Saint Elizabeth and the Ego Monster

[shellgame26]

From NY magazine

A candidate whose aides were prepared to block him from becoming president. A wife whose virtuous image was a mirage. A mistress with a video camera. In an excerpt from the new book Game Change—their sweeping account of the 2008 campaign—the authors reveal that, inside the Edwards triangle, nothing was too crazy to be true.

One early evening in February 2006, John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator then gearing up to launch his second presidential campaign, was hanging out in the bar of the Regency Hotel on Park Avenue with one of his donors and his young traveling aide, Josh Brumberger. A woman sitting at a nearby table with some friends walked over and introduced herself.
“My friends insist you’re John Edwards,” Rielle Hunter said. “I tell them no way—you’re way too handsome.” “No, ma’am. I’m John Edwards,” the candidate replied.“No way! I don’t believe you!”
Brumberger saw this kind of thing all the time. Women were always hitting on his boss. He and Edwards had a well-oiled system in place for dealing with these situations tactfully and politely.
“He is John Edwards,” Brumberger interjected, “and I’m sorry, but we’re in the middle of something. Thank you.”“Oh, I’m sorry,” Hunter said, and retreated to her table. Brumberger thought that she was trouble from the get-go. She looked like a hybrid of Stevie Nicks and Lucinda Williams, in an outfit more suitable for a Grateful Dead concert than an evening at the Regency. A few minutes later, after Edwards departed for a dinner around the corner, Hunter came back over to Brumberger and started quizzing him about his job. “I think I can help you guys,” she said, and handed him her business card. The inscription read, BEING IS FREE: RIELLE HUNTER—TRUTH SEEKER. After Hunter left, Brumberger sat there chuckling, having another glass of wine with one of his colleagues from Team Edwards. A little while later, he looked up through the window and clocked Hunter and one of her friends cornering his boss on his way back from dinner. “Holy shit, that crazy lady just cut him off!” Brumberger yelped and sprinted outside, where he broke up the scene, leading Edwards back into the hotel.“Thank you,” Edwards said, apparently relieved. “I’m lucky you saw that, because those women, I don’t think they would have quit.” Looking back on it later, Brumberger would always wonder about that evening: Was Hunter’s presence really an accident? Had she and Edwards met before? Did she slink back into the hotel and spend the night with him? The questions would plague him, and with good reason—for that night at the Regency was the moment when Edwards’s cataclysmic implosion began.



Read more: An Excerpt From John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's 'Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime' -- New York Magazine http://nymag.com/news/politics/63045/#ixzz0cGPgDeNA

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

1. Read the whole thing. Wow. nt

[DemReadingDU]

2. 60 Minutes interview

1/10/10 Revelations from the Campaign
Anderson Cooper Reports On A New Book That Reveals New Details From The Obama And McCain Campaigns

Barack Obama is just ten days away from completing the first year of his presidency, but surprising revelations about the historic campaign that got him there are still coming to light.

It turns out Hillary Clinton was so confident she would become president, that a full year before the election she had already started planning for her transition into the White House.

That's in a new book by reporters Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, who have also brought details to light about the Republican campaign; some of them directly contradict what Sarah Palin wrote in her book.

story and videos
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/07/60minutes/main6067628.shtml?tag=currentVideoInfo;segmentUtilities

[Dr.Phool]

4. Halperin earned his idiot wings a long time ago.

He's been pandering to conservatives for a couple of year. But, he may have gotten this one right.

I met Edwards in 2003 and 2004 several times. I was supposed to drive him and members of his entourage around Tampa several times, but his appearances were canceled most of the time due to approaching hurricanes.

I saw him again in the summer of 2007, in Orlando, at a candidate forum, featuring all 8 Dem candidates. Me and 2 other people had Green Room credentials to spend the day with the candidates. Just the candidates, with two or three staffers, and security. No press, nobody else. Except for Edwards. He showed up with two busloads of people.

We got to spend the whole day talking with the candidates, off the record, including Biden, Dodd, and we spent most of the day with Kucinich and his wife. Edwards wouldn't step out of his cocoon. Obama just breezed in and out for a few minutes. He even acted like the annointed one back then.

So, I'll give Halperin the benefit of the doubt on this one. His description of Edwards behavior rings true. And, I was an Edwards supporter back then.

[tavalon]

10. I'm really beginning to doubt my ability to pick 'em

I was an Edwards supporter before I was on the fence and before I decided to join the Obama movement. The only one I didn't get betrayed by was the one I didn't back.

[Hissyspit]

3. That's an insult to Stevie Nicks and Lucinda Williams.

[Jim Sagle]

5. Misogynist rubbish from a a worthless piece of Republicann shit (Halperin).

[Dr.Phool]

7. Like I said, I've been around Edwards. He changed.

[Jim Sagle]

8. I'm sure you're right. But I'm referring to the hit job they did on MRS. Edwards.

[Me.]

6. A Sad Read

[tavalon]

9. Wow, that was quite the sully

I think I need a bath, now.