ROFL!
Posted on 05/22/2006 5:18:52 AM PDT by Quilla
There have been many political candidates who were willing to say or do just about anything to get elected. It’s one of the reasons why politicians are so often rated below used car salesmen in public opinion surveys.
On Sunday’s This Week program, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos interviewed John Edwards, the Democrat’s nominee for vice-president in 2004. During the program, the one-term Senator from North Carolina, made a publicity-provoking comment (video here) about the man who vanquished him and his erstwhile running mate John Kerry during the tumultuous campaign.
“George W. Bush is the worst president of our lifetime,” he said. Edwards went on to say that Bush is worse that the Watergate-tainted, Richard Nixon.
This, from a guy who, when debating Vice-president Dick Cheney, brought up the fact that Cheney’s daughter is gay. His intent was to put his opponent in an embarrassing situation while simultaneously making points with conservative voters on the volatile issue. You can’t get much lower on the evolutionary scale than using the family of your opponent to score points. Perhaps that’s why Mary Cheney, Vice President Cheney’s lesbian daughter, labeled Edwards a “complete and total slime“ in her recent book, Now It’s My Turn: A Daughter’s Chronicle of Political Life.
Edwards became one of America’s super-wealthy trial lawyers by winning record jury verdicts and settlements that involved personal injury litigation. While running for his senate seat, and later for president and vice-president, he repeatedly told campaign audiences that he fought on behalf of the common man against the large insurance companies.
But those with knowledge of Edwards’ legal career in North Carolina tell a different story. They say he always helped the little guy as long as he got the lawyer’s share of the judgments – typically a third or even forty percent. Legal expert Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of the book, The Rule of Lawyers, said Edwards’ success in court was due in large part to his mastery of one important trait.
“Edwards was clearly very good at managing the emotional tenor of a trial and that turns out to be at least as important as any particular skill in the sense of researching the fine points of law.”
Edwards preyed on the medical profession like a vampire in search of blood. In one of his most celebrated cases he alleged that a doctor and a hospital had been responsible for the cerebral palsy afflicting then-five-year-old Jennifer Campbell. During his summation, Edwards called upon all of his oratorical and melodramatic skills to win over the jury:
“I have to tell you that I didn’t plan to talk about this. But right now I feel her (Jennifer), I feel her presence,”
he told the jury according to court records.
“[Jennifer’s] inside me and she’s talking to you … And this is what she says to you. She says, ‘I don’t ask for your pity. What I ask for is your strength. And I don’t ask for your sympathy, but I do ask for your courage.’”
The emotional plea worked; Jennifer Campbell’s family won a record jury verdict of $6.5 million against the hospital where the girl was born, a judgment reduced later to $2.75 million on appeal. Mr. Olson believes trial lawyers “have been getting away with an awful lot in cerebral palsy litigation,” by excluding certain scientific evidence. Calling it “junk science in the courtroom,” Olsen added,
“trial lawyers have been cashing in on cases where the doctor’s conduct invariably did not make any difference at all; cases where the child was doomed to this condition based on things that happened before they ever got to the delivery room,” he said.
In other words, people like Edwards have abused the system to enrich their own bank accounts at the expense of the American public, all of whom suffer when outrageous jury awards drive up the cost of medical malpractice premiums. Doctors must add the cost of those premiums to their bills when treating patients who can scarcely afford the care to begin with. The result is that fewer and fewer people who need medical care will be able to receive it.
Meanwhile, money-grubbing lawyers like Edwards will mount campaigns for elective office while telling us that something must be done to make medical care more affordable. Perhaps the best thing done so far was to reject this vampire at the polls; he’s sucked enough blood out of the American people.
Bob Weir is a former detective sergeant in the New York City Police Department. He is the excutive editor of The News Connection in Highland Village, Texas. Email Bob
Nice hair, though.
Wow! Radix, you'll be interested in this...
The worse combination, a lawyer and a politician.
I gotta go with Silky Pony...
"This, from a guy who, when debating Vice-president Dick Cheney, brought up the fact that Cheney’s daughter is gay."
O.K. Is there something I don't know here? Kerry was the one who brought that up in a debate. Did Edwards do so as well? Refresh my memory.
I've never felt a real compulsion to go out and say: "I got beat by the worst President in our lifetime. How big a loser am I?"
Edwards brought her up. That's why she calls him a slime-ball.
Now, as to this question, let me say first that I think the vice president and his wife love their daughter. I think they love her very much. And you can't have anything but respect for the fact that they're willing to talk about the fact that they have a gay daughter, the fact that they embrace her. It's a wonderful thing. And there are millions of parents like that who love their children, who want their children to be happy.
bump bump bump, a thousand times bump
Edwards was the first to bring Cheney's daughter into the debate.
Listening carefully, the speech made no sense at all.
Said he was in Calcutta wandering the slums and wondering where America was in making those lives better.
Complained that Americans were destitute and why didn't we fix that too.
Nothing coherent at all, just rambling nonsense.
If the listeners could make any sense out of his rant, it wasn't apparent. It seemed they were sitting on their hands......at least for as long as I could bear to listen.
They don't call him the Breck Girl for nothing.
Related....
http://exposingtheleft.blogspot.com/2006/05/edwards-bush-worse-than-nixon.html
The worst combination: A hairdresser, a lawyer and a politician.
Well, there are exceptions.
Are you trying to turn this thread into another Lincoln bash fest?
A portrait painted with words and accurate in every detail.
Excellent point, LOL!
It's not entirelu his fault that he grew up tp chase ambulances. He spent his childhood watching his mother chase cars.
'The worst combination: A hairdresser, a lawyer and a politician."
Add to that: An ambulance chaser, and a medium who channels the supposed thoughts of dead children.
I remember, too, being very impressed by VP Cheney's cool reply. I think it was something like, "Thank you for the kind words about my family. I appreciate it very much." The moderator (Chris Russert, maybe?) asked if that was it, and Cheney said something like, "that's it."
Later, if memory serves, Edwards tried to defend himself by saying even VP Cheney thanked him for his statement and wasn't offended. I thought, however, that VP Cheney's reply was a very civilized and classy way of showing Edwards up as a total boor and political hack. It is difficult to put into words just what it was Cheney conveyed, but I thought it put Edwards in his place most effectively.
I agree with you as to the most outrageous line. I believe Edwards said something linke "when John Kerry is President, Chris Reeves will get up-- get up out of that wheelchair and walk." I remember it was the headline on Drudge. Just disgraceful.
Silky Pony is a stand-out, even in this field!
Wow, you have a great memory:
IFILL: Mr. Vice President, you have 90 seconds.
CHENEY: Well, Gwen, let me simply thank the senator for the kind words he said about my family and our daughter.
I appreciate that very much.
IFILL: That's it?
CHENEY: That's it.
Now if I could just remember where I leave things around the house....
OK, I like Lincoln too. I think he was a different breed than what we have today. I was just making a stereotypical point.
But he got shot never let a lawyer in office.
Congress is full of this combination........
Bobby Weir became a NYC cop after Jerry died??? :^)
"This is the super from across the way..."
"You tell him to call me...he knows what the **** I'm talkin' about and don't make me come down there for you either, tough guy. You tell him to call me."
Actually, you are right, sort of--and you've put your finger on why this was such an obvious gutter-level tactic.
Kerry didn't mention it in the first debate; he mentioned it in the second presidential debate, AFTER the VP one in which Edwards brought it up.
When KERRY brought it up, I said "Oh, for *****'s sake!" It was so obvious what he was doing. I think I would have had a fraction more respect for him if he looked at the camera and said "Hey, I ahve no problem with gays, but all you conservatives out there, you DO know that the VP's daughter is one of those dykes, you DO know that, right?"
"The worse combination, a lawyer and a politician.
Umm, what about Abraham Lincoln?"
Perfect example!
Silky Pony did it first. Flurch Munster did it in the second debate, I think.
Cheney exhibited masterful control. He must have been seething, but he knew he had his opponent trapped. He simply graciously pointed out the personal nature of the slimeball's remarks. Then, when the debate was over, while he did take Edwards' outstretched hand, he stayed seated while doing so, though Edwards had stood to greet him. Modulating the minimal, pro-forma respect was classy and effective.
p.
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