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The Democratic ticket and the John Edwards affair
The Hill ^ | 7/23/08 | Byron York

Posted on 07/24/2008 9:32:21 AM PDT by pissant

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 Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) over the top.

Of course, “anything” could also mean serving as Obama’s attorney general, a position that has been mentioned for the former trial lawyer from North Carolina.

In any event, Edwards has shaped up as someone to watch should Democrats win in November.

But now there’s another reason to watch: an extensive story in the National Enquirer providing new evidence that Edwards, in the midst of his presidential campaign, had an extramarital affair that has, perhaps, resulted in a child.

The story began in 2006, when Edwards commissioned a woman named Rielle Hunter — sometimes described as a documentary filmmaker and sometimes as an aspiring actress — to make a series of brief behind-the-scenes Web videos about his campaign.

Newsweek did a short item on the videos, mentioning that Edwards met the filmmaker “at a New York bar where Edwards was having a business meeting.”

That’s all we heard about it until September 2007, when the Huffington Post published a story headlined “Edwards Mystery: Innocuous Videos Suddenly Shrouded In Secrecy.”

The website’s Sam Stein reported that the videos made by Hunter had suddenly disappeared from Edwards’s campaign website. “No longer am I working on a piece about new media and politics,” Stein wrote. “Now, I just want to know why these webisodes are shrouded in such mystery.”

Then, the Enquirer got into the story, reporting last October that Edwards was “caught in a shocking mistress scandal that could wreck his campaign.”

When Edwards was asked about the allegation, according to the Enquirer, he strongly denied it.

“The story is false. It’s completely untrue, ridiculous,” Edwards said. “Anyone who knows me knows that I have been in love with the same woman for 30-plus years.”

Later, in December 2007, the Enquirer published more details. A pregnant Hunter had moved to North Carolina, living in a house “owned by an Edwards backer” and driving a BMW sport utility vehicle registered to a longtime Edwards aide.

Hunter denied any affair, saying that the longtime, married Edwards aide was actually the father. A lawyer for that aide confirmed to the Enquirer that the aide was indeed the father.

Now the Enquirer has published a new story under the screaming headline SEN. JOHN EDWARDS CAUGHT WITH MISTRESS AND LOVE CHILD!

The tabloid reports that Edwards visited Hunter in a Los Angeles hotel Monday night, leaving her at 2:40 Tuesday morning. When the Enquirer’s reporters confronted Edwards, the story goes, he tried to escape. Critics might question the Enquirer’s involvement in all this. Perhaps, they might charge, money changed hands to make the story happen.

Maybe it did. But one reads an Enquirer story just like one reads a story in The New York Times. You look at the allegation and try to sort out how much evidence the paper is presenting.

For example, after carefully reading the Times’s front-page story alleging that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) had had an affair with a lobbyist, one could only ask, Where’s the evidence?

That’s not the case with the Edwards story; there’s quite a bit of detail.

What will happen now? Well, we probably won’t hear as many mentions of Edwards as a possible key player in an Obama administration.

But so far, Edwards is going on as if nothing happened. The morning after the Enquirer story appeared, he was in Denver, promoting an anti-poverty project.

Asked about the vice presidency, he said, “I’m not seeking the job. But anything Sen. Obama would ask me to do in his campaign or presidency I would consider seriously.”

Will Obama ask? Not likely.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption
KEYWORDS: 2008; 2008electionbias; adultery; bastard; breckgirl; byronyork; corruptdems; cultureofcorruption; democratscandals; doublestandard; everybodydoesit; itsjustsex; johnedwards; lovechild; mediablackout; riellehunter; silkypony
Edwards will continue to act as nothing happened as long as the MSM covers for him. Hopefully his wife is going to get the 28,000 square foot mansion in the coming divorce.
1 posted on 07/24/2008 9:32:22 AM PDT by pissant
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To: pissant
“I’m prepared to seriously consider anything, anything [Obama] asks me to do for our country.”

Monica Lewinski told Bill Clinton the very same thing.
2 posted on 07/24/2008 9:34:05 AM PDT by no dems (99% of the Politicians give all the others a bad name.)
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To: no dems

It wouldn’t surprise me if Edwards performed a few Lewinsky’s on old Slick


3 posted on 07/24/2008 9:35:34 AM PDT by pissant (THE Conservative party: www.falconparty.com)
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To: pissant

I don’t personally like Elizabeth Edwards. I think she has drunk the ideological kool-aid and has been pretty loathsome in the past.

That being said, my heart goes out to her and the family about this mess, true or not.

That must simply be awful to have to read and hear about.


4 posted on 07/24/2008 9:36:24 AM PDT by sauropod (God created asphalt so yuppies can go four-wheeling.)
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To: pissant

“Hopefully his wife is going to get the 28,000 square foot mansion in the coming divorce. “

His wife is dying. The divorce has been preempted.


5 posted on 07/24/2008 9:45:07 AM PDT by billhilly (I was republican when republican wasn't cool. (With an apology to Barbara Mandrell.))
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To: pissant
"“The story is false. It’s completely untrue, ridiculous,”
Edwards said. “Anyone who knows me knows that
I have been in love with the same woman for 30-plus years.”"

This is NOT a denial, right?


6 posted on 07/24/2008 9:53:05 AM PDT by Diogenesis (Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum)
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To: no dems

It’s going to be sweet to see this thing fall apart for him. He is one of the worst lowlifes in politics.


7 posted on 07/24/2008 9:53:11 AM PDT by Wally_Kalbacken
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To: pissant

Obama: "You are not a man because you can make a baby..."

8 posted on 07/24/2008 9:53:35 AM PDT by weegee (Obama loves America like Bill loves Hillary.)
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To: Diogenesis

Wasn’t he trapped in the closet/bathroom by reporters who saw him at the high dollar hotel like at 2 in the morning?


9 posted on 07/24/2008 9:54:24 AM PDT by weegee (Obama loves America like Bill loves Hillary.)
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To: Diogenesis

That was before the Enquirer captured him like a cornered rat and he locked himself in the bathroom.


10 posted on 07/24/2008 9:56:46 AM PDT by pissant (THE Conservative party: www.falconparty.com)
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To: billhilly
His wife is dying. The divorce has been preempted.

that doesn't mean she wouldn't want to strip her bastard husband of his assets and re-distribute them.

11 posted on 07/24/2008 10:03:24 AM PDT by Wil H
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To: pissant

He could lose half of his hair and body wash kit in a divorce.


12 posted on 07/24/2008 10:06:14 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: pissant
This guy is such an arrogant POS, I think this will eventually destroy him. I read the Enquirer article and there's definitely something there. The women and a friend drove in from Santa Barbara. Her friend booked two rooms on the same floor under just his name... Edwards snuck in the back way and appeared to want to be unseen.. The man who says he's the father, an Edwards long-time aide, was nowhere in sight. Only Edwards, the women, the baby and her friend who set it up were there.

When cornered by the Enquirer reporter he said nothing and took off, eventually hiding in a bathroom. They called security to usher him out, shielding him from the reporters...

There's something here.. I hope enough people start digging.

It would be so great to see this POS ruined and his dying wife clean him out before she passes away, if she does. Hopefully she beats the cancer and lives on to make his life miserable.

13 posted on 07/24/2008 10:47:42 AM PDT by Beatthedrum
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To: Beatthedrum

Even the blind and crazy National Enquirer can find a nut sometime.


14 posted on 07/24/2008 11:59:11 AM PDT by hdstmf
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To: pissant

Come on; stop it. You’re just trying to make Larry Sinclair jealous, aren’t you?


15 posted on 07/24/2008 3:54:10 PM PDT by no dems (99% of the Politicians give all the others a bad name.)
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To: pissant

One more thing pissant; I think you just gave the Urban Dictionary a new word: a “Lewinski”.

“Yeah, my girl friend is coming over tonight to give me a Lewinski”. LOL!!!


16 posted on 07/24/2008 3:56:54 PM PDT by no dems (99% of the Politicians give all the others a bad name.)
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