"Don't look out the window Liz!"
Posted on 08/10/2008 10:32:37 AM PDT by Chucky is a girlie man
Yes, it's great to have one more example of hypocrisy and lack of virtue in the Democratic Party made public, but we shouldn't let this story devolve into just "another politician screws up, fathers illegitimate baby" meme. Yes, it's rather "con-veeeee-nient" that Edwards says, with a smug, self-assured smile, that he will gladly submit to a paternity test and Rielle Hunter says, "No way, no how," but is being named the father or not really what this latest cover-up is about?
Simple. It's the money, stupid. He could be in some serious criminal trouble for running afoul of tax and campaign finance laws. This could also explain why his dying wife is continuing to support him as well - she is concerned about who would raise their two small children if she's dead and Edwards is in prison.
There's a lot of talk about Fred Baron paying $15,000 per month to Hunter and $20,000 to Young "out of his own money." Don't we all wish we had friends like that? Even better if those friends were powerful trial lawyers with a private jet we get to borrow! There's even more to this tale than Baron's payouts, though.
A June 22, 2007, article in the NY Times titled "In Aiding Poor, Edwards Built Bridge to 2008," sets the frame for troubles ahead, should the media and/or law enforcement decide to pursue it.
Excerpt:
John Edwards ended 2004 with a problem: how to keep alive his public profile without the benefit of a presidential campaign that could finance his travels and pay for his political staff.Mr. Edwards, who reported this year that he had assets of nearly $30 million, came up with a novel solution, creating a nonprofit organization with the stated mission of fighting poverty. The organization, the Center for Promise and Opportunity, raised $1.3 million in 2005, and — unlike a sister charity he created to raise scholarship money for poor students — the main beneficiary of the center’s fund-raising was Mr. Edwards himself, tax filings show...
...The organization became a big part of a shadow political apparatus for Mr. Edwards after his defeat as the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004 and before the start of his presidential bid this time around. Its officers were members of his political staff, and it helped pay for his nearly constant travel, including to early primary states.
While Mr. Edwards said the organization’s purpose was “making the eradication of poverty the cause of this generation,” its federal filings say it financed “retreats and seminars” with foreign policy experts on Iraq and national security issues. Unlike the scholarship charity, donations to it were not tax deductible, and, significantly, it did not have to disclose its donors — as political action committees and other political fund-raising vehicles do — and there were no limits on the size of individual donations...
...Mr. Edwards mixed policy and politics in a way that allowed his supporters to donate to the causes he believed in — and to the organizations he had set up. He also set up two political action committees, something commonly done by politicians thinking of running for president.
But it was his use of a tax-exempt organization to finance his travel and employ people connected to his past and current campaigns that went beyond what most other prospective candidates have done before pursuing national office. And according to experts on nonprofit foundations, Mr. Edwards pushed at the boundaries of how far such organizations can venture into the political realm. Such entities, which are regulated under Section 501C-4 of the tax code, can engage in advocacy but cannot make partisan political activities their primary purpose without risking loss of their tax-exempt status...
...Mr. Edwards depended for his activities in large part on donations from supporters. In addition to the two nonprofit organizations, he created a leadership political action committee and a 527 “soft money” organization that also shared the same name: the OneAmerica Committee. These two committees each allowed donors to give more than the $2,300 per person limit in a presidential primary or general election, and, in some cases, to give in unlimited amounts.
From 2005, when he established them, through 2006, the committee and the soft money organization raised $2.7 million, most of which paid for travel and other activities that helped Mr. Edwards maintain his profile...
...The two foundations and the two political committees all shared an address in Washington and jointly raised around $4 million...
...Mr. Edwards also developed mutually beneficial relationships with public and private institutions. He founded the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina, which provided him with a platform. In return, he raised $3 million to sustain it...
...The Edwards campaign declined to disclose the amounts raised or spent by the two similarly-named nonprofit agencies — the Center for Promise and Opportunity and the Center for Promise and Opportunity Foundation — since their 2005 tax filings, which are the most recent to have been filed...
...Nonprofit groups can engage in political activities and not endanger their tax-exempt status so long as those activities are not its primary purpose. But the line between a bona fide charity and a political campaign is often fuzzy, said Marcus S. Owens, a Washington lawyer who headed the Internal Revenue Service division that oversees nonprofit agencies.
“I can’t say that what Mr. Edwards did was wrong,” Mr. Owens said. “But he was working right up to the line. Who knows whether he stepped or stumbled over it. But he was close enough that if a wind was blowing hard, he’d fall over it.”
Of the explicitly political entities, Mr. Edwards’ OneAmerica Committee 527 organization allowed donors to give without limitations. The money was transferred to his leadership political action committee. Leadership committees were initially created to allow prominent politicians to raise money for distribution to needy office-seekers. But Mr. Edwards spent the entire $2.7 million he raised for OneAmerica, including $532,000 raised by the 527, on himself, an increasingly common trend among politicians...
So...
Will Edwards’ efforts to cast this story as “just an old affair recently uncovered by tabloid trash” be successful?
OR
Will Americans demand an investigation and accountability?
This story will be over by tomorrow. Edwards will go away and after the election he will wind up as the legal editor on CNN.
Hmmm...she used to produce videos for his campaign.
Think there might be a sex tape out there?
Naaah. Couldn’t be.
Americans will continue to do what Oprah tells them to do.
Ew. Pass the eye bleach. Her campaign videos and their shots of his groin and butt fully clothed were bad enough.
The NY Times article also mentions some guy from Dave Matthews Band being a big contributor to Edwards’ “Foundations” - and each of the video clips include a song from the band in their opening credits.
eye bleach. LOL
"Don't look out the window Liz!"
The Raleigh News & Observer should have been all over this...but all they’ve done is covered the ribbon cutting and the closing. What a joke.
She’s a real player! She got Edwards to pay;she got his campaign to pay and the National Enquirer to pay.
Hmmm...she used to produce videos for his campaign.
Think there might be a sex tape out there?
Naaah. Couldn’t be.
MAD tv did a great parody of the situation last night having her standing by his side at a podium while he “confessed” all the while blaming his infidelities on her and even being pleasured by a blonde bimbo underneath the podium.
Great post!
The Raleigh N&O (or whats left of it after recent layoffs) has been a yellow Democrat rag since it was created. Despite frequent if not big national Republican victories, the Democrats otherwise own this state.
Yeah, Democrats seem to specialize in finding extra-legal remedies for their destructive behavior.
I want to know why the press jumped on it.
Or even why when Hillary was accepting plane rides from a grifter ( made his money scamming old people) and the press didn't care.
The Enquirer says it has much more information and are waiting for John to step up. So, his ass has to be puckermaxed waiting for the next shoe to drop. The MSM has been humiliated by their nemesis, the Enquirer, who keeps getting it right while they remained slothful. The they have to get out of their easy chairs do some due diligence. ABC, a case in point. With egg all over their face, again, they are looking to find a substitute ommlet named John Edwards. This will not go away until Edwards tell the whole story. The dems will remain tethered to Edwards, at some level, until he sweeps the floor clean of his lies.
Did you see Saturday Night Live?
The Charlotte Observer seems to be on the story. They used some of the same financial info from this 2007 NY Times article in a story on Edwards today. The Observer brought Jim Bakker down in a scandal similar to this one, so perhaps there’s hope.
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