Edwards’ mistress: Presidential run ‘reckless’

[joeybee12]

It was lust at first sight. She was 42 and divorced. He was 10 years her senior and a United States senator from North Carolina.

“You’re so hot,” the sexy blonde told the handsome politician the day they met on the corner of 61st and Park Avenue in New York City.

“Why, thank you,” he replied.

Within hours of that February 2006 meeting, according to Rielle Hunter, the affair between her and presidential candidate John Edwards had begun.

“Falling in love with you could really f--- up my plans for becoming president,” he told her.

“If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans,” she replied.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/35821315/ns/today-today_people/

I know, I know, who cares, but someone was gonna post it eventually.

[supernova]

1. Lord, that reads like a bad Harlequin novel

Spencer Tracey and Kate Hepburn they ain't.

[Christa]

2. Flattery is the quickest way

to get into a man's pants and to grab power.

[HereSince1628]

3. I've never heard it called 'power.'

The Little Head, yes; even Winkie. But Power no.

I think I must needs me somes Viagra. Then again, it might all be in the hair.

[karynnj]

4. As awful as this story is, the linked Newsweek article scares me that there will be an indictment

and it given the timing - this could go to trial or be pending around the time of the 2010 elections.

A nonprofit group that John Edwards set up to fight poverty paid $124,000 for Web videos and photos to the former Democratic presidential candidate’s mistress, say four lawyers familiar with the payments. The Center for Promise and Opportunity wrote the previously unreported checks to videographer Rielle Hunter in late 2006, the same year Edwards acknowledged he started a “liaison” with her. (Edwards contended originally that he cut off the relationship that year. He admitted more recently he’s the father of Hunter’s daughter, born in February 2008.) The checks have since been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors in North Carolina as part of a sprawling criminal investigation into nearly $1.5 million in payments from various Edwards entities and campaign contributors that were for Hunter’s benefit, say the lawyers, who asked not to be identified talking about an ongoing probe.
<snip>
The payments to Hunter were made at the same time that Edwards’s political action committee was separately paying her a similar amount to produce Webisodes promoting Edwards as a political figure. (The Webisodes became a source of controversy within the campaign; some aides thought they were “goofy and unpresidential,” says a former top Edwards aide who also asked not to be identified due to the ongoing probe.) But the payments from the tax-exempt center could raise separate issues if federal prosecutors determine that Edwards misused the group’s assets, since the rules for such tax-exempt groups are stricter than those for political committees.

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/archive/2010/03/12/edwards-used-nonprofit-to-funnel-money-to-hunter.aspx


There was an article a while back, where a UNC official regretted their involvement as there were concerns that UNC poverty center was really mostly a vehicle to develop a poverty platform for Edwards to run on. That article did not indicate anything illegal - just too political to fit UNC's role.

This is not the UNC poverty center, but Edwards' own foundation. This really looks bad.

[joeybee12]

5. That's an understatement...this is the story that never ends...

...talk about hubris.

[Jennicut]

8. What the hell was he thinking? Thankfully we had Obama and Hillary being stronger candidates.

Dems dodged a bullet. And Edwards was so smarmy about wanting to make a deal with Obama to be VP that Obama was incredibly turned off.

[karynnj]

10. What is amazing is that Edwards thought he was a good candidate for VP

One would think that he would realize that Obama would ask Senator Kerry privately how good a VP he thought Edwards was. Or, he would ask any of the many Kerry 2004 people who joined his campaign after Kerry opted not run. There kind of is a red flag when NONE of the Kerry strategists or fund raisers went to Edwards.

Not to mention, Obama himself had to see how through 2005 - 2007, Edwards often stabbed Kerry in the back and lied about his role in the 2004 campaign. Not a good thing to see if you are looking for a VP.

In addition, Obama was speaking of bipartisanship and working together. How does that work with 2008 JRE?

In addition, the party and media pushed Edwards as the 2004 VP saying he would bring energy and charisma. Now, I watched both Kerry and Edwards on CSPAN in 2004 and I differ on who had charisma. Kerry, who was until the 211th Congress, the only Senator on both Finance and SFRC had no policy area where he was weak - so there was no gap to fill. In 2008, Obama had all the energy and the charisma he needed. Joe Biden added foreign policy expertise as well as having done a lot on women's rights.

Edwards was just not all that he thought he was.

[tonysam]

20. Get off your Edwards hatred. Stop it. Kerry fully vetted him; he was a good candidate.

I am sick of reading your venomous posts. They are most VILE things on this board.

[karynnj]

23. I get sick of your contentless replies - so we are even

The Kerry team did vet him - and they found he was clean. Thanks to endless positive media in 2004, he also had the highest favorables of any of the VPs Kerry could have chosen. Kerry's own gut opinion, per Shrum long before all this came out, was that he did not trust Edwards. Kerry should have gone with his gut reaction. Doing that would have been very hard as Edwards was being pushed by the media and by many in the party. I regret that Kerry's name is attached to anything that relates to Edwards.

As to a good VP candidate:

1) How do you explain that NONE of the Kerry people went to him. That's voting with your feet.
2) Edwards himself proudly spoke of not being willing to use "help is on the way" instead using the weaker "hope is on the way". Give me another example of a VP who refused to use a campaign slogan.
3) In a BG article, insiders spoke of how Edwards repeatedly promised Kerry to attack the SBVT or Bush - and then didn't.
4) Edwards clearly did not do enough to prepare for the VP debate. His background would have made him far better had he been more prepared.

As to afterward:
1) His lies that he wanted to contest the election, which was not true and he never spoke of what case could have been made - that better campaign lawyers said did not exist. and his lies on "telling Kerry they had to fight back more" were both attempts to win the left.

The fact is that there are very few who do now see that Edwards really is not a very good person.

[CTyankee]

38. I am one of those who now see how awful Edwards was.

I's disressing to me that I fell for this guy's narrative -- all that family stuff, playing on our sympathy for him and Elizabeth, losing their son and her cancer. He was a shrewd, selfish operator from the start and I'm sorry I was so taken in by him.

Never again for me. Everyone in politics is suspect. EVERYONE.

[Inuca]

39. WHAT?!?!?!

One of the most inappropriate and completely WRONG comments I read around here. Serisouly considered reporting it, but it's probably not up to me.

Vile?!?!? How can you say such a thing :spank: :spank: :spank: ??

[apocalypsehow]

42. That is an astonishing reply given the facts at hand. Are you trying for satire?

:shrug:

[Jennicut]

33. Obama needed a VP who is trustworthy and loyal.

Despite the crap that Biden gets from people for his gaffes, his friends in the Senate always said he was a standup kind of a guy. He can give advice to Obama and does not really seem to have another agenda underneath except to see Dems succeed. I don't like all his votes in the past but I trusted him. I never trusted Edwards for a minute. Okay, in the primaries in 2004 I sort of liked him for a second. But then I felt Kerry was just more knowledgeable on everything. I have always liked Kerry and Biden. And I am so, so happy Kerry took over the SFRC.

[tonysam]

22. Yeah, the great Obama who is selling the country down the river

under the guise of being a "Democrat."

Edwards had the right message. Obama does not.

[karynnj]

27. Obama is many times the man that Edwards is

The fact is Edwards was a chameleon. He would have been anything that he thought was needed to win. In 2008, he ran from the left with a populist message. The platform was a good message and the credit should go to the people who Edwards brought together to define it. There was also the Trippi "veneer", the angry screaming at the others as corportists or too connected to lobbyists, the yelling at Congress that it could end the war - when they couldn't.

The fact is that you can go here - http://thomas.loc.gov/home/rollcallvotes.html - and you can get Edwards' votes or you can search the Senate record. I tried an experiment once long ago, I took 2000 and 2001 - years when Edwards was neither new or mostly campaigning. Using the search function, I looked at the number of "hits" for Senators using the words like poverty and homeless. Guess what, Edwards really wasn't the one speaking of this. From memory, Kennedy, Kerry, Dodd, and Reed were all much higher.

Edwards voted for the bankruptcy bill - and you can't claim he didn't understand - Elizabeth specialized in that.

Then look at Obama's record. He and Michelle worked on the South side os Chicago to help some of the poorest people in Chicago. If you think that Edwards, had he ever gained enough support to win more than 1 primary, would have been able to get more out of Congress, you are being naive.

[Jennicut]

30. Edwards would be near impeachment if it was found he gave money

from his campaign funds to shut this thing up. Don't let your dislike of Obama get in the way of that fact. I suppose it would depend on who the VP for Edwards was but the Dems would be weakened incredibly by the scandal and it would have come out eventually. Or, it might have come out in the campaign and we would have McCain and Palin as President. So, please, think before your post out of anger with Obama. We dodged a real bullet. Oh, and Edwards did not give a crap. His message was as fake as the man was.

[marshall]

32. I hope Edwards doesn't try to run for political office again

Please just let him go away.

[karynnj]

34. I don't think we have to worry - he is unlikely to ever get enough people to trust him

Here is how much he is trusted:

Here’s how the average day starts for disgraced former presidential candidate John Edwards, now that he’s got some time on his hands.

<snip>

9:35 a.m.: Deny sleeping in.

9:39 a.m.: Acknowledge that, no, you don’t have a desk. And, yes, you are still lying down in bed with the covers pulled up to your chin. But, no, you got in to bed after sitting at your imaginary desk because you lost a contact in here somewhere. Last night. No, not last night. Ha ha. The night before last. That’s the honest-to-God truth.

9:41 a.m.: Acknowledge that, yes, you are talking to yourself. But, no, that doesn’t mean you are friendless and alone

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/779961--5-things-world-s-fattest-woman

[TexasObserver]

6. She's a joke, and he's a tragedy.

[karynnj]

7. It is harder to find a better word than tragedy

trag·e·dy (trj-d)
n. pl. trag·e·dies
1.
a. A drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/tragedy

I noticed that Joeybee12 used the word hubris, which also fit incredibly well. It is interesting that vocabulary used go back to Greek ideas - more so than any other story.

[joeybee12]

15. Them Greeks, smart people...

...they really had human nature figured out.

[TexasObserver]

18. I can't believe I supported him until he pulled out.

[trumad]

24. That's what she said.

[zazen]

26. comments like that can get you suspended from elementary school, so I hear

[trumad]

28. LOL

Yeah I read that...

[TexasObserver]

37. That's why I phrased it as I did!

I was counting on someone saying what you said.


Of course, you have to pay royalties to Michael Scott Paper Company now.

[Romulox]

9. This story = proof that even we "progressives" are descended from Puritans...

Bottom line is we make who is fucking whom our top priority, while our "good husbands" ransack the country.* This country is the worst!




* All that said, I've always thought Edwards a phony, but for non sex-related reasons.

[karynnj]

11. Read the Newsweek story - the issue that may ultimately totally ruin him

is the misuse of funds given to fight poverty - that were used to finance an extended affair. If you thought making $500,000 for a few days a month work for a hedge fund was bad - and the excuse that he was "studying poverty" ridiculous, this is even worse. There are likely people who gave to this that really couldn't afford it, but did so to help those even less well off.

But, yeah American thought included elements from the puritans. Not to mention, some are directly descended from them, including at least one prominent Democrat.

[Romulox]

14. If he's engaged in that behavior, I hope it does ruin him...BUT the *motivation* for doing so

will nonetheless be that he was unfaithful to his wife.

"If you thought making $500,000 for a few days a month work for a hedge fund was bad - and the excuse that he was "studying poverty" ridiculous, this is even worse. "

I do agree that Edwards is a total sleeze on several levels. I've never cheated on my wife, and would never defend anybody who did. I also think his advocacy for the poor was so insincere as to border on false flag... But he's still going down for philandering!

[karynnj]

21. I agree that even if he had used some of his own millions

for Rielle, he would be ruined as a politician.

[marions ghost]

31. exactly

you have to look at the betrayal of all those who believed in him enough to send money, big or small. I liked Edwards rhetoric & bought the hype, but somehow I knew he was not to be trusted when I saw the 6M house on steroids, the Kennebunkport of the South, while he was shedding big croc tears over the Two Americas. That did it for me.

I bet John resents every dime of child support going to Rielle. She was supposed to disappear like every good mistress when things went bad. That's the only thing I'm on her side for--making him accountable for his actions. But she will still be discarded in the end.

Sure, there are much worse crimes in the world, but the damage that people like Edwards do is huge.

[O is 44]

12. Sleeping w/a married man is reckless....

you twit. The story that will never die and to think I almost voted for this guy. ugh.

[azmouse]

13. I feel bad for Elizabeth.

I can't begin to imagine how hard it must be for her to read this stuff about her husband and know everyone is talking about it.
My heart goes out to her.

[DefenseLawyer]

40. She, by everything I have seen, seems like a nice person.

That being said, I don't know her or really anything about her other than what has been portrayed in the media. I can assume she's the "good guy" here, but as I always say, you never really know what is going on in someone else's house.

[dancingme]

16. Fatal Attraction

She IS Glen Close.

[Heidi]

17. Here's the full article at GQ:

http://www.gq.com/news-politics/politics/201004/rielle-hunter-john-edwards-exclusive-interview?currentPage=1

Sidebar: http://www.gq.com/news-politics/politics/201004/rielle-hunter-john-edwards-exclusive-interview-web-only

[joeybee12]

41. She's a loon, she really is...

...and it really says a lot about "Johnny" that he fell for a loon, threw away everything for a loon.

[tonysam]

19. Cry me a fucking river, Lisa Jo

YOU pursued him KNOWING he was married and then got pregnant as part of a blackmail scheme. He was stupid for doing it, but you are the one MORE fucking responsible.

You were born into a family of cons; your dad killed your prize show horse for the insurance money.

Like father, like daughter.

[marions ghost]

25. No they are both responsible and

Equally stupid. :eyes:

They do deserve each other.

[Heidi]

36. And he acquiesced, KNOWING he was married.

But poor, poor downtrodden and misunderstood John Edwards, born into a family of decent people, eight years of university education, a long and successful legal career dealing with some of the most savvy adversaries on earth, then a career in in the cut-throat theater of politics, but for some inexplicable reason, could not possibly have seen ANY of this comin'. :eyes:

[leeroysphitz]

29. duh n/t

[catbyte]

43. I'm sorry, but this whole thing just makes me say ewwww

I don't know what it is about this, but I actually get queasy seeing anything about those 2 people--especially those GQ pics of Hunter. What was she thinking posing like that? It's not puritanical, it's just bad taste and no class. Ick.

:puke:

Diane

Anishnabe in MI

[Name removed]

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