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John Edwards was fighting for his political future yesterday as America's mainstream media began reporting a colourful scandal involving his alleged mistress, a disputed "secret love child", and an altercation at a Beverly Hills hotel in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The married former Democratic presidential candidate, who is among leading contenders to be Barack Obama's running mate, saw his private life given more attention than he would like when Fox News claimed to have "independently verified" details of last week's National Enquirer story headlined: "John Edwards caught with mistress and love child." Reporters from the supermarket tabloid had...

I think Mickey Kaus is correct about this. Under normal circumstances, John Edwards would have a prominent role in the Democratic convention in Denver — remember the adoring, break-into-the-news coverage of Edwards' decision to endorse Obama? But these are not normal circumstances for Edwards. I think most people in the media believe the National Enquirer story about him is accurate, even as they have adopted a this-is-not-happening editorial policy. But the policy would be harder to maintain were Edwards to take a high-profile role at the convention. It is impossible to imagine that the Obama campaign would want Edwards to...

RUSH: An update on the John Edwards situation out in Los Angeles broken by the National Enquirer. Two interesting things here: "A hotel security guard at the Beverly Hilton told FoxNews.com that he intervened this week between a man he identified as [the Breck Girl] and tabloid reporters who chased down the former presidential hopeful after what they're calling a rendezvous with his mistress and love child. The Beverly Hilton hotel guard said he encountered a shaken and ashen-faced [Breck Girl] who he did not immediately recognize in a hotel men's room early Tuesday morning about 2:30 and was in...

There’s been a lot of talk lately that former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) will have some sort of role in the Obama administration, if there is one. A few months ago, Edwards, the Democratic Party’s 2004 vice presidential candidate, seemed to pull himself out of the VP race. But then, a couple of weeks ago, Edwards quietly put himself back in, telling National Public Radio, “I’m prepared to seriously consider anything, anything [Obama] asks me to do for our country.” “Anything” could, of course, mean running for vice president. But Edwards has done that before, and he didn’t exactly put...

Picture the scene from the DUkes of Hazzard. Same theme music. Only instead of the sheriff chasing the Dukes' Dodge Charger, it is reporters from the National Enquirer chasing John Edwards all around the basement of the Beverly Hilton with the chase ending up in a restroom where the Breck Girl remained trapped for 15 minutes until rescued by hotel security. In case you haven't heard about this Edwards scandal, here is an excerpt from the National Enquirer STORY: Edwards went out of the hotel briefly with Rielle, they were observed by the NATIONAL ENQUIRER and then went back...

Barack Obama's VP shortlist might have gotten shorter: The National Enquirer yesterday published a story claiming it had caught John Edwards meeting with an alleged mistress and illegitimate child. Then again, the Enquirer hasn't been able to produce quotes, photos or even eyewitness accounts. And the mainstream media seems to be ignoring it, for the most part. TalkLeft, among others, hopes it isn't true. And thus far, the claims don't seem to have hurt Edwards politically — although the Corner has something worth noting: ...after first seeming to take himself out of the running, he put himself back in the...

No details yet...developing. Wonder what he was doing at Beverly Hilton? Woman involved? Ailing Elizabeth no where to be seen.

John Edwards says he's not interested in becoming vice president...The former presidential candidate told the press his wishes last night in New York City. Edwards was in the city receiving an award from demos, a liberal policy research center. On Wednesday Edwards endorsed democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama. The fresh support helped add to Obama's overall delegate count. (Watch the Video)

Edwards, the former presidential candidate and North Carolina senator, has virtually no political clout in his home state, political observers say. The Politico reported Sunday that after serving one term in the U.S. Senate and running for president, Edwards has largely exited public life. "The guy is truly an exceptional story, but for someone who is so well-known nationally, he has very little standing in the party in this state," says John Davis, president of the North Carolina Forum for Research and Economic Education, a business-backed organization that conducts political research. "You simply do not hear his name associated with...

In the four years after his first White House bid, John Edwards stayed in the spotlight. In the four months since he abandoned his second bid, he's all but disappeared. A quick interview with Jay Leno. A couple of low-key speeches. A few North Carolina basketball games with his wife and children. That's about it. If Edwards has made up his mind between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, not only is he keeping quiet about it, he's not even putting himself in a position where he might be asked. The silence from Chapel Hill hasn't gone unnoticed. "I'd...

Elizabeth Edwards told some 500 health journalists the other day that John McCain’s health care plan was like “painting lipstick on a pig,” an expression from her neck of the woods that in this case means lofty-sounding words that pretty up some ideas that could hurt ordinary people who don’t understand what’s going on; that is, unless journalists tell them. The language of his plan sounds good, she argued, making it “hard to understand what’s wrong with it. “Someone has to translate for the public.” Edwards challenged reporters to do just that. Translating for the public is good advice for...

ABC News has learned that Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., met with former Sen. John Edwards secretly at his home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on Thursday. Clinton's rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Illionis Sen. Barack Obama will meet with Edwards on Monday, sources say. Clinton initially told reporters that she was not asking for Edwards' endorsement immediately after he got out of the race. Yesterday, speaking in Lewiston. Maine Clinton said "I'll ask John Edwards to help with anything I do in the White House." This would be an important endorsement for Clinton to secure, and is essential enough...

Just breaking now -

Edwards is with his latest pathetic showing in New Hampshire obviously running to be someone's pool boy...AGAIN! Evidently John Kerry didn't pay enough :) So, will Johnny Edwards be Hillary's cabana boy or is he the new Obama girl?

In an interview on the Today show, former North Carolina senator and Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards claimed that it was a phone call from him to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in the hours after the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto that “was a calming influence” that helped short-circuit an “international crisis.” “It was a very tense time,” Edwards said. “I told Musharraf that I had received an instantaneous spiritual message from the departed Bhutto asking me to intervene for peace. I assured him that those who committed this act, as well as their corporate enablers, could be...

SIOUX CITY, Iowa — John Edwards says that if elected president he would withdraw the American troops who are training the Iraqi army and police as part of a broader plan to remove virtually all American forces within 10 months.

Mark Steyn’s review of the candidate’s Christmas campaign messages is a must-read today because it’s likely to be the funniest thing you’ll see all day. Here’s a taste: John Edwards’s message is the usual Dickensian affair about the two Americas. I forget the details, but the upshot is that one America is a land of spindly emaciated Tiny Tims with barely three farthings to rub together for their next cup of gruel, while the other’s a marshmallow world where Dick Cheney, high on wassail, shoots a brace of turducken out of season, and then chows down as the Radio City...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Elizabeth Edwards says avoiding the "Made in China" label on toys is not exactly child's play. With millions of recalls rolling in this year because of lead in toys, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards vowed during a debate there would be no Chinese made gifts under his Christmas tree. But, the former North Carolina senator says he immediately had to check with his wife to make sure he was right. The Edwards campaign says the kids will be unwrapping U.S.-made toys, but wouldn't get into the specifics as not to spoil anyone's gifts.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Presidential hopeful John Edwards inadvertently made the late night comedy shows this year when his campaign spending reports included two $400 haircuts. Now Mrs. Edwards has joined other candidates helping a Concord hair stylist who wants to turn the controversy into help for a good cause. David Holden owns Hair Biz on Main Street, a couple of doors away from an Edwards campaign office. After the Democratic former senator's haircut made news last spring, Holden challenged presidential hopefuls to come in for $400 haircuts of their own, promising to donate all of the proceeds to autism...

Arthur Balfour, the British statesman, once said that a rival's clarity was a liability because he had nothing to say. As the presidential nomination contests approach a crescendo, some candidates are making themselves perilously clear, one of them with the help of her helpmate. Last Tuesday, Bill Clinton, trying to whet Iowans' appetites for another Clinton presidency, announced/discovered/remembered that he opposed the Iraq war "from the beginning," thereby revealing disharmony with his spouse, who voted for it. Backward reels the mind, to 1992, when Gov. Clinton explained his opinion of Congress's 1991 authorization of the Persian Gulf War: "I guess...

Bow, NH—No longer satisfied with having an upbeat tone, John Edwards is ready to draw blood on the campaign trail, flogging any opponent that gets in his way. During his campaign, he plans to punch harder, especially when addressing Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, talk show radio host Rush Limbaugh, and big oil. "Hillary continues to defend a system that does not work, that is broken, that is rigged, and is corrupt," Edwards said. “And if you think I’m going to let an emasculating woman become President of the United States, then you’re out of your mind." Critics say that he...

WASHINGTON — John Edwards on Sunday said he opposes a new program in New York to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, but the Democratic presidential candidate offered much the same plan for establishing a licensing system as his chief rival and party primary frontrunner, Hillary Clinton. The former North Carolina senator, who unequivocally supported issuing driver's licenses to illegals when he was running for vice president in 2004, said that it should be up to the states to decide whether to issue licenses to illegals. However, once a national comprehensive immigration reform plan is passed into law, any illegal...

A look at the Sunday morning chat circuit ... Former Sen. Fred Thompson visits NBC's "Meet the Press." Of special note, the program is reaching its 60th anniversary. It debuted on Nov. 20, 1947, and is the world's longest-running TV program. It airs at 9 a.m. on WESH-Channel 2. Former President George H.W. Bush will talk to "Fox News Sunday." It airs at 9 a.m. on WOFL-Channel 35. Sen Joseph Biden will take questions on CBS' "Face the Nation." It airs at 10:30 a.m. on WKMG-Channel 6. Another guest will be Mark Penn, who is a strategist for Sen. Hillary...

Not being in the middle of it all gives me a rather unique advantage. That means I have no one to answer to for my views. I just watch things, and then I talk about them. In other words, this means I don’t have to lie about my biases in order to keep some false sense of objectivity alive for the gullible. In other words, I’m no Chris Matthews. Let me start then with the current batch of presidential hopefuls: Folks - meaning the current Republican candidates - you really need to watch out for Fred Thompson. None of you...

SUMMERTON, S.C. (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards says a tabloid story that he had an extramarital affair is untrue. "The story is false. It's completely untrue, ridiculous," Edwards told reporters Thursday after he was asked about the National Enquirer report. The supermarket newspaper reported that the former North Carolina senator had an affair with a woman who worked on his campaign. It did not identify the woman, nor did it name the source of the information for its report. Edwards said the story was simply "made up" and that he loves his wife, Elizabeth, who is being treated...

Sincerity counts. And from the sounds of what a handful of University of New Hampshire students had to say after the first MTV/MySpace presidential forum with John Edwards on Thursday (September 27), they felt like the former senator was talking straight. "It's the first time I really heard him talk and I thought it was great, because he wasn't someone I was even considering voting for," said Evin Baird, 18, an English/music major from Nashua, New Hampshire. "He was very un-dodgy and seemed honest. I was surprised with how well he answered the questions, especially on health care and Iraq."...

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is calling upon Congress to stand up to President Bush and start bringing the troops home from Iraq immediately. He made the remarks Friday at his campaign headquarters in Las Vegas on Pecos and East Flamingo. Edwards says President Bush's troop withdrawal plan is unacceptable and that the president needs to stop tying the September 11th attacks to the war in Iraq. Edwards stated, "The tragedy of 9/11 had nothing to do with the war in Iraq. And the president's own administration has said so. The president needs to stop using the politics of fear...

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In the clamor of Democrats assailing President Bush on Iraq, presidential candidate John Edwards has found a way to be heard after Bush addresses the nation Thursday night: He's buying time for a rebuttal. Edwards has bought two minutes of air time on MSNBC, scheduled to air after Bush's 15-minute televised speech from the White House at 9 p.m. EDT. Bush is expected to announce plans to reduce the American troop presence in Iraq by up to 30,000 by next summer, but say that he will condition those and further cuts on continued progress. "Unfortunately, the president is pressing on...

A subprime lender with ties to Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards has moved to foreclose on more than 130 homes in South Carolina since the S.C. native went to work for its parent company, an analysis of courthouse records shows. The lender, Green Tree Financial, also was once the subject of a $30 million class-action verdict involving thousands of South Carolinians. Edwards’ ties to the company are disquieting to some supporters of the North Carolinian. On the campaign trail, Edwards has insisted he is the champion of lower-income families. Edwards’ ties to Green Tree also could hurt him with voters...

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Fred Thompson is the most popular United States presidential contender for Republican Party supporters in North Carolina, according to a poll by Public Policy Polling. 37 per cent of respondents in the Tar Heel State would vote for the actor and former Tennessee senator in the 2008 primary. Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani is second with 25 per cent, followed by Arizona senator John McCain with 14 per cent, and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney also with 14 per cent. In the sample of Democratic Party supporters, former North Carolina senator John Edwards...

TIPTON, Iowa - Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said on Sunday that his universal health care proposal would require that Americans go to the doctor for preventive care. "It requires that everybody be covered. It requires that everybody get preventive care," he told a crowd sitting in lawn chairs in front of the Cedar County Courthouse. "If you are going to be in the system, you can't choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to go in and be checked and make sure that you are OK." He noted, for example, that women would be...

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is getting the endorsement of two unions, the United Steelworkers and the United Mine Workers of America, on Labor Day. Edwards is scheduled to be in Pittsburgh, home of the Steelworkers' international headquarters, for a Monday rally and will accept the endorsements there. "The members of the Steelworkers Union and the Mine Workers union are some of the country's hardest-working, bravest, most courageous workers," Edwards said. "It is their tireless hard work which has helped build a stronger America that benefits all of us. I honor what they do every day." The former senator from...

Former Sen. John Edwards is expected to start his Labor Day in Pittsburgh and leave with the endorsement of the United Steelworkers. Mr. Edwards has courted the USW and other unions since the end of his 2004 vice presidential candidacy, which was publicly launched in Mellon Square, just blocks from the Mellon Arena site of the Monday rally where the former North Carolina senator will speak before the start of the Labor Day parade. Neither the Edwards campaign nor the USW responded to inquiries about the planned announcement, which still must be formally confirmed in a conference of the USW's...

Well, if you consider those utilizing Twitter, the popular bulletin board site, then the winners are soon-to-be-candidate Fred Thompson on the GOP side and Democrats John Edwards and Sens. Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, and Joe Biden. Among them, Thompson seems to be a big user, Twittering twice a week. And, says his Internet czar Pete Snyder, "he's not even in the race." Once in, "I think a lot of that will change," he adds, meaning more entries. As in life, Thompson is folksy when he Twitters. In England in June, he offered: "London is banning smoking in public July 1....

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards told a labor group he would ask Americans to make a big sacrifice: their sport utility vehicles. The former North Carolina senator told a forum by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, yesterday he thinks Americans are willing to sacrifice. Edwards says Americans should be asked to drive more fuel efficient vehicles. He says he would ask them to give up SUVs. Edwards got a standing ovation when he said weapons and equipment used by America's military needs to be made in the United States. He says tanks...

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...

Presidential hopeful former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C. addresses the hope and recovery summit, hosted by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., in New Orleans, Monday, Aug. 27, 2007. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Former Sen. John Edwards said at a Hurricane Katrina conference he would propose what he called "Brownie's Law" requiring that qualified people, not political hacks, lead key federal agencies. Edwards, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, drew laughter when he spoke on Monday of the proposal at the "Hope and Recovery Summit" ahead of the two-year anniversary of the storm on Wednesday. "It's an absolute travesty to have people who are essentially political hacks in a very responsible position," he told the audience at the University of New Orleans. "Brownie" refers to Michael Brown, who was head of the...

In five days most Americans will begin enjoying their long Labor Day weekend - the traditional end of summer - in the usual way: barbecuing, a final trip to the beach and watching sport. A strange group of nearly 20, however, will fan out across Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states in the presidential nominating process. They will trudge through cornfields and scamper from diners to town halls and school gymnasiums. They will lavish praise on their audiences and tell voters in each state - two of the whitest and least populated in America - why they are...

A top adviser for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said Friday that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), the front-runner for her party’s presidential nomination, is obsessed “with what she calls the Republican attack machine.” “I think we need a candidate who is obsessed with unifying this country again,” said Obama adviser David Axelrod. He added that Obama could break “the sort of decades-long battle we’ve had over this jagged divide — red state, blue state, American against American — and try to bring people together and attract disaffected Republicans and attract independent voters so that we could build not just a...

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: We now continue with Ann Coulter and Steve Murphy. Steve, let me just — on John Edwards let me just point out. Before we talk about the she-devil, and I talk to the she-devil, let me just point out that John Edwards did not control Fortress. He didn't control what their corporate policy was. And as soon as he realized there was a problem, he offered to give his own money, which I think should be embraced by the people who want to criticize John — let's get the full story out there about what John Edwards...

Francois de La Rochefoucauld had a point when he said, in his frequently quoted formulation, that hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue. In the case of John Edwards, however, hypocrisy is simply a way of life. The infamous $400 haircut — actually, some of his hairstyling sessions ran as much as $1,200 all told — wasn’t a freak embarrassment for a candidate so self-righteously devoted to the poor. It was part of a pattern so pervasive that it has become the defining aspect of Edwards’s candidacy. When he lambasted hedge funds for incorporating offshore to avoid or...

ABC News' Rick Klein Reports: Former Sen. John Edwards on Friday fired the latest round in his ongoing verbal feud with Ann Coulter, calling her a "she-devil" at a public event before quickly adding that he shouldn't engage in name-calling. Edwards, D-N.C., was railing against the right-wing media -- including Fox News and Rush Limbaugh -- when he reminded a crowd in Burlington, Iowa, that his wife stood up to Coulter in a public spat earlier this summer. "We know these people. We know their game plan. They're going to attack us personally," Edwards said. "They attacked Elizabeth personally, because...

Former Sen. John Edwards on Friday fired the latest round in his ongoing verbal feud with Ann Coulter, calling her a "she-devil" at a public event before quickly adding that he shouldn't engage in name-calling. Edwards, D-N.C., was railing against the right-wing media -- including Fox News and Rush Limbaugh -- when he reminded a crowd in Burlington, Iowa, that his wife stood up to Coulter in a public spat earlier this summer. "We know these people. We know their game plan. They're going to attack us personally," Edwards said. "They attacked Elizabeth personally, because she stood up to that...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, who has called homeownership "the foundation of the American dream," said Friday he will divest his holdings in funds linked to lenders that have foreclosed on Hurricane Katrina victims. "I will not have my family's money involved in these firms that are foreclosing on people in New Orleans," he told the Associated Press.

ELIZABETH EDWARDS complained to the Progressive magazine that anti-war critics such as Sen. Barack Obama are "behaving in a holier-than-thou" manner on Iraq. Too bad for Edwards that Obama opposed the war in Iraq in 2002, while her husband then-Sen. John Edwards - as well as Sens. Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and Christopher Dodd - voted for the Iraq war resolution. Holier-than-thou anti-war Democrats. Isn't that phrase redundant? Elizabeth Edwards now is more than John Edwards' wife. She has become his Spiro Agnew. Remember Agnew, President Richard M. Nixon's first vice president and designated hatchet man, known famously for dismissing...

If he weren't rich, handsome and so well married, you might feel a little sorry for John Edwards. Never before in the 231-year history of our republic have the inalienable traits that Edwards possesses -- his fair skin and a Y chromosome -- been anything but a prerequisite for presidential politics. Today, his race and gender stand a chance of derailing his campaign altogether. (snip) The Edwards campaign presents his progressive evolution as a return to his core beliefs. "In 2004 he was consultant-driven," says Moulitsas. "In his gut he was against the war, but Bob Shrum talked him into...

ABC News' Sunlen Miller Reports: In an interview in August's edition of The Progressive magazine, Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Senator John Edwards, D-N.C., takes candid shots at the other candidates battling for the Democratic nomination against her husband. "The problem for me with the other candidates is I don't know what it is that drives them," she explained, "I should think the president has to be somebody who has that kind of vision outside themselves." Mrs. Edwards praised her husband for apologizing for his vote in favor of the Iraq War, and questioned Senator Hillary Clinton's, D-N.Y., for not...

Matt Drudge has posted this headline on his site: “Editor For SC Largest Paper: Edwards Is ‘A Big Phony.’” That claim may qualify as the understatement of the political year. John Edwards has gone from what U.S. News & World Report describes as “the happy-face centrist” to the Candidate from the World of Kos. Has any ’08 candidate traveled so far (to the left), so fast, and in such a transparently false manner? There are the predictable flip-flops. Today Edwards says the Iraq war was a mistake; in 2002, he insisted that “Saddam Hussein’s regime represents a grave threat to...