Posted on 07/28/2008 5:25:53 AM PDT by pissant
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 confronted Mr Edwards at 2.40am on Tuesday in the corridors of the Beverly Hilton, as he was leaving the bedroom of Rielle Hunter, a divorcee whom he was rumoured to have made pregnant last year.
Amid scenes more suited to a Benny Hill sketch than the corridors of a luxury hotel, two journalists and a photographer chased Mr Edwards – whose wife Elizabeth is battling incurable cancer – around the building for several minutes. He eventually went to ground in the men's lavatory for a quarter of an hour, before being escorted from the premises by security staff.
The incident was reported in lurid detail by The Enquirer, and followed up in dozens of America's influential political blogs and news websites, which claimed that Mr Edwards and Ms Hunter were filmed entering the hotel room at 9.30pm.
The country's upmarket newspapers and major broadcasters refused to investigate The National Enquirer's claims. Tony Pierce, the editor of The Los Angeles Times, went so far as to order staff "not to cover the rumours or salacious speculations". Its unofficial blackout appeared to be holding firm until Friday night, when the presenters of Fox's 9pm talk show, Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes, ran a report that confirmed several major details of the Beverly Hilton incident, and asked: "Why were the reporters chasing Edwards, and why is this story nowhere in the mainstream media?"
Mr Hannity said: "I'm a family values guy, and [Edwards'] wife is sick and we wish her all the best. But I wonder if you think there would be a double standard if he were a Republican."
Rumours of the alleged affair have been doing the rounds of Washington for months. In October, Mr Edwards was forced publicly to deny a different Enquirer story, which claimed that Ms Hunter was six months pregnant with his child. "It's completely untrue. Ridiculous," he said. "I've been in love with the same woman for 30-plus years, and as anyone who has been around us knows, she's an extraordinary human being: warm, loving, beautiful, sexy and as good a person as I've ever known."
Edwards has a political future to fight for? Who knew?
I wish this was about Obama.
You got to love the line in the story referencing to Benny Hill.....How is he going to explain this one to his SICK wife and children. I would bet this would be public if it were Mitt Romney or any other vetted Veep candidate
If it’s a lie Jonnie,why don’t you sue them.
Johnnie’s been sleepin’ in his new pole barn lately.
I didn't know John Edwards had any political future....
Has Edwards denied the story? Shown an alibi he was somewhere else? Does the love child look like Andrew Young who is no longer young?
We have to be fair, you know.
A simple DNA test would shed light on the subject. I wonder why little Johnny hasn’t suggested this.
To: MSM
From: Brother Barak (B.B.)
Re: Edwards
Text: Rewrite fullwise unspeak Edwards nonperson.
Vito Fossella was rightfully disgraced - because he was pursued by an entusiastic press corps.
That same press corps is currently maintaining a pink wall of silence around John Edwards.
He’s not the Johnnyface I knew...
It was in the July 21st edition that the Buffalo Evening Telegraph dropped a bombshell into the presidential campaign of 1884. Under the banner of "A Terrible Tale," the Telegraph announced to the world "The Pitiful Story of Maria Halpin and Governor Cleveland's Son." The story was that Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland, a bachelor, had had an affair resulting in the birth of a son.
Cleveland's primary supporters and campaign staff asked if it was true, and he said that it was indeed so. When asked how to handle it in the campaign, he said, "Tell the truth." The relationship was admitted but downplayed. After all, they said, Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton were capable but wayward men as well.
The actual story was that Maria Halpin, a widow in her mid-30s, had moved to Buffalo, New York, in the early 1870s. She became involved with a number of men, including a 36-year-old attorney named Grover Cleveland. By the end of 1873 she was pregnant.
Maria claimed that Cleveland was the father, although there was no way to prove it one way or another. However, Cleveland was a bachelor while the other paternity candidates were married. When the child was born in September 1874 she named him Oscar Folsom Cleveland. (Oscar Folsom was Cleveland's law partner.)
Despite uncertainty Cleveland decided to accept paternity. He had less to lose than other possibilities. He acknowledged the boy and provided for his support. When one of his campaign leaders tried to publicly blame the deceased Oscar Folsom as the father, Cleveland had the story squelched.
Not long after the birth Maria began drinking heavily, and Cleveland had a judge commit her to an insane asylum and the child to an orphanage. He paid the orphanage expenses of $5 per week. When Maria was released, Cleveland had her set up in a business in Niagara Falls. Later she tried unsuccessfully to get custody of her son, and he was placed for adoption with a family. Cleveland paid her $500 and she left town. The son grew up to become a medical doctor.
The Republicans used the campaign slogan, "Ma Ma, Where's my Pa?" The controversy about public service and private morality raged across the nation. The choice was between a man of personal immorality and public service integrity (Grover Cleveland) and one of a model family man guilty of using public office for personal gain (James G. Blaine). Cleveland narrowly won. After his election the Democrats answered the Republican ditty with "Gone to the White House, ha ha ha!"
On June 2, 1886, 49-year-old President Cleveland married 21-year-old Francis Folsom. She was the daughter of his deceased law partner. Francis knew of the relationship with Maria Halpin and forgave her husband for it. The marriage resulted in five children. Once he took his wedding vow, Grover Cleveland never strayed.
Two points, first that a Democrat candidate told the truth and encouraged his spokesmen and supporters to also tell the truth is a time gone by. Second, it was an MSM newspaper that broke the story. On Edwards, they're refusing to publish the story.
I see him flattening himself like a cockroach while slithering under his front door scurring for a hiding place from Elizabeth. What a pathetic slug of a person, much in the image of clinton who will likely increase his democratic resume potential.
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