I'm glad John Edwards is free

[malaise]

Judge not.

Get on with your life and find peace with all of your children including precious Quin who did not ask to be born.

[cali]

1. I'm glad he was found not guilty.

but I'll judge him all I want.

He's deplorable- and not so much for fucking around.

[malaise]

2. I won't

As Tweety pointed out marriages go through hell after a child dies.
I wasn't there and I don't know how he and Elizabeth dealt with the death of their son.
I am glad it is over and I dare them to retry this BS.

[cali]

4. As I said I don't care about his affair

I think the way he cynically used supporter and even more cynically used the poor, is vile. fuck him.

[peace frog]

22. Completely agree

No hate from me, I'm happy for him and wish him and his family well.

[GoCubsGo]

41. Me, too.

First his son dies, and then his wife becomes terminally ill. People deal with personal tragedy in bizarre, unfortunate ways sometimes. I can't hate him. What he did wasn't malicious. It was stupid and self-centered. I hate what he did to his wife. But, I feel sorry for him. I am happy for his kids. They don't have to lose their other parent to prison

[jimlup]

3. Frankly person stuff is personal stuff... and should not be "legal" stuff

I'm sorry but I still like what John Edwards stood for and thus I still like a part of who John Edwards is.

Yeah - he made some moral mistakes.

"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

[malaise]

6. I agree

By the way his daughter is a wonderful woman

[cali]

7. he stood for nothing but his own overweening ambition.

as phony a politician as ever there was.

[malaise]

11. I was never a fan of John Edwards

but he's just another human being with flaws like the rest of us.

Nothing he did deserved prison.
You want phony - try Rmoney and I'm betting that Rmoney did way more harm to way more people.

[Zalatix]

13. ^^^^^ This. 10,000%.

[cali]

15. jaysus. how many time and in how many ways do I need to say

that I didn't think he should have been convicted? I've been clear about that- repeatedly and in this thread. sigh.

[unapatriciated]

63. or McCain, Newt and so many more.

I too am happy with this and hope that they allow this family to heal in peace.

[Hawkowl]

46. Perhaps

I can't disagree with you. I only urge you to separate his purported message from the man. We need someone to pick up that message and run with it. If we can't find someone, we are doomed as a nation.

[Ken Burch]

59. You're right.

I think it's what the Republiban THOUGHT he stood for, or that his campaign implied support for, rather than anything he actually believed.

You could compare it to the idea that the MIC played a role in JFK's assassination because, even though he was just as much of a crazed militarist as anybody else in U.S. politics in that era, the MIC took even his occasional appearance of being an idealist, and his apparent(rather than real) respect for dissenting voices and ideas as a threat.

In both cases, the powers-that-be were scared of an illusion...a fear that illustrates how tenuous their power, or at least there sense of their power, may actually be.

[SammyWinstonJack]

12. Thank you.

I am sorry but I still like what John Edwards stood for and thus I still like a part of who John Edwards is.

Feel the same and I won't apologize for it.

[LeftofObama]

21. Same here!

"I still like what John Edwards stood for and thus I still like a part of who John Edwards is."

[coalition_unwilling]

27. +1,000,000

[unapatriciated]

65. same here

[Horse with no Name]

69. Me either

I don't regret one cent that I contributed to his campaign.

[99 Percent Sure]

76. +1

[spooky3]

71. Another agreement.

And, marriages/divorces are rarely what they seem to outsiders. I suspect that is one reason that Cate stood by him.

None of this is to justify any bad behavior.

[Major Nikon]

29. I can't agree it's strickly personal

Once a candidate agrees to presidential election matching funds, they agree to a much higher standard regarding how those funds are spent. I could care less if Edwards betrays his marriage, but he also betrayed the public trust. I never thought he should do jail time, but I do think he should pay a higher economic price than he already has.

[jimlup]

68. Yeah - I don't disagree with you but...

He admitted that what he did was "wrong" but here's the big thing. It is pretty clear from an objective reading of the law that he didn't break it.

The key is that the law says he had to "know" that what he was doing was illegal. He didn't. Or at least the prosecution failed in their attempt to "prove" it. QED

[tabatha]

5. It is sad when personal lives are taken to court.

Yes, I know of a couple who divorced after losing a child.

[malaise]

9. I have a good friend

His wife put the car in park on a hillside and the eight year old went into the car for something she forgot - the car started moving and crushed her.
The wife wanted to migrate permanently and he refused - that was that.

[tabatha]

10. I just cannot imagine the nightmares after that.

[malaise]

14. She hasn't stopped blaming herself

but way too many people here use park without the handbrake despite the hilly terrain.
It was a tragedy of serious proportions.

[abelenkpe]

16. My hubby never uses the parking brake

Every time I get in his car I call him over and regal him with the many stories I've read of such tragedies. Nothing gets through to him.

[malaise]

24. I know too many people who won't use that brake

I mean how hard is it to just use it. I'll never get it particularly for people who live in hilly terrain.

[AtheistCrusader]

50. I assume you guys are referring to automatics in park?

If that's the case, it all comes down to a little metal pin, smaller in diameter than a frigging pencil, against the entire weight of the car. Not a good bet.

When I have occasion to use an automatic, I set the brake first, let it take the entire weight load of the car, and THEN set the park selector on the transmission. Now you have two systems in case one fails.

[malaise]

66. Yep

Damn I did not know that. Good thing we use the brake

Thanks

[frazzled]

17. Well, a million dollars and personal lives.

Two things: this was not about the personal lives per se, but the funneling of the money.

Second, the personal lives of public figures are never personal. That's what you give up when you go public.

[sabrina 1]

19. Anytime a vindictive Republican is defeated is okay by me.

The trial was mostly about his personal life. There really was no legal case which most
people said all along. It was a political prosecution, and if for no other reason, I am glad to see the Republican Prosecutor be handed his head on this.

What a waste of the public's time and money. Citizens United has created a wild west as far campaign finance laws go. I guess the jury just couldn't see where the crime was. Their personal opinion of him wasn't relative to the small part of the trial that actually tried to deal with alleged crime.

I never supported Edwards btw. He voted for the war, then for political purposes, apologized for that vote. I didn't believe him nor any of the other Dems who supported Bush on that. My support went to the only candidate who opposed the war, which was Obama. Otoh, who knows how he would have voted had he been there? But he wasn't, so that worked in his favor.

[malaise]

25. Yep and that vindictive ReTHUG

was exposed big time.

[coalition_unwilling]

28. Political persecution, more like. BTW, Kucinich also opposed the war :) - n/t

[sabrina 1]

33. I know, he was my first choice, but I knew they would never let him win.

We have to evolve quite a bit as a society before someone like Kucinich could even be considered for that office. He is way, way ahead of his time, assuming we will evolve some time in the far distant future. But I was glad he was there, raising the issues no one wanted to talk about. He is a great Democrat.

[Ken Burch]

64. Unfortunately, because Edwards ran as a phony populist-progressive, stealing the votes

that Dennis' campaign deserved(then flaming out early and leaving progressives with nobody to vote for by April, IIRC)
Dennis wasn't able to raise the issues in most states in 2008...in fact, there were almost NO actual political issues raised in the primaries once Dennis was forced out...it was all just bland technocratic corporate mush(with one campaign delivering the mush with more false passion than the other)...and we got a platform and a fall campaign that stood for nothing about anything as a result.

Imagine how much different and better it could had been if we'd had, say, 800 Kucinich delegates in Denver.

[Ken Burch]

62. That's true, and actually my biggest grievance against Edwards

Is that he took votes in the 2008 primaries that Dennis deserved and had earned. People KNEW Dennis walked the walk...Edwards only took those votes because he was richer and prettier. It's Edwards fault that Dennis was forced out of the race early, denying the progressive wing anybody to vote for at all in most primaries, when if Edwards had stayed the hell out, Dennis could have brought hundreds of progressive delegates to Denver and, even if he didn't get nominated, could at least ensured that whoever did get nominated was obliged to honor some REAL commitments.

Shame on every "progressive&quot and that includes Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and even Harry Belafonte-what the hell were you three thinking?)that backed Edwards instead of Dennis. You all subjected a hero to humiliating defeat for no good reason. Next time, don't believe the hype, people.

[caseymoz]

40. Political prosecution? His career was over.

What could possibly be gained by chasing a washed-up politician with criminal charges? And Edwards was washed-up before the charges arrived. The prosecution looked to be on the up-and-up to me. Yes, his private life should stay private, except when he supports it by diverting campaign or public funds.

The other exception is if you make the "traditional family" part of your platform. Then you should see if the person practices what they preach.

[sabrina 1]

44. A 'democrat', you forgot to mention that regardless of the status of his career

Edwards is still a Democrat. The prosecutor is 'eyeing a run for Congress', or was. Prosecuting Democrats causes the public to view Democrats in general, as corrupt and tainted. So yes, a political prosecution. Do you think this prosecutor would have gone after Vitter eg?

Anyhow, he failed, as most legal experts pointed out from the beginning, there was no real evidence of a crime, and the prosecutor's star witness had so many credibility problems you have to wonder why this case was brought at all. It did however, provide the Right with ammunition to go after Democrats. I'm glad he lost, and do believe it was political prosecution by a politically motivated prosecutor.

[caseymoz]

56. You and I have a different idea of "political."

There's political, and then there's vindictive.

A political prosecution would be where the object is to remove somebody from office or wreck their career. Or, perhaps, to shut them up. The Clinton impeachment was a political prosecution.

Edwards didn't have an office, didn't have a career. He wasn't going to lead anyone with his oration again. Any political gain would have been slight, and confined to one guy.

If done for any reason but that the prosecutor thought Edwards was guilty, I would say it's a vindictive prosecution, which could really happen outside of politics, too.

[frazzled]

73. Well, take the case of Republican Patrick Fitzgerald prosecuting

Blagojevich. That trial went down in flames too and ended in mistrial: the jury was hung on 23 of the 24 charges the prosecution brought, and convicted him on only one (lying to the FBI). Fitzgerald didn't quit and went to trial again, this time getting a jury that found him guilty on 17 of the same counts and sent him to prison for 13 years (which everyone thought was real overkill). Did you cheer Fitzgerald losing the first trial?

As I think about this result a day later I realize it has little meaning. Neither the prosecution nor the defense obviously had a good case. Otherwise the jury would not have been hung. We don't know whether it was just one person or a closely split decision; whether most thought he was guilty of the other charges and one or two refused to budge on not guilty; or whether most thought he was not guilty and one or two thought he was.

The one thing they exonerated him on was a fairly small portion of the issue: on the $200K given after he dropped out of the race, they decided was not campaign-related (d'oh). The rest, apparently they weren't sure.

I doubt they will prosecute this again. It doesn't even need to be. In my opinion, Edwards should be forced to give $1 million of his own money (his many millions) to help other unwed pregnant moms. That would be justice. But I doubt that will happen. I didn't think this was prison-term offense either (though certainly people profited illicitly), but I'm glad this hypocritical phony was put in the spotlight for what he was.

[sabrina 1]

78. Um, no I did not cheer Fitzgerald for his relentless pursuit of Blago especially after his

case failed so spectacularly. Btw, as far as I know, Fitzgerald is registered, or was, as an Independent. I hope Blago appeals that conviction.

I'm not at all impressed with Fitzgerald, he failed miserably on the most important case he ever had. I wish he had been as diligent in his pursuit of the war criminals as he was of Blago.

[Whisp]

8. K&R for a Yes

I had my digs at him and now it's time to put my daggers away and let him have some peace with his family

[deaniac21]

18. He has proven that there are indeed

two Americas.

[sabrina 1]

20. Maybe three. The rich, the poor and Republicans who don't seem to get prosecuted for far worse

crimes, such as War Crimes. At least Democrats get prosecuted, see Edwards and Siegelman, while Rove roams free along with Cheney et al with no fear of prosecution.

[deaniac21]

23. Rich and republican are synonymous

[sabrina 1]

34. Well, they become rich once they do the job they were hired to do. In the meantime, so long as they

do what they are told as they work their way up, no matter what they do, they will be protected.

[malaise]

26. Meanwhile not one of the criminal bankers has even

been charged

[spanone]

30. k&r...

[Raine]

31. I'm glad he wasn't convicted because the charges were nothing put political BS

but IMO (which I'm entitled to) he's nothing but scum and I hope we never have to hear from him again.

[Greybnk48]

32. Me too. I thought the whole thing was political theater.

I'm really sorry for him and his family that he made what appears to be a colossal mistake. But I thought these charges were sketchy at best.

[Misskittycat]

35. I'm glad about the result, too, but I'd like my $75 back. n/t

[Veracious]

36. John Edwards is a good guy.

Yes the lesson is we all fall...

[Dustlawyer]

37. I drove him and his campaign manager to and from a fundraiser my boss invited him to.

He took our money and on the ride back was telling his manager about the rumors in the media that Bill Clinton had a blonde girlfriend in California. They laughed and joked about it. He was heading to California next (presumably to Ms. Hunter) with whom it was later discovered he was having the affair with. Ironic huh?

[Terra Alta]

38. Edwards is no saint

but I'm glad he's free too, for Emma Claire and Jack's sake. They've already lost one parent; they don't deserve to lose another.

[morningfog]

39. I congratulate Mr. Edwards on his being found not guilty and remaining free.

[harmonicon]

42. I'm glad that he's on in elective office or another government job.

Beyond that, I could really care less about him.

[rateyes]

43. I hope he now uses his time and money doing some good.

He wasn't the best of messengers, but his message was dead on accurate.

[Swede Atlanta]

45. We are wrong....

I truly believe Edwards is guilty of most, if not all, of the crimes of which he was charged. He was fucking around with a mistress at the same time his wife was dealing with cancer. Remember that cancer took her life.

He should be serving time. I don't care if you are a Democrat, Republican, squirrel catcher or priest, you need to serve time for your crimes.

I cannot observe inside of the jury room but I suspect there were many convinced he had done SOMETHING that should be punished.

I supported Edwards including his failed 2008 presidential bid.

But I believe we need to be true to the idea of application of the law equally and find him guilty.

[Hawkowl]

47. But I believe we need to be true to the idea of application of the law equally and find him guilty.

See, there is the rub. If this was true, Newt Gingrich would be behind bars as would a great many other politicians. None of them are. So let's not start now.

[AtheistCrusader]

52. Gingrich funneled political donations to personal use?

By all means, charge that fucker.

All of them should be. When people scrape up cash, and send it to a politician for use in a campaign, they are NOT sending it to pay off a love child/mistress/whatever.

It's to put that politician in OFFICE to WORK FOR THEM.

His personal dalliances are not the issue. What he did with money people sent him for the election is.

[inna]

70. wrong again. it is NOT the "money people sent him", it is a specific donation from 2 wealthy donors

(totaling less than one million bucks; a (relatively) trivial amount IOW) that he was being (in parenthesis, wrongfully/vindictively/ridiculously/absurdly) prosecuted for.


He's never been accused of misusing, in any way, general campaign funds and/or contributions from small donors; don't start with this shit now.

[AtheistCrusader]

74. Did he or did he not get matching funds?

If not, I will shut the fuck up.

[malaise]

57. Huh?

Get back to be when David Vitter is charged with soliciting prostitutes.

[Swede Atlanta]

58. Agree we need to start but Edwards was a symptom of a problem...

even before Citizen's United where wealth was equated with political influence.

Look, if he is duly acquitted under applicable law I accept that as a fact although I might question the outcome.

But we must agree to move toward a "rule of law" basis. We are nowhere near that today.

[Ken Burch]

49. It would have been enough to fine him heavily.

His personal life is a disgrace...but the alleged crime was, actually, victimless.

The real crime is the system we are, at least for the moment, consigned to live under.

[AtheistCrusader]

54. Is it victimless?

I know some people who scrimped and saved so they could donate to his campaign. I would say they were at least partially taken for a ride.

[Ken Burch]

55. Then the fine could be used to give them refunds on their donations.

Sending the guy to prison wouldn't have helped any of those people.

[AtheistCrusader]

60. True enough.

But, the idea is to discourage others from doing the same thing. Restitution could have been in addition to the criminal charge.

Was a criminal charge the right answer? Maybe not. Jury apparently didn't think so. So I'll agree with you there.

[Ken Burch]

61. OK. we'll leave it at that between us.

n/t.

[Ken Burch]

48. Excellent thoughts.

This trial should never have happened...and I'm glad it's over.

And Quin is simply another child...which is a wonderful enough thing for anyone to be...may her life be happy and free from the glare of the sanctimonious.

[malaise]

51. Ditto

[Ken Burch]

53. May the weather be nice, wherever you are today.

n/t.

[progress2k12nbynd]

67. Funny, long similar thread today expressing anger that the rich always get off.

This is an ironic place some days.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002747716

[CBGLuthier]

72. Oh dear god why are assholes like him and Spitzer so easily forgiven here?

They are elitists who think they can do whatever the fuck they want because they are better than us.

Fuck every last one of them .

[cascadiance]

75. What I do like is hopefully this will tell the righties where to take their partisan witch hunts!

Which was a big part of what this was... If they get squashed like this one was, then maybe it will keep them from trying to go after every progressive they can find any dirt on, if they don't get the results they want in the end.

I was seriously disappointed in what Edwards did personally here, but I did support his message in the primaries for what I perceived was one of the only "realistic" options. Next time I'll rally more around someone like Dennis Kucinich and not be swayed by the "only realistic option". I wonder if the PTB knew very early in the primary season that Edwards was "tainted" with this hidden story, and told him to go ahead and campaign heavily to draw the progressive votes to him, so that it would get down to the Obama, Clinton, Edwards threesome and keep anyone like Kucinich out as much as possible before they "ended" his campaign right before the big primaries. Don't know if we'll ever know the answer to that question, but if that manipulation happened, it would seriously disappoint me that he was party to that if it was done voluntarily as a "deal" by himself. It wouldn't be surprising to see that the corporatist interests did this to protect their flanks from someone that might somehow get in like Kucinich who would really end their honeymoon.

I feel bad for his family and Elizabeth though. They didn't deserve this! I still remember how she died exactly a year after my father died. It made that day even more sad for me.

[malaise]

79. Nice post

[aikoaiko]

77. Me too, but I'm glad for the full court press vetted the issue.

Best of both worlds.

We can have a justice system that holds people like him accountable.

And set him free if the burden of proof is not met.