Posted on 08/21/2007 7:46:56 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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 delay paying U.S. taxes, what could be more natural than that he made nearly $500,000 for part-time work at the Fortress Investment Group, with hedge funds incorporated in the Cayman Islands for tax purposes?
When he hit other candidates for taking donations from Rupert Murdoch’s media holdings, wasn’t it inevitable that it would turn out he had taken $800,000 from Murdoch’s HarperCollins for a coffee-table book?
Or when he attacked subprime lenders for foreclosing on victims of Hurricane Katrina, he would have $16 million — half of his net worth — invested in Fortress while it was foreclosing on a couple dozen homes in New Orleans?
Most of us uphold ideals that we can’t meet, but liberal populism shouldn’t be such an impossible standard. The late Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone, a liberal populist to his core, never had such embarrassments. The former North Carolina senator is experiencing a kind of toxic shock from his synthetic political persona.
In 2004, John Edwards was Mr. Congeniality, for no other reason than that seemed the market niche for him in the race. Today, he is the angry populist, for no other reason than that seems the market niche for him in the race. He thrived in the Iowa caucuses four years ago as the fresh new thing; this year he looks like a version of Dick Gephardt, the union-pandering populist with the negative campaign.
Edwards’s anger has about all the heft and seriousness of a five-year-old’s tantrum. All candidates fear making a gaffe in one of the debates. Edwards has to worry that Hillary Clinton will blow on him and he’ll float away — like Mary Poppins with her magic umbrella, carried off by the unbearable lightness of his own political being.
If a paranoid theory were needed to explain Edwards’s candidacy, there are two, equally plausible options. Is he a plant from the Democratic National Committee designed to make Clinton and Barack Obama look impressive by contrast with his sheer insubstantiality? Or is he a plant of the Republican National Committee designed to pull the top-tier candidates as far to the left as possible?
On the big issues of the day, Edwards specializes in can’t-keep-his-story-straight contrivance. Democratic consultant Bob Shrum described in his book “No Excuses” how his political advisers talked Edwards into voting for the authorization of the Iraq War in the fall of 2002. Edwards vehemently denies it, but also says that he didn’t express “the huge conflict” he had in his own mind about the vote, which makes it sound like politics played as big a role in his decision as his conscience.
On gay marriage, he said that he opposes it because of his religious background, but then explained that it had been wrong for him to say that. He now offers no real reason for his opposition. Surely, the hindrance is simply that it is the most politically contentious item on the gay-rights agenda.
Edwards says on the campaign trail that he can beat the special interests the way he beat them in the courtroom as a trial lawyer. Back then, how John Edwards lived and his past record didn’t matter, so long as he told the jury what it wanted to hear. Edwards still seems to think he’s in the courtroom, which is why he is so deaf to the jarring incongruities of his lamentable campaign.
If practicing Law was about Right and Wrong, then it would be Socialized... but it is about BILLING, ask Edwards!
The Breck Girl is an intellectual lightweight. A whore with no principles, no core. He will never be President, and he wont even be the commiecrat nominee. He is no threat to Her Thighness. The bitch and the Muslim Marxist will be the democratic ticket.
Excellent work, Rich.
So you think all this means he can’t get elected President? He’s a joke, but he’s a Democrat too. About as funny as Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton.
bump
Johnnycake can’t be insulted.
You may be right, pal. Initially, I think the beaste probably wanted the easily-controllable Richardson on the ticket to glom onto the hispanic-vote, but the muzzie has shown to be surprisingly popular, if incredibly shallow.
She may have to put the islamofacist on the payroll just to secure the stupid-negroids-vote ....................... FRegards
Which is in the same vein as Hillary's $8 million book deal. These politician book deals look like bribe money laundering operations. Hillary and Edwards are both lying lawyers, they both get $400+ haircuts frequently, they both collected a fortune without creating value, they both pay lip service to the poor. Changing a few words around in this article would turn this pro-Clinton propaganda piece into an anti-one.
Hillary and Edwards are birds of a feather and belong on the same ticket.
The real question is whether we have anyone on our side who can beat the Bitch and the Muslim. None of them impress me but Hunter, whose campaign is so lame he can barely muster 1% in the polls. I’m not sure Hussein Obama brings much to the ticket because the blacks would vote democratic if a Klansman were at the top of the ticket. But Her Thighness will use him effectively as a propaganda tool. We have no one who is tough enough to stand on conservative principles and beat her. They are all wishy washy centrists.
You're right about Duncan Hunter being a good choice, but without name recognition. I'm hoping Fred Thompson announces soon, and if he picked Hunter right away for VP, then made actually building a secure Border the first plank in their platform, they'd be winners!
Thompson has the face and name recognition that Hunter lacks, and whether we like it or not, that's a big part of politics today.
A few weeks ago, between 72% and 85% of Americans made it abundantly clear that they wanted a secure Border with Mexico - NOT more empty promises about building something in the future! If Thompson and Hunter would tap-into that American emotional outburst, they'd have a Royal Flush, and their coat tails would be long. Hunter is already there, but lacks any reportage by the MSM. They can't ignore Thompson. What-the-hell, they've been giving him a free ride for months.
The lib-Marxist-dims would scream like hell, amd the MSM would add fuel to the fire by calling them racist, and most of the 72% to 85% of Americans would stand in line to vote for them!
Stay well ................. FRegards
Leni
bttt!!!
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