Now Edwards' nonprofit to fight poverty is being used by to swiftboat him!

[Matsubara]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070624/ap_on_el_pr/on_the2008_trail_80

Edwards defends poverty center's efforts
By MARTIN GRIFFITH, Associated Press Writer Sun Jun 24, 5:48 AM ET
RENO, Nev. - Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said his nonprofit anti-poverty center's activities have been "completely legal" and he does not plan to go beyond the legal requirements to disclose its donors.

Speaking to reporters after a town hall meeting Saturday night in Reno, Edwards denied accusations that the Center for Promise and Opportunity has been used to promote his presidential campaign.

Edwards noted his efforts on behalf of the center to raise the minimum wage in states, help low-income students attend college, organize workers into unions and engage young people in the fight against poverty.

"All of this was an effort to try to deal with the issue of poverty in America, which is the cause of my life," he said. "What I've been doing is not only significant and there's nothing wrong with it, it's something I'm very proud of. Everything we did was not only completely legal but we did a lot of good."

The nonpartisan (my ass) Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based research group that tracks money in politics, has suggested Edwards used the nonprofit to help his presidential campaign and has pressed him to disclose its donors.


This group is probably about as nonpartisan as the Cato Institute or the Heritage Foundation, both ultra-right-wing think tanks that claim to be "non-partisan"

Hell, I'll bet that even the 700 Club has the nerve to call itself that...

[jobycom]

1. Your thread title is VERY misleading.

He's not being attacked for his efforts against poverty. He's being attacked by a partisan attack group over picayune nonsense about his reporting of the center's donors. I do think that's a big difference.

[Matsubara]

5. I'm open to suggestions on the title...

I chose not to use the Yahoo story's title, because it seems to imply that Edwards is on the defensive, like he's done something wrong.

The whole tone of the piece pissed me off.

Okay, I modified the title. That any better?

[jobycom]

7. Tres bien

:thumbsup:

[KittyWampus]

20. Actually even YOU are misleading. Edwards has TWO organizations. One which gives

scholarships and actually works fighting poverty and the other which he has used to pay for meetings and retreats having NOTHING to do with poverty.

You are a hypocrite if you say that you would not be calling a GOP'er who skirted the law like this unethical.

[dogday]

26. Do you have some links to the information you

described about the organization he uses to pay for meeting and retreats? Would like to explore this further... Thanks.....

[jobycom]

28. Well, when you reread my post and apologize, I'll accept it.

Since I quite obviously said absolutely nothing defending the GOP'er, much less implying they had a point or were making ethical accusations.

[dogday]

2. He is scaring them

They are afraid of Edwards, I wonder why????

[liberal N proud]

4. The truth scares those who hide from it

[waiting for hope]

3. This is going to be the

issue that they will continue to bring up over and over again. The media and corporate elite are crapping their pants thinking of an Edwards win. Good.

[JDPriestly]

6. The comparison to the right wing think tanks is right on.

Edwards began a centrist think tank -- a think tank that promotes the Christian ideal of loving others as oneself. If it doesn't promote extreme capitalist thought, it's a real danger to the righties.

[NYCGirl]

8. You are wrong about the Center for Responsive Politics:

They run opensecrets.org

http://www.opensecrets.org/about/index.asp

More about the group:

http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Responsive_Politics

[Freddie Stubbs]

9. So, the OP was trying to 'Swiftboat' Center for Responsive Politics?

:shrug:

[NYCGirl]

10. LOL! I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. NT

[Matsubara]

11. Maybe...

I find their attack suspect.

If the Poverty Center, which is part of the University of North Carolina's School of Law, is UNC itself also just an Edwards campaign gimmick?

Here is the poverty center's website.

http://law.unc.edu/Centers/details.aspx?ID=425&Q=3

[NYCGirl]

12. No, they were talking about the nonprofit Center for Promise and Opportunity.

[Matsubara]

15. I'm pretty sure it's the same outfit.

If you look through the website, you will see Edwards' letter of resignation as director from last December.

http://law.unc.edu/pdfs/poverty/povertycenterletter.pdf

I don't know why the names are slightly different, but I still think this is the nonprofit in question.

[NYCGirl]

16. No, there are two different organizations. From Forbes:

In explaining Edwards' activities, Schultz also pointed to the work of a second nonprofit, the similarly named Center for Promise and Opportunity Foundation, which raised $70,000 in 2005 to help coordinate Edwards' College for Everyone scholarship program at a rural and impoverished high school in Greene County,

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/06/22/ap3850526.html

[Matsubara]

So he was director of two different anti-poverty organizations with almost the same name?

Weird...

[NYCGirl]

19. Yes. NT

[Matsubara]

25. I'm so sorry, it's almost 2 am here, I have to go to sleep, I'm nodding off.

I am confessing right now that I am an Edwards fan, so I am biased. My "feeling" is that this attack was partisan-motivated, but I don't have solid proof for that.

I wish I wasn't so sleepy, I'd keep at it. But I guess this is my de facto concession on this issue - if anyone still wants to discuss it - go for it.

Please sort out these confusing institutions and whether or not the questioning of them was unfair without me.

G'night!

[KittyWampus]

22. No, it's two different organizations which shows how SLICK Edwards is. If this were a GOP'er

doing this, DU'ers would be howling.

[Matsubara]

17. I did remove "right-wing thugs" from the thread title.

But I still suspect the "non-partisan" claims of this organization...

[NYCGirl]

18. Have you ever found any partisan spin in Opensecrets.org? NT

[Matsubara]

21. I think questioning of a perfectly legal nonprofit, which is now being repeated on all corp media

is in itself a partisan hit job.

Where are their attacks on Hillary Clinton with all the tons of corporate dough she's raked in, or Rudy? or Mitt?

It's a nonprofit, for pete's sake, and he left it last year.

[KittyWampus]

23. It's a perfectly legal nonprofit for POVERTY which Edwards usesd for his own political use

going to retreats and meetings on things like Iraq.

What Edwards did was legal but he skirted the law.

[NYCGirl]

24. You can find which corporations gave to who on opensecrets.org.

It's a nonprofit which, according to the organization, was used improperly at best, illegally at worst.

[underpants]

13. This is all they needed to reference this as the conventional wisdom

or that "some people" say that

Basically they made the accusation now everyone can use it as proof. Same thing they have been doing for years.

[treestar]

14. If I hate the RW for anything it's for crap like this

They attack people for their virtues.

That just shows what scum they are.

And it can't be done to them, because they have no true virtues to attack.

[LSK]

27. so he created a Center on Poverty only to win the Presidency??

Is that the accusation?

[NYCGirl]

29. Here's the original article:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Edwards-Nonprofit.html

And the one on Raw Story, which is the first one I read:

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/NYT_Main_beneficiary_of_Edwards_nonprofit_0621.html