Posted on 08/26/2008 6:08:50 AM PDT by Stoat
Exclusive
Updated Tuesday, August 26th 2008, 12:07 AM
DENVER - John Edwards is burning up the phone lines, begging former aides and backers to forgive him for lying about his affair - but hearing their rage instead.
As Democrats kick off their convention Monday, the onetime presidential contender is a man without a party - or a political future - trying to rebuild bridges through dozens of remorseful phone calls.
It's proving a hard sell with onetime true believers.
Many are bitter and disillusioned after swallowing his lies about his affair with a campaign staffer and vouching for his credibility with friends and journalists.
Some ignore his plaintive phone entreaties and don't call back - even when Edwards leaves follow-up messages. A few return his calls - and give him a piece of their angry minds.
When Edwards reached one longtime confidant asking for advice, he was cut off with a terse: "I don't want you to call me again."
The conversation ended abruptly.
"I let you down, and I'm sorry," is a common refrain of these messages, said another top ex-assistant on the receiving end of one of the calls.
"It was kind of pathetic, to tell you the truth," said the ex-aide, who said he didn't return the call and doesn't expect to speak to his former boss again.
For months, the former North Carolina senator and John Kerry's 2004 running mate vigorously denied National Enquirer reports of an affair with campaign videographer Rielle Hunter, who since gave birth to a child.
On Aug. 8, Edwards admitted the 2006 affair with Hunter in an ABC interview - when his wife Elizabeth's cancer was in remission - but insisted he isn't the father of her son.
One source who compared notes with other former colleagues said Edwards makes no attempt to justify or rationalize his behavior in these desperate phone conversations. He simply expresses his regret for deceiving them and asks for their understanding and forgiveness.
Many think he's still not telling the truth.
"As painful as it will be for him, he needs to come clean," one of them said. "There's an overwhelming view that he's still lying."
Schadenfreude baby, it couldn't have happened to a nicer fellow.
I’m guessing that his giant house is feeling awfulling cold these days.
awfulling > awfully
He hd better ask his wife to forgive him, and his God.
Well there you have it. Everyone knows he’s lying. The only real question here is how much lying is he still willing to do for his “political viability.”
Someone should put his name into nomination at Denver.
That would be awesome.
I don’t get it - it’s just about sex - and his “private life” - isn’t this what we were told during clinton?
Are you kidding? His wife is running the campaign now to get his staff back on board so he can get out there again.
Shoot, she probably scouted online for the place in the Virgin Islands to send Hunter and the kid.
Cynical? No, this is who they are.
He probably begged her forgiveness the first time he got caught.
Kind of hard to ask for forgiveness again after you know he swore to her it was over then got his picture taken holding his illegitimate child in a tabloid.
Why doesn’t he follow Gary Hart’s example and just fade away; never to be seen or heard from again?
At this point it appears that even if he were to actually tell the complete truth, few if any would believe him
Someone should put his name into nomination at Denver.
That would be awesome.
I'm thinking that nothing is beyond the wrath of the scorned Clinton supporters.
A man who has a tiny shred of honor left in him would certainly do that, wouldn't he? Or, in other times he would take his favorite revolver out on one last lonely drive to a desolate section of coastline and 'do the honorable thing'.
Before you catch any flack for having said that, I want to let you know that I agree.
He’s still hoping for the Attorney General position.
Any word on forgiveness sought from the taxpayers and stockholders he robbed, and the physicians lives he destroyed, with his disgusting, lying trial lawyering?
I suppose that if Barry - O will take on a plagiarist as veep, taking on a lying scumbag adulterer as AG would be a natural progression.
It’s not my desire to be provocative but the investment is already made and the Edwards’ are all in.
The Clinton standard says you must never show shame. You just make your statement of regret (that you got caught) and then you Move On.
And that’s what they are doing. Unfortunately for Silky Pony, his “blue dress” moment isn’t sitting in a museum. It’s a living, growing human being.
That’s kinda hard to bury. Well literally it can be done, but not without someone taking DNA samples. Which is self-defeating.
Have to say that I do in fact really feel sorry for the children. Especially the oldest one who has to face friends and others at school. Now everyone knows what her dad is all about. Himself.
I'm having trouble hearing that over the distant sound of crickets chirping and of his wife quietly sobbing. Surely a man as honorable as Edwards would be asking for that straight away; I must be missing it.
I must have missed the obligatory photo-op of him crying on cue, after which he goes back to chatting up the hussies.
Did he cry on the ABC interview? It seems that something far more pressing was going on in my life which prevented me from spending time watching that....I think that I may have been checking to make sure that I had all of my soup cans correctly alphabetized in the cupboard or something equally vital.
"Kind of?" Make that "totally."
"Kind of?" Make that "totally."
Perhaps the 'ex-aide' is another corrupt attorney and so is accustomed to avoiding absolutes when speaking, so as to always leave himself wiggle room and the option for plausible deniability.
That'$ what all hi$ phone call$ were about.
Gee Johnny, you lied to their faces and to the entire nation when you said the rumors were tabloid trash why should they believe you now?
I don’t feel sorry for the guy, looking at the photo of his spread, he’s got that nice huge barn to live in.
His success with 'channelling' dead plaintiffs to juries has most likely given him a poor opinion of the attention span, memory and general intelligence of the public at large.
At this point would it be regarded as 'animal cruelty' for him to sleep in the same building with any animals who might be there?
His recently exposed affair may be the most publicized example of his moral turpitude but, bad as it was, it’s not the worst. His shameless tactics as a shyster trial lawyer with his zillion dollar lawsuits that ruined hospitals, businesses, and innumerable other victims of his junk lawsuits have been far more destructive and ruined many more lives.
“I don’t get it - it’s just about sex - and his “private life” - isn’t this what we were told during clinton?”
We were told a lot of things during Monicagate. For example, that it’s “okay to lie under oath as long as it’s about sex.” Obviously untrue.
This man was running for President. He was a Senator. The point is that if he would cheat, lie to and betray his own cancer-victim wife, how could any of his constituents trust him? If he can’t run his own private life with morality and honesty, how could we expect that he would run his political career (or any position of great trust) with anything better?
Agreed. It’s a terrible shame that he was allowed to perpetrate his swath of destruction for so very long, but at least it ‘appears’ that it’s over now....although with him as with vampires one can’t ever rest easily. Evil has a history of rising again when it’s thought to have been vanquished.
Sorry?!
Sorry he got caught!
Sorry he got caught!
I think it's safe to assume that he would still be inflicting his sickly self-righteous self upon us and presenting himself as The Perfect Candidate, with the enthusiastic aid of most media sources, if it hadn't been for the National Enquirer.
Having the affair while horrible, is not what killed him, it was the lying about it and having other people put trust in him and defending him because they took him at his word. That’s what killed him.
Why is it so hard for people to figure out its not the trangression that usually causes the larger problems, its the lying about it that destroys them.
Edwards is a schmuck, always was always will be, for those dems who defended this jerk when those who were not fooled by his smile and crap and saw him for the louse that he was called him a spade, perhaps you have learned a lesson and will not be so damned gullable in the future.
I find this cool. As a Catholic, I believe in forgiveness and the fact that the folks he is calling are not giving him a free ride makes it even more possible that eventually he might be remorseful. As conservatives, we all should be thinking this way.
Indeed I find it noteworthy that he has not yet adopted a ‘spiritual advisor’ and has not yet engineered various photo ops featuring himself in varioius reverential and contemplative poses, or walking with his ‘advisor’ whilst clutching a Bible the size of a New York phone book.
Although I’m certainly one to appreciate and encourage true efforts at redemption, given his lifelong adversarial relationship with the truth and honesty, I’m going to look with skepticism at anything short of major tangible changes in his life such as the liquidation of all of his assets, the selfless donation of most of those assets to true charitable causes and the rest placed in a trust for his family. This being accomplished, spending the remainder of his days as a direct, faceless and nameless caregiver at Mother Theresa’s Home for the Dying in Calcutta might be an option as to what might be appropriate for his earthly person.
I have my doubts that anything short of that will be accepted as genuine by either those who know him personally or the public.
Ummm...Elizabeth Edwards has terminal cancer - she probably only has a few years left, at most, to live. My guess is that she doesn’t want to break-up her family during the last few years of her life. I feel sorry for the entire family and hope that Edwards is truly remorseful - regret, forgiveness, reconciliation, redemption - these are the great themes of life. I don’t think that anyone fully experiences life without going through this process.
He figured that it worked for clinton, why not him?
What he doesn’t seem smart enough to understand, is that having an affair when your wife is in “remission”-—doesn’t make it sound any better. It is still despicable, cold and cruel. Here she is, having lost her breasts, feeling unattractive and worthless...and he validates those feelings by having a little fling to build his ego. He doesn’t even seem to care how badly he shattered his wife of 30 years!
He is done. His public life is over. He needs to concentrate on rebuilding his family life. His relationship with his oldest daughter must be in tatters! And his youngest daughter will also hate him, because he continues to deny her.
Just fess up John. And if you love this Reille....and you would be stupid beyond belief if you did, cuz it is obvious to everyone that you are a stupid sap, she is the one feeding the photos and information to the Enquirer....then you are not doing anyone any favors by staying with Elisabeth, while you anxiously wait for her to die, so you can be with the girlfriend. In case you don’t understand this, it doesn’t help one get well, knowing your spouse wishes you were already dead, and not leaving fast enough.
Face the truth John. Your girlfriend is a nut job. You are a selfish creep....and your hair really looks stupid!
Well, it would have been “cool” if he would have done this before the enquirer outed him. If the confession had come from his own sense of remorse, instead of coming from getting caught red handed, and feeling so invincable, that just saying you are sorry will mend his political career.
I do think he might be able to run as dog catcher, since he seems to have experience there.
I too agree, and also sure that you will receive some flak for saying it. Two things, one, she was perfectly fine with him on the campaign trail after the first realization of his transgressions and two, the same sympathy was put forth for Cindi Sheehan at first. Some of us weren’t fooled by Sheehan from the start, and received flak for saying so.
I’m not conclusive nor a doctor so I can’t say much about Mrs. Edwards condition. But I do know that the media loves her and she is pretty hard left.
She was a co-conspirator in the matter I’m sorry to say. She had a direct hand in creating this campaign with their family as the centerpiece.
That sadly was an absolute lie. A lie with the typical end of what leftists crave: power.
I’m not happy to say that but really it is what it is.
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