the liberal media gave Edwards a pass”. The fact that the initial investigative media was the National Enquirer may have contributed to the media taking a “first round” pass.
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Your Honor,
I got a headache. Newt got no pass and was pilloried; he deserved it. He was run out of congress; not sure about that resolution.
We tend to treat our opponent with harsher treatment than our own.
In regards Jim’s comment about John McCain’s rumored affair with Vicki Iseman, the New York times took itself to task through its Ombudsman who said that the paper went to press woefully short of proof. But there was no restraint on part of the press in this case. I think, Jim, it would serve no one to deal in rumors to prove a point.
Now Mr. Edwards has to stand the Media exposure at least until the paternity sit is resolved.
It would be nice if the media returned to true journalism; report what you know, all of it, and don’t take political sides. I think that’s what this discussion is all about.
Our political class comes in all flavors independent of party affiliation.
Jules
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But, you know, I find it strange that the New York Times would run with a front-page story about McCain without any evidence whatsoever. And because they are who they are, the story was actually given credence. Which begs the question, why didn’t they do the same for Edwards? That the National Enquirer had to be the paper of record about this newsworthy event is unbelievable and yet, not surprising. I mean, had they been doing their job, perhaps Hillary might be the presumptive Democrat nominee. I think there’s a good argument to be made that she could’ve had this come out much earlier.
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Might be right on Hillary, and you might be right on the Times. But I don’t recall any of the right leaning media really paying much attention to it either. I think it stems from some reluctance on their part (both liberal and conservative)to send investigative staff into the field to cover an affair. Obviously they took the Enquirer story and ran with it at some point, but was Fox News or the other conservative outlets trumpeting this before that? Maybe I am naive but I just think it glided over the media because of the Enquirer connection.
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“it would serve no one to deal in rumors to prove a point.”
And this was the exact same argument used by the MSM to not pursue the Edwards issue. Strange how that should apply for one party but not the other….
And just to address Patrizia’s question about why the NYT didn’t do the same for Edwards as they did for McCain, perhaps it’s because they learned their lessons on publishing other unsubstntiated, false and misleading info — such as that leading up to the Iraq war….
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