Posted on 07/07/2004 6:33:06 AM PDT by areafiftyone
WASHINGTON (AP) -- John Edwards rose to political prominence criticizing President Bush for creating "two Americas," one for the privileged and one for everyone else. A look at his finances shows he's one of the privileged.
Edwards, tapped Tuesday by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., to be his vice presidential running mate, is a multimillionaire former trial lawyer with wide-ranging investments in mutual funds, stocks of major American corporations and bonds of North Carolina educational and governmental organizations.
The North Carolina senator's financial disclosure statement shows that he made more than 200 trades of stocks, bonds and mutual funds last year, while he was challenging Kerry and other Democrats for the party's presidential nomination.
For instance, Edwards made more than $50,000 in profit on sales of IBM stock last year. He reported capital gains of $15,000 to $50,000 each on sales of stock in 3M Co., Caterpillar, Cisco Systems, Clear Channel Communications, and Merck & Co.
Edwards' financial holdings were in a blind trust until he decided to run for president and had to dissolve the trust because of executive branch disclosure rules, said Michael Briggs, his Senate press secretary. Briggs said Edwards has given his investment adviser, the same one who handled the blind trust, the authority to make all his investment decisions.
Edwards sold his Washington, D.C., home last year for $3 million, $800,000 more than he paid for it in 1999. Before the sale, to the government of Hungary, Edwards entertained an offer of $3.52 million from a public relations specialist hired by Saudi Arabia to influence Congress and the public after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Edwards, who at the time was a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee that was investigating Saudi and U.S. terrorism lapses, said he learned months after the offer was made, but before the deal fell apart, that registered foreign agent Michael Petruzzello worked for Saudi Arabia. He said he never talked to Petruzzello about the Saudis.
Petruzzello made a $100,000 deposit into an escrow account when he made the offer on Edwards' home. The deal fell through when Petruzzello couldn't sell his existing home, and his deposit was never returned. Edwards said last year he would formally disclose the $100,000 deposit if and when he took control of it.
Edwards built his personal fortune as a trial lawyer, winning $150 million worth of verdicts or settlements in 60 cases in the 1990s. During his presidential campaign, he raised at least $9 million from lawyers before withdrawing from the race in March. He took in about $22 million in all.
Once Edwards dropped out of the race, he urged his top fund-raisers to support Kerry. In subsequent months, lawyers gave at least $7 million to the Kerry campaign. In March and April, almost $1 of every $10 Kerry raised came from lawyers.
On the personal financial side, Edwards actively traded in stocks, bonds and mutual funds last year, with individual purchases and sales at times topping $1 million. In August, for example, he invested more than $1 million in a municipal bond mutual fund, then sold his shares a month later.
Edwards also invested heavily in his home state. He purchased bonds totaling between $1.8 million and $4.1 million in 14 different North Carolina educational and governmental units last year.
During the buildup and aftermath of the Iraq war, Edwards bought and sold stock in several defense contractors, including Lockheed Martin, United Technologies, General Electric, British Petroleum, Cardinal Health Inc., and General Dynamics.
Edwards' largest asset at the end of last year was an outstanding loan of more than $5 million to his Senate campaign fund. He also reported four separate holdings of $1 million each, including a money market portfolio, an American Europacific growth mutual fund and two Atlantic Trust mutual funds.
I believe that the democratic party is much wealthier per capita than the republicans.
There are two Americas ... one for elites like Kerry and Edwards; another for everyone else.
John Edwards - surely, a winner in life's lottery. The Great American Lottery, that is. Being a trial lawyer, and for making juries cry. Edwards passes GO, and collects 35%.
I've heard that many of these verdicts were against Health Maintenance Organizations. If so, John Edwards has done more to increase health care costs than anything President Bush has done.
I was thinking the same thing!
John Kerry --> Chases rich women/widows and marries them
John Edwards --> Chases ambulances and milks the judicial system
Richard Cheney --> Businessman (creates jobs)
George W Bush --> Businessman (creates jobs)
George W Bush --> Businessman (creates jobs)
That says it all in a nutshell.
What major politician isn't one of the priviledged?
Did you hear Ter-A-Zsa-Zsa speak? What a pompous, stuck-up, self-centered smarmy woman. And that accent? The entire south will cringe at this woman. A woman who's only qualifications for being where she is was her ability to part her knees for her now-dead husband John Heinz. A man who himself won the lottery just by being born.
Being financially well off does not mean the person is some great sage. Some intellectual wizard of Oz that anyone should listen to. If that was true then all the lottery winners would be not only wealthy overnight but suddenly people of genius.
Money does not equal brains...
That's true. I don't think there is any politician who is not rich.
Dick Armey wasn't. Phil Gramm wasn't. Tom Coburn wasn't. Tom Feeney isn't. Don Nickles isn't. Zell Miller isn't. Tom DeLay isn't. Dennis Hastert isn't. Joe Lieberman isn't. Even Dick Gephardt isn't, compared to Edwards and Kerry.
I'd put Russ Feingold in the "not rich" category. My other senator, Herb Kohl, is in the "very rich" category.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/jun04/236730.asp
That is a truly disgusting thing to say.
You may not like her, but she loved her husband and wishes that he never died. She has stated many times that she would rather have Mr Heinz alive than all the money she has now.
Why do you consider them not priviledged?
The RATS are running a ticket where one candidate was given everything and another that took everything. Neither has earned a living.
Like her? I don't know her. But I've seen her prattering on television.
My comment was regarding the way she came about the money she has. He dead husband got his money just by being born. He had nothing to do with the birth or the success of what was originally the "Anchor Pickle and Vinegar Works" which eventually became the H.J. Heinz Company.
Maria Teresa Thierstein Simoes Ferreira Heinz Kerry became wealthy by not doing anything. Just like her dead husband. She didn't go work in any field. She did not punch a time clock. She didn't bottle ketchup. As best I can tell the only physical labor she had to initiate to get the money she has is what I described above. Sex with her husband.
I know some rich Democrats. There are primarily two groups. One group are those that did nothing for their wealth. Their parents made the money and then they obtained it through enheritance. The other group are the trial lawyers in town.
The ONLY reason John Kerry and Teresa Heinz are in the national spotlight was because of the sweat of others. The only reason John Edwards and his wife are now in the national spotlight is because of the misfortune of others.
ALL these people are leeches. None of them became wealthy by doing anything of substance. They are the rich dregs of society. And should not be let within miles of the US treasury.
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