From a wingnut on an email list I'm on:
I'm really surprised to see that there have been no members of this list leaping to the defense of John Edwards this last week.
Right, Bucko.
There has been plenty of criticism of Edwards on the lefty lists I'm on. While under any other circumstances an affair is between the couple themselves, in this case it goes beyond that, because of political aspirations:
1. Both John & Elizabeth Edwards moved forward with his campaign knowing that this time-bomb could drop at any time.
2. The campaign gave donated money to Rielle Hunter's video company while the affair was ongoing.
On policy points, both Edwards' get plenty of support. But for a foolish notion to run for office while this could be used by the idiot traditional media and the wingnut Right as negative ads and ammunition, no support.
And while we're on the topic of the traditional lazy-ass media, has there been any mention of McCain's shoddy treatment of his first wife, including an affair with current wife Cindy?
David Fiderer at HuffPost adds this:
"Is this another skeleton in the Democratic closet that Barack Obama must struggle to overcome?" David Gregory on the revelation of John Edwards' extramarital affair.
OK, so now we know the new ground rules. The private life of John Edwards, who currently neither seeks nor holds public office, is a legitimate story for mainstream media because he was a hypocrite and because he lied.
He mentions several Republican hypocrites, and that doesn't even include the prize: McCain, who as the Repub standard-bearer, should be held to at least the same standard as a guy who isn't running for anything anymore:
McCain, who is about to become the GOP nominee, has made several statements about how he divorced Carol and married Hensley that conflict with the public record.
In his 2002 memoir, "Worth the Fighting For," McCain wrote that he had separated from Carol before he began dating Hensley.
"I spent as much time with Cindy in Washington and Arizona as our jobs would allow," McCain wrote. "I was separated from Carol, but our divorce would not become final until February of 1980."
An examination of court documents tells a different story. McCain did not sue his wife for divorce until Feb. 19, 1980, and he wrote in his court petition that he and his wife had "cohabited" until Jan. 7 of that year -- or for the first nine months of his relationship with Hensley.
Although McCain suggested in his autobiography that months passed between his divorce and remarriage, the divorce was granted April 2, 1980, and he wed Hensley in a private ceremony five weeks later. McCain obtained an Arizona marriage license on March 6, 1980, while still legally married to his first wife.
Until McCain filed for divorce, the Reagans and their inner circle assumed he was happily married, and they were stunned to learn otherwise, according to several close aides.
"Everybody was upset with him," recalled Nancy Reynolds, a top aide to the former president who introduced him to McCain.
And what about Vicki Iseman?
A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.
When news organizations reported that Mr. McCain had written letters to government regulators on behalf of the lobbyist’s client, the former campaign associates said, some aides feared for a time that attention would fall on her involvement.
Criticize McCain much? Anyone? Anyone?
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