Posted on 08/28/2007 6:39:54 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
Elizabeth Edwards Responds to Attack Over Parenting Skills
August 28, 2007 7:36 PM
ABC News Sunlen Miller Reports: Elizabeth Edwards is taking some heat about her parenting skills from the mom-friendly website "Silicon Valley Moms Blog."
Blogger "Rebecca" wrote a fiery tirade on the site Monday morning attacking Mrs. Edwards choice to bring her two small children, Jack and Emma Claire, on the campaign trail with her while her husband, John Edwards runs for president.
" . you are being a terrible mother, forcing your young children, who should be in SCHOOL, to ride in buses and talk to the press when they obviously don't want to. This election is NOT ABOUT THEM, " blogger Rebecca writes.
Responding to the New York Times article over the weekend about the Edwards decision to include their children in campaigning the blog writes, as if speaking directly to Mrs. Edwards, that her kids, " deserve some peace, not time with nannies and campaign-trail daycare providers, since, as the Times article describes, you don't have time to see them when you are busy campaigning too."
Mrs. Edwards comments about Hillary Clinton in a recent Salon.com interview were also criticized on the blog, "What resonated in my mind was the way that she (Elizabeth Edwards) dissed Hillary Clinton, decrying the "choices" that Hillary has made. The implication, of course, was that Hillary chose to work rather than spend time with her child. But it took all of my self control not to ask her, Was it Hillary's work for the Children's Defense Fund, where she saved millions of lives of poor children, that you thought was a poor choice? Or was it when she went to China and announced, possibly for the first time ever, that women's rights are human rights? Or perhaps was it the way that insisted on being taken seriously, since she too was an accomplished attorney like her husband?"
The blogger lashed out and concluded, " Elizabeth, I DON'T LIKE the choices you have made! TAKE YOUR KIDS HOME."
The blog-savvy Elizabeth Edwards took only eight hours to respond to this online attack.
Posting in the comments section of the website, Elizabeth Edwards responded with an equally fiery post, " what I said about Hillary's choices is that I had made the same choices she had made as a parent, and when I changed my choices I was happier. Just like you don't get to decide what makes me happier, I don't get to decide what makes Hillary happier."
And the mother-of-three wrote at length about her choices as a mother, electing to bring along her children on the campaign trail, "
.you have no idea what the quality or amount of the time I spend with my children is
.You don't get to say I am a terrible mother because you think you wouldn't make my choices in my situation
You don't get to judge me because you think you know exactly what you would do if you had my disease. I want to be really clear: you don't know. And if the sun always shines on you -- and I pray it does -- you will never know."
I pretty much puked on that one
CATFIGHT!!!!! Where's the popcorn?
Of course Elizabeth has to bring her cancer into the picture.
Wow pretty petty to defend herself against a blogger and a blogger’s opinion. Maybe she can hunt critics down and scold them at their own front doors.
I think Elizabeth Edwards just gave higher visibility to this by responding to a blogger who probably isn’t very well known.
Having said that, just because John and Elizabeth Edwards are totally wrong politically doesn’t mean they are lousy parents. That’s a low-blow. Of course, not so low a blow that Elizabeth herself didn’t engage in low-blow shots at Mary Cheney in 2004.
I don’t know anything about Edwards kids, but I see nothing wrong with taking them along.
Should not her very masculine husband be taking up the cause here?
They can learn failure at an early age.
######They can learn failure at an early age.######
ROTFL!!!!! That’s a good one!
We know who wears the pants in that family.
Me too. Hillary has done nothing for anyone but herself and it will always be that way.
” .... I see nothing wrong with taking them along.”
Me, either. The alternative would be to leave them at home with the nannies or have Mrs. Edwards quit the campaign. Fact is, she doesn’t have that much more time to spend with either her husband or her children, so she might as well be with them together as a family unit for such time as she does have.
The Edwardses can afford to hire traveling tutors The short-lived Edwards campaign would be a much more educational experience for the kids than sitting on a school bus and in a public school classroom (as if they’d go to public school).
I don’t like either of the Edwardses or their politics, but taking their kids along on the campaign trail is hardly an area worth attacking.
Hooey. I am tired of this woman’s emotional manipulation, and the extra wide berth her antics are given. Don’t forget she’s a lawyer too, and her ambulance chasing husband couldn’t shine her shoes when it comes to laying it on thick. Like the Mom, I too wish that Elizabeth would take her kids and go home. The same goes for Barry’s wife and the two girls, using those kids on the stump is just low class.
If I had only a few years to live and children the ages of hers, I would go home and make memories with them. We would bake cookies and takes walks and read bedtime stories.
We need strength in the White House now, not wimps that let their wives (husbands) speak for them.
Not smart Liz. And coming off several other not smart moves. She managing to somehow be an unsympathetic cancer patient. Quite a trick.
I can see the campaign staff drawing straws on who gets to tell John he better muzzle her - fast.
You go girl referring to the picture.

Isn't that precisely what elections are about in a democracy: Our right as voters to pass judgement on the people who propose to be elected to lead us. This is the same type of hipocracy as when people running for office ask us to stay out of their personal life and judge them on their "merits" instead.
No, WE get to decide what to judge politicians by, and we must never forget that. If they think we have the wrong opinion of them, then they are free to explain themselves and try to sway us but they DON'T get to tell us what to base our votes on. If they can't accept that, they should get out of politics and move to Cuba.
Although they may not be lousy parents they ARE lousy people. So you dare not leave out the word LOUSY.
And what are the silicon bloggers kids doing while they’re b$~@hing about Edwards?
It is better for the kids to be with their parents together.
I agree with this visionary blogger so much that I wish mrs. pretty boy would take it one step further ...
Mrs Edwards ! take yourself, your children
AND YOUR FAG HUSBAND home and leave them there
How did ABC News and the NY Slimes get hold of an “article” by an unknown blogger. Makes me wonder if the MSM peruses Free Republic.
The Edwards' are losing it.
I’m with you all the way on that. Aloha
I agree with you that when they realize he has NO CHANCE of getting the nomination, he should quit the campaign for the sake of his wife’s condition and the quality of life for the family.
He’s dumb, and she’s dumber — or they both would have realized the time has already passed that he has NO CHANCE.
The timing of his departure will be along the lines of Al Gore’s concession (and Kerry’s to a lesser degree). These people won’t give up until the lights have been turned off and EVERYONE has deserted them.
I consider using cancer as an excuse for poor behavior to be just more poor behavior. I’ve known a lot of people who have had cancer, and many of them died from it, but not one of them used their illness as an excuse for bad behavior. Most of them actually became more kind and thoughtful. Mrs. edwards is as much of a tacky creep as her husband.
“It is better for the kids to be with their parents together”
Well, unless one of the parents is busy saving MILLIONS of kids through the Childen’s Defense Fund!
“Just like you don’t get to decide what makes me happier, I don’t get to decide what makes Hillary happier.”
hmmmmm Lizzie has been deciding what will make people happier the whole time shes been out on the campaign. and if she doesnt get to decide what makes Hilliarity happier why did she say what she said to begin with? I also noticed how she once again mentioned her illness which to me has become the blanket she hides behind when she is confronted.
Many schools (and practically all private schools) don’t open until after Labor Day. And few public or private schools would have been open before this week. Isn’t it a bit early to be chastizing EE for keeping her kids out of school?
Elizabeth, it seems, cannot stand to be criticized. Not exactly helpful for a political wife, is it?
I hope the silky pony's opponents notice this and act accordingly.
It is alll silly. Msr. Edwards shouldn’t have bothered with it. School is important. But being with their parents is much more important. There isn’t any comparision. I can’t stand John Edwards. But what the kids are learning could never be learned in school, whether they like it or not.
Charitable. Elizabeth Edwards is a despicable a-hole and an embarrassment to American politics. Waving her cancer in the air is beneath contempt. The blogger mom isn’t much better. Who is she anyway, besides nobody, and why should anyone care what she thinks?
She took lessons from that wretched old broad from Texas who died last year. I forget her name, but she had breast cancer too and was equally nasty and hostile as Mrs. John Edwards.
I don’t know about how that blog authenticates it, but Elizabeth Edwards used to post on DU and what they did was call the campaign headquarters to verify it was her. It was. She joined up with that slimy group, but after only about 30-40 posts, she was outta there because they were bashing Laura Ingraham saying she deserved cancer because of her “hate” and Elizabeth smacked them down and was done with the DUmp.
If she responded to this article without proclaiming that it was a poser, I think that indicates it was her.
I think Elizabeth’s cheap shots at the Cheneys in 2004 were so below common decency, it pains me to defend her, but in the interest of fairness I must.
She is totally wrong for this country and so is her pansy of a husband. I think attacking her on what kind of a parent she is is stooping to her level of only 3 years ago. Others can have at that; I won’t join in.
When you live by hyper intolerant pc ideology, sooner or later it will turn around and bite you.
“You don’t get to judge me because you think you know exactly what you would do if you had my disease.”
Gosh, didn’t expect her to bring that up. What a surprise.
Edwards and his wife grow crazier, and more embarassing for the Democrats, by the day. I would love to see Edwards break out into his “They’re all out to get me!” speech at the next debate and see what THAT does for his ratings.
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