Emerging Edwards Scandal?

[2rth2pwr]

Rumor only- from Slate

The MSM really doesn't want to report it.
By Mickey Kaus
Updated Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2007, at 3:38 PM ET

The National Enquirer http://www.nationalenquirer.com/john_edwards_cheating_scandal/celebrity/64271">claims to have enough of the Edwards cheating-on-cancer-stricken-wife story, including "bombshell" e-mails, to run with. ... P.S.: They "met in a bar." Sounds familiar! ... You read it here first. ... OK, you read it on http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/09/26/edwards-mystery-innocuou_n_66070.html">HuffPo first. ... HuffPo 's Sam Stein now has lots of http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/10/10/scrubbed-edwards-filmmak_n_67868.html">background material. ... P.P.S.: When I ask friends they split roughly 50/50 on whether, if true, this is a legitimate story. The MSM seems to be strenuously trying to not report it. Given how Edwards' campaign has tacitly and effectively used Elizabeth and her struggle, etc., I think if true it's scummy behavior on his part that Democratic primary voters should know about. His campaign is denying it. ...

kf Forward Lean, I: If the story is true, what happens to Edwards? First, I guess his private fundraising dries up. You'd think a candidate who knew this scandal was coming down the pike would have switched to public funding or something. Oh, right. ... Another reason to think he'd try to soldier on: Dropping out after a scandal would tarnish him in a way that denying and losing wouldn't. ...

kf Forward Lean, II: If Edwards sinks or disappears, does it benefit Hillary? You'd think no--she doesn't want a clarified head-to-head race against Obama. But Obama is counting on Edwards to do the dirty work of taking Hillary on. ... The ideal outcome for Obama would be if Edwards loses most of his support yet stays in the race long enough to go on the attack. But even a complete Edwards disappearance would still benefit Obama, I'd think. (It's a zero-sum game--somebody has to benefit.) ... 11:58 A.M. link http://www.slate.com/id/2175509/#metinabar

[skipos]

1. Didn't we hear this about Kerry in 2004?

Right now, this sounds like BS to me.

[beachmom]

16. Yep, and it was total BS. I don't believe this story. National Enquirer crap. n/t

[karynnj]

25. The Edwards campaign should look back to the classy way John Kerry han

handled that lie. The woman whose life was sent into chaos by it wrote a New York magazine story about both her side of it. She had dated a young guy involved in the campaign. The whole story actually started when the young reporter was seen by a co-worker as being able to get John Kerry to speak to her on the phone. I hope that the Edwards story is as simple and clear as that.

The Kerry campaign had the person who knew her call and verify that there was nothing there. They denied it without the slightest hint of an attack on the woman. The woman also denied it. The final result was that her dad, who was a conservative Republican who disliked Kerry for being anti-war in the 1970s said he would vote for him.

[AngryAmish]

2. Heard about this a few weeks back

Too bad things such as this get into the press.

[AlCzervik]

3. yes just like john Kerry was having an affair according to Drudge--oh yeah, he wasn't.

why spread this around here?

[monmouth]

4. I'm not an Edwards person, but this is plain slander IMO. They have

nothing negative for either of the Edwards, or any member of their family...i.e. typical Rovian style...let's make something up. I don't and will not believe nor will I post anything to advance their swiftboating of the Edwards.... Think about it, guy is going to run for POTUS but goes to a bar and meets a babe??? C'mon people, let us not perpetuate this. It's crap.

[AlCzervik]

5. i'm not an Edward's person either but this kind of stuff is bullshit.

"Emerging scandal" ORLY?

[ElizabethDC]

6. My favorite part about this story is

that he allegedly picked her up in a bar. Is it just me or does it seem improbable that he's spending a lot of time hanging out in bars?

[DavidDvorkin]

9. Yeah, because no one would recognize him in a bar

[TwilightGardener]

10. Did you read Sam Stein/HuffPo link? Newsweek had mentioned

that Edwards had met the girl in question at a bar--she was the director of some web documentaries he made pre-campaign last year. And now, no one can see the videos. It does sound a little weird, but I will give Edwards the benefit of the doubt.

[2rth2pwr]

14. From Newsweek

"...The Webisodes are the brainchild of Rielle Hunter, a filmmaker who met Edwards at a New York bar where Edwards was having a business meeting. "I didn't think it was John Edwards," Hunter recalls, "because the public persona did not mesh at all with the person who was sitting in front of me." Hunter pitched Edwards on the documentaries as a medium for bringing the "real John Edwards" to the people. " http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16243412/site/newsweek/

[TwilightGardener]

17. LOL! OK, not a "girl", as I described her.

[ElizabethDC]

21. Ah, I see.

The way the National Enquirer made it sound was that he was randomly hanging out at bars and happened to pick up a woman. I was like, that doesn't sound right. Still, I think the story is a load of hogwash.

[maximusveritas]

44. What it sounds like to me

is that the Edwards campaign didn't like the work Ms.Hunter produced,so they scrapped it, and now she's trying to get even by spreading these rumors. That's just my impression as an outsider. Unless she or the National Enquirer can provide real evidence, it's just a "he said, she said" game.

[rinsd]

18. Its just so much nonsense.

As someone else mentioned it so smells like the Kerry affair during the 2004 election.

Coincidently enough Mickey Kaus was all over that story too.

:hi:

[Stop Cornyn]

7. Yes it is emerging. It's emerging from Ann Coulter's ass.

[robcon]

8. The "story" is way ahead of the "facts."

Not much here.

[DesEtoiles]

11. Good thing we're getting back to discussing the real issues.

[DrDan]

12. I posted this yesterday in GD. . . but had the thread was locked by the

fair-and-balanced moderator over there because the "link to the Enquirer was taken down". Seems a few fellow first-amendment-challenged DU posters disagreed with a link to the Enquirer. Link to rush, or hannity, or malkin, or oleilly, or beck and that is ok - they are valid sources to trash-stories.

[MADem]

13. Isn't Slate owned by the NBC family?

And NBC is owned by General Electric, Top Ten Pentagon Contractor.

I am still an undecided voter, but this smells like a cheap shot and a Big Lie to me.

If the 'scandal' is indeed 'emerging,' let it fucking EMERGE--it's like commenting on the size of the turd before the dog has crapped it out on the sidewalk, after all.

Remember the John Kerry intern Big Lie?

Even the National Enquirer, while REPORTING it, are DISTANCING THEMSELVES from saying it's actually true. Get a load of this bit a'parsing:

A source close to the woman, whose name is being withheld by The NATIONAL ENQUIRER, says that she confessed to having an affair in phone calls and emails, saying that her work with Edwards soon exploded into romance. The shocking allegation —

if proven true

— could devastate the Democratic hopeful's campaign, especially because John's devoted wife Elizabeth is locked in a desperate battle with breast cancer.

"The affair started about 18 months ago," a friend says the woman confessed to her. "When they met at a bar, sparks flew immediately.

"She never expected it would turn sexual since John is married and is running for President. But it soon did — and she fell for him."

http://www.nationalenquirer.com/john_edwards_cheating_scandal/celebrity/64271

It smells funny to me. I'm not ready to suspend critical thought and hop on that salacious bandwagon.

[TwilightGardener]

19. Newsweek is also somehow affiliated with the NBC family.

[Dollface]

15. Sadly, it doesn't matter if it is true. Mud stains are almost impossible to get rid of.

Faux News will pick it up and run with it.

[aquart]

23. It matters if it's true. Because truth actually does matter.

Since Edwards' strength is his strong marriage, where are they attacking him? Big surprise.

Me, I will always prefer my president to screw his mistress and not the nation.

But it's cute the way this shard of a fragment of a hint of a rumor is already being accepted here. Not that I would ever suspect anyone of being here for that express purpose.

[MADem]

32. Well, unless he needs glasses, or he's bedazzled, I kinda doubt it.

If that pic is remotely a resemblance to the woman, she looks a bit nuts and a bit bow wow wow, to say nothing of rather long in the tooth for a mistress. Usually, rich guys with money go for vapid candy. There's always the exception to the rule, though, I suppose--look at Jennifer Fitzgerald...

[ellenfl]

43. huh?

"If that pic is remotely a resemblance to the woman, she looks a bit nuts and a bit bow wow wow, to say nothing of rather long in the tooth for a mistress. Usually, rich guys with money go for vapid candy."

so, only vapid 20-somethings can be mistresses? that's a little sexist, dontcha think?

ellen fl

[MADem]

48. No, it isn't sexist at all--unless you mean it's a commentary on the

shallowness of Trumpish forty-to-sixty MALES in their choice of extramarital humping partners.

All things being equal, and the judgment of sneaking around on one's wife factored in, guys who are fucking around are more likely to choose the younger model.

It's just the way it is, and it's not "sexist" to point out the obvious.

[Dollface]

41. I only meant that it doesn't matter in the sense that there are people who will accept the lie

because it suits their needs.. in the swiftboat sense. I think the truth is enormously important. I don't accept this rumor as truth btw.

[TwilightGardener]

42. I don't think it's being "accepted" as true--but it would be stupid not to pay attention to it.

[ElizabethDC]

29. Well, I don't think the Kerry affair story from 2004 ever really stuck

so sometimes the truth does prevail.

[karynnj]

Not if it is countered well

Kerry continued winning in the primaries and didn't lose a single state to it. It really had no legs.

[juajen]

20. I do not believe this and do not like DU spreading unfounded crap against one of our own.

Perhaps I shouldn't have even answered this post; but, I wanted to go on the record with my opinion of this viciousness. For shame!

[Rambis]

22. Pugs pulling out that card again

We should not be surprised. Gee, who do you think the right wants to run against?

[AlCzervik]

26. Edwards big mistake--he's only been married once.

if he was a 4 timer like the a republican this wouldn't even be in the rumor mill.

[PurityOfEssence]

45. I'm confused; I thought that was proof he was gay...

Great minds discuss ideas;
Average minds discuss events;
Small minds discuss people.
(Eleanor Roosevelt)

[AlCzervik]

46. oh right, sorry.

[Bitwit1234]

24. Didn't you know Slate is a republican yellow journalist rag

and they are probably messing themselves to get to post something negative about a Democrat. Especially one as squeaky clean as Edwards.

Ever since they were bought by the Republican Newspaper Washington Post they have turned more and more yellow bashing journalist.

[Cameron27]

28. They really are a RW rag,

but FWIW, they're quoting Huffpo. Very circumstantial BS IMO, but the campaign video story is a bit weird.

[Beaverhausen]

27. Thanks for spreading crap from the National Enquirer

this is such bullshit.

[AlCzervik]

30. no kidding, i hate this shit, same thing when Drudge lied about Kerry.

it's scurrilous.

[Ganja Ninja]

31. I'd like to think that if John Edwards was going to fool around on

his wife he could do better than a would be actress/coke whore. She looks positively skanky.

[bpeale]

50. let's face it, he's an extremely good looking guy

he could have any woman he wanted & that was the best he could do? oh please.

[zulchzulu]

33. It's a shame when this type of "news" comes out...

If the allegations are true, that's one thing. It would be a tragedy that I'd not even want to be a part of.

The worst part about these kind of stories is how they tarnish and pollute the political waters. My best wishes go out to the Edwards family for having to deal with this garbage no matter if it's true or not.

[Mass]

34. This has to be the silliest story I have read in this campaign cycle.

So, except a few insinuations, what is there to support the claims that the OP (or rather the articles it is linking to) is making?

[rocktivity]

35. Third-hand information, a one-sided fantasy quality

From the Enquirer article:

A source close to the woman, whose name is being withheld by The NATIONAL ENQUIRER...
WHOSE name--the source's or the woman? The Enquirer may have one name but not the other.

"When they met at a bar, sparks flew immediately. She never expected it would turn sexual since John is married and is running for President. But it soon did — and she fell for him."
SHE fell for HIM? SHE'S the one who "turned sexual!" But did Edwards fall back?

In one bombshell e-mail message provided to The NATIONAL ENQUIRER, the woman confesses to a friend she's "in love with John," but it's "difficult because he is married and has kids." !
That's a bombshell? I'm in love with Jon Bon Jovi, but it's difficult because he's married and has kids!

Disclosed her friend: "She initially confided in a few of her closest pals that she was sleeping with 'a married man named John.'"
Hmm, wasn't John KERRY rumored to have had an "intern" at about that time?

...It became clear the married man was John Edwards. They got together whenever they could, mostly at hotels where Edwards and his campaign staff stayed." The woman later spelled it out in a phone call to her pal and talked openly about having an affair with Edwards.
I seriously doubt that either of them are dumb enough to be so indiscreet, especially if she wanted to keep the affair going. Bill Clinton was to have had one mistress for FOURTEEN years, though there isn't one scrap of collaborating evidence. And remember John Kerry's "intern?"

His spokesman said that allegations Edwards had an affair are "false, absolute nonsense."
Well, if SHE can have a "spokesperson," why can't HE?

:eyes:
rocknation

[SaveElmer]

36. National Enquirer?

As someone who supports a candidate that is frequently the target of attacks from discredited and right wing sources...and which are often used here to attack her it would be very tempting to engage in a bit of "turnabout is fair play." However the National Enquirer should NEVER be a legitimate source to attack anyone...

I just do not believe Edwards would do something so cruel and cold-hearted...something that would put him alongside Newt Gingrich...

In my opinion this is just muckraking crap dredged up by reporters with way too much time on their hands...and by some bloggers with the same problem...

[monktonman]

37. The MSM doesnt want to report a SEX SCANDLE??

Puh-leeze, give me a break
If it were even a little bit true it would recieve 24 hour, wall to wall coverage.
nothing to see here.

[Cameron27]

39. I know

like they've always buried them before. The whole thing sounds absurd.

[rocktivity]

40. DING DING DING! Monktonman, you're our grand prize winner!

The MSM doesnt want to report a SEX SCANDAL??

And about a DEMOCRAT, to boot? This is like when Obama was accused of having gone to a madrassa--by the Moonie Washington Times and its satellite Insight magazine!

:rofl:
rocknation

[no_hypocrisy]

38. You can't do the Gary Hart shtik every time there is a credible democratic candidate.

Plus, they'd better watch their ass b/c Edwards is a damned good trial lawyer.

[Greenwood]

47. Just hope it is not true. I am a little wary of the source....

hopefully it will be nothing.

[no_hypocrisy]

51. Welcome to DU

and I couldn't agree with you more.

[benny05]

49. That Slate writer Is Giving Us Kool-aid

JRE has a staffer with him at all times. He may not say anything during the meeting, but he has an aide, and to even imply there was an appearance of impropriety is ludicrous.

My recollection is that one of JRE's aides said something really snarky about his job description (meaning the aide's). It was funny but I can see why the campaign ditched it.


Here's the scoop on the writer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Kaus

He's a neoconservative and he also smears folks like Obama.

Don't drink the kool-aid.

[MUSTANG_2004]

52. Mickey Kaus is NOT a neocon

I'd describe him as a reluctant Democrat. The wikipedia article includes this link, which, as a longtime Kaus reader, I think is pretty on-the-mark:

http://www.newsthinking.com/story.cfm?SID=185

This comment catches the tone:

"Hard-core liberals ... ding for being a Democrat who focuses only on the misjudgments and hypocrisies of other Democrats, not Republicans. Why not just join the GOP? they snort. 'Maybe it's a character defect,' Kaus answers without rancor, 'but when I get up in the morning I do not feel like attacking George Bush' -- not because he's drawn to Bush but because he expects so little."

[benny05]

53. BS-O-meter

Rielle Hunter released the following statement through a spokesperson:

"The innuendoes and lies that have appeared on the internet and in the National Enquirer concerning John Edwards are not true, completely unfounded and ridiculous.

My video production company was hired by the Edwards camp on a 6 month contract, which we completed December 31, 2006.

When working for the Edwards camp, my conduct as well as the conduct of my entire team was completely professional.

This concocted story is just dirty politics and I want no part of it."



http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/10/11/161518/89


Here is a link to the webisodes that someone saved:

http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/10/11/155149/84


I wish Slate would fire that dumba**. HuffPO owes Edwards an apology.

[Mojorabbit]

54. I had a cheating husband once

and nothing surprises me but there is not enough evidence here to make any kind of opinion. If emails do surface then that will be another matter. Till then, I am blowing the whole thing off as balogna.