Edwards Staff Had Affair ‘Doomsday’ Strategy

Clearly we should impeach Kennedy, Roosevelt, and Eisenhower. Death is no excuse and affairs outside of marriage are far more serious than invading countries not responsible for attacking us and devising and implementing torture policies.
Gotta keep those priorities in proper order, you know?

Not good enough–if the news broke after the nomination and before the general–WE would have been doomed. I am beyond thankful that these selfish people did not have the opportunity to become leaders in the party.

Oh yeah. Thomas Jefferson too.

Should we add George Washington to the impeachment list as well? It would appear a possibility that he had an affair and since we’re currently carefully sorting through and shunning all potential sin and sinners…
…Perhaps we should erase Washington and Jefferson’s signatures from the constitution as well? Clearly if they they were morally unfit and unworthy to uphold and defend the constitution they were also unfit and unworthy to sign it…

I think we’re missing the point here. It’s not about the affair, that was just the “bullet”. The important point here is that Edwrdas’ own staffers were not his supporters. I know many managers who have built organizations under them that are fundamentally not behind the mission. Those managers, AND the people under them, collectively and individually, are doomed to fail. We should be critical of Edwards for the affair, perhaps, but more so for his leadership abilities. And we also need to see his staff for what they are: political weasels that glom onto things not because of the mission but because of the position. They are just as despicable, and if I were them, I would be “anonymous” too.

It a no brainer why John Edwards wife didn’t leave him. INSURANCE If she is dieing of cancer where would her health care expences come from?
80% of the people that have insurance maybe happy but ask the people that do not have insurance feel about there insurance.

This whole story is illogical. If your man is unelectable, get out of the campaign now. Don’t wait to shoot him down at dawn. Unless you need the job and the money, I don’t see why anyone would prostitute themselves in this way.

Well said Steamboater!

If you are willing to lie to the person you say you most love in the world… you morals, and integrity are in the dumper. I am so thankful he didnt win. And for the record, we all know that baby is his. Why would he have bothered to go see it at that hotel several times. I bet money he is shutting up Rielle HUnter by telling her be quiet and when Elizabeth dies we will be together. He is a jerk. We dont need another jerk as president.

the reason the other men didnt get shafted is because they admitted they were jerks in the last marriage when asked about it except edwards and the clintons..they denied denied till they couldnt deny nomore for the sake of moving up the ladder for hillary >>
she played the marriage lie card just long enough to stay up there somehow>> the only good thing out of the clintons lies is they have a great daughter!
edwards wife shouldnt drudge up old wounds to us the public because she chose to stay with him no matter what its a lose situation for her because she will not live long enough and she didnt need to go out showing her kids the anger she has for her husband to their kids and oprah and the model chick tara need to quit thinking all women need to keep hearing about this over and over again because we are all tired of them telling us we needed to know >>again>>> we could care less about palins daughters almost husband levi side of the story but we had to listen to that dysfunctional families story so we could maybe feel sorry for them ( not ! ) taras just mad that the palins are smart enough to keep that dysfunctional family out of their lives as much as possible>> see they try to live functional and everyone brings them down for not wanting the dyfunctional family to hang around them!! i am sad this happened to edwards wife and children but enough is enough >> he found out his wife was dying and he fell in love with another woman and had a child with her and maybe not in the proper way case closed>> he may of gone around it the wrong way completely the wrong way but it happened so time to leave them alone now and let her pass in peace with what she feels she has left in her own dignity>> overwriting on this issue and over analyizing on their family imperfections is just sad > he should of said im sorry i fell in love with someone way before you passed away>> i am a jerk but apologize and mean it and get on with life and leave them alone already! his career is over and giving him more tv time just might think we should let them revise it ( not )….

In a society where marriage vows are really not taken all that seriously it can be argued that extramarital affairs do not reflect all that strongly on a candidate’s ability to conduct foreign or domestic policy. It can also be argued that, from a political point of view, EVERYONE takes those vows seriously when the extramarital affair involves a person with whom we disagree — Craig, Foley, Edwards,Clinton etal.
Certainly, if extramarital excursions are not material to a leader’s ability to perform his public duties, it should logically follow that simply admitting to them should be relatively cost free. But no matter how immaterial extramarital activities are (or should be), lying is and will always be material to the way the public views a leader.
And in the end, a politician who willfully places himself in the middle of a blatant lie betrays weaknesses even more devastating than dishonesty. He openly displays contempt for those he would lead, and stupidity of the highest order.

Wall of text! For the love of god. If you’re going to make a point, use a freakin comma or period every now and then.

Sorry, I do not buy this story. If indeed the staffers were going to sabotage his campaign, then they did a lousy job of it because the news broke after the election. Edwards could have well been the VP.
All that said, it does not disqualify Edwards from the VP nor does it excuse his behavior. Personally, I have lost a lot of respect for him. Gingrich, McCain, Giuliani and the other adulterers are all cut from teh same cloth.

If a man of power does not have the personal self control to keep the sacred vow he made to his wife in the presence of God and Family, then he needs to be smart enough to cover his @ss and make d-a-m-n sure he doesn’t get caught.

SalmonGirl said “What I’m wondering is why Democratic adulterers are treated so very differently from Republican adulterers. McCain, Giuliani, Gingrich…why aren’t their political careers over? ” Maybe you need a history lesson… what about Clinton & Kennedy? (And Gingrich took some major hits for his affair(s)). It’s not about Republican & Democrat. I’m just trying to figure out why some candidates of either party get slammed while others don’t.

He is not the first ,won’t be the last ….Making a big deal out of this is crazy…..She think he is any different then any other man being handed this on a silver platter and you think a normal human will say No thank you?????????

Hillary Clinton would have won the nomination if Edwards had not run. Edwards took votes away from Clinton.

The problem Edwards had was lying about the affair.
The Clinton problem wasn’t the affair, but lying about it, under oath, during a deposition in a sexual harassment case.

Jan is looking more and more like John Edwards’ sockpuppet. Who would actually defend this man at this point? What he has done to his supporters is indefensible. What he has said about his child in the press is going to haunt her for the rest of her life.

Bush/Cheney were the first to make them official state policy. Need I remind you that we have participated in prosecuting former national leaders for very similar things, latest coming to mind being Milosevic. I assume you approved of prosecuting Milosevic. Is that incorrect?
Attempts to impress me with the military thing which I have heard before from other sources won’t work. Neither does attempts to change terminology and setting. I guess you think “those actions” were the military’s idea of weekend entertainment or lack of anything better to do?
My perspective is just fine. Your’s on the other hand…

Jan,
Perhaps you forgot the Bataan Death March, or the treatment the Vietnam POW’s recieved. I believe those were Official State Policies that actually can be defined as torture.
But if you need a Democratic State example; Winston Churchill permitted much harsher techniques than water boarding for Nazi prisoners.

Jan,
Milosovic was guilty of commiting genocide not waterboarding. No one died at Gitmo.
You need help if this is what you believe to be a fair comparison.

I guess you think “those actions” were the military’s idea of weekend entertainment or lack of anything better to do?
No Jan, I think those were the Military’s way of preparing me to deal with techniques the enemy might try to force information out of me.
The treatment was not pleasant for sure but did not come even close to the definition of torture.
I can assure you that they left no detrimental effects, actually they left me with an improved level of confidence not only in my abilities but also in the abilities of our interrogators.

They way many of Hillary’s campaign workers performed, I’d swear they deliberately sabotaged her campaign.
Also, if it’s such a “tragedy” that an adulterer could win the Democrat nomination, then why didn’t any of you in the media look into Vera Baker?
You all went to Alaska and were tipping over the Palin’s garbage cans looking for dirt. Meanwhile an attractive, mid level Obama campaign worker abruptly quit the most important election campaign in the history of the universe right when history was being made. She was the only person to quit Obama’s campaign for crying out loud! And she flew the coop to live in isolation on a puny Caribbean Island, instead of being an important part of history and cashing in on her hard work the way Obama’s other staffers have done.
Think about that! You Liberal media activists all flew to Alaska in the beginning of Winter to harass the Repub candidate, when you could have flown to the sunny Caribbean to ask Vera Baker if she and Obama were having an affair.
No story there!
The media did such a pathetic job vetting Obama, that you can say they never even bothered to vet the guy. Instead, they chose to cover up for him and take out his opponents for him.

Charlie said “The Clinton problem wasn’t the affair, but lying about it, under oath, during a deposition in a sexual harassment case.” But that is the point… Clinton not only lied about his many affairs under oath, but started lying before he was ever elected President. And yet, he still got elected. The Democratic party was thrilled to have him. So why is/was John Edwards being treated as though he murdered someone (although that very issue hasn’t stopped Edward Kennedy from being elected to the Senate)?

I thought I was showing restraint to you in my replies, David. It would seem that was a waste of time.
Maybe they never heard of the Bataan Death March in the big city schools, however I was educated in small city schools where the teacher student ratio was much more favorable and where both parents and teachers actually cared how well their students did.

Jan,
You asked if we were the Marchers or Marchees, so I assumed you were not familiar with the Bataan Death march
You compared Milosovic to President Bush and then complained when I gave examples that were outside of the U.S.
I was educated in Small town schools as well. Hypocrosy is not related to where you got your education.
Exactly what crimes against humanity does waterboarding fall under by the way.

Waterboarding is torture. It is immoral. It is a crime.
It is extremely unfortunate that you clearly see nothing wrong with it and crystal clear that we aren’t going to come to anything that resembles common ground. Bye David.

Jan,
“Waterboarding is torture. It is immoral. It is a crime.”
Just saying something is a crime or immoral does not make it so.
Jan; again, I recieved the treatment so which one of us has more credibility on this matter?

Funny, Bill Clinton’s staffers,like Mr. Stephanopoulous, never thought that way about his affairs.

It seems that my post with a link regarding the Bataan Death march was deleted.
so her is an excerpt from the link:
“The march, involving the forcible transfer of 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war[1] captured by the Japanese in the Philippines from the Bataan peninsula to prison camps, was characterized by wide-ranging physical abuse and murder, and resulted in very high fatalities inflicted upon the prisoners and civilians along the route by the armed forces of the Empire of Japan. Beheadings, cut throats and casual shootings were the more common and merciful actions — compared to bayonet stabbings, rapes, disembowelments, numerous rifle butt beatings and a deliberate refusal to allow the prisoners food or water while keeping them continually marching for nearly a week (for the slowest survivors) in tropical heat. Falling down, unable to continue moving was tantamount to a death sentence, as was any degree of protest or expression of displeasure.”
Jan, made a comment about whether we were the marcher or the marchees. Well I think that too many people are forgetting history and need to be reminded of what real torture is like.
That is PERSPECTIVE Jan

The ol’ “you won’t agree with me so your family couldn’t possibly have had and/or lost any service members over the years” argument. Um hmmm. Right
No Jan,
My arguement is that I have direct experience in the matter and a much deeper investment in the outcome of the discussion.

Edwards is an idiot but this also shows just how disloyal and backstabbing democrats are. They took a paycheck from Edwards while planning to ruin him. We have some of those people in the White House now and the rest of the weasles are on MSNBC.

“I also received the treatment that the Gitmo prisoners received.” And it obviously had an effect on you.

This story reeks of CYA. The staffers don’t want to be accused of being either complicit or oblivious.
Hence the doomsday scenario……

The Bataan death march was not torture. It was reprehensible, but it was a deliberate act of military attrition. It was not willful application of pain in order to gain information. It doesn’t make it right. It was just never torture.

I was a Field Organizer for Senator John Edwards during the Iowa Caucus. There I campaigned for the causes that Senator Edwards championed. He may be morally flawed like everyone else in the world but he was right about the issues and took up issues that other Democrats were afraid of. Poverty has been a lost word in the Democrats lexicon for years until Senator Edwards brought the issue to the forefront of the national debate. His run for president, forced Obama and Clinton to move to the left on the issue of the economy, health care, corporate interest and corporate greed, and the issues of lobbyist influence. I am very proud and thankful for Senator Edwards to champion these issues and forcing the other leading candidates to stake out issues that they would not have if he had not run. While he may have been destroyed politically, his mark on changing the debate on the issues did not. If I had to do the experience again, I would have.
By the way, Clinton and Edwards were not close on the issues before Iowa. It was not until after his exit did Senator Clinton take the more populist stance in attempt to capture his voters. He was way to the left of her on the issues and his supporters were in the group that wanted “change.” Exit polls of Edwards supporters showed that they identified Obama as their second choice preference by a good amount over Clinton. If he was not in the race, President Obama would have won Iowa by an even larger margin. Senator Clinton lost to Senator Obama fair and square. Her lost was predetermined by the stances she took and the campaign staff she surrounded herself with. Clinton supporters need not to look to Senator Edwards as a excuse for losing but to themselves for the campaign they run and the excellent campaign that Obama run.

What about the contributors?
Was it okay with Edwards’ campaign operatives to raise money for what was clearly a doomed campaign, or did they disclose their terminal doubts about Edwards before people sent their donations?
Who benefited from the donations? Not Edwards. The disloyal campaign rats, that’s who. It paid for the ad buys and their immense commissions. It paid their salaries and expenses.
So the idea was, keep raising and spending money, and then sink the campaign if it looked like they were going to win? These are “loyal Democrats?”
What awful people. I hope none of them are running our lives now in Washington.

A public life can be disastrous to a relationship and vica-versa. The Edward’s are hardly a new event, just another link in the chain of human fraility that marks the world and disappoints all of us. I pray that they can forgive each other and start anew. Otherwise, a one time event can have lasting consequences to a very nice family!

The thing that was so damaging about this affair is the the Edwards put forth that they were the perfect and devoted couple, recovering from earlier tragedy, having adorable children, and then standing up to her cancer diagnosis and treatment as a team. Back when there were many Democratic candidates in the early primaries, I found myself rooting for him. Nobody was really surprised when Bill Clinton’s dalliances came to light, but what a kick to the stomach to hear of his affair, given the seriousness of her cancer. He seemed so earnest and good natured. What a waste.

You’re right, George! these men should be hailed as heroes for being “Democrats first” and vowing to sabotage John’s campaign if it looked like he might win! I’m sure that they also took the time to return all the money that Americans contributed to help John try to win the nomination—not knowing that a group of people were going to insure that didn’t happen because of scandel! Because THOSE are real democrats! They should have a democratic ‘hall of fame’ for those guys! Keep taking money for a lost cause—REAL DEMOCRATS!

It really is that simple. While I’d prefer John Edwards was CinC over Obama right now (who also allegedly cheated on Michelle) there are much better choices, none of whom made it beyond the primaries unfortunately.
Posted by: Oh Please | May 10, 2009 11:21:42 AM
Whatever your name is you need to be ashamed of yourself for suggesting that Obama Cheated on the First lady. Did you get the news from your usual right wing faux blogs? your fear tactics never worked and won’t work again, Edwards has been caught with his pants down, may be you want people to share with him in his guilt, you are the perfect couple. EDWARDS AS A BETTER CIC? HHAHAHHAHAHHA LOL!!!

Sounds like an excuse.

The most interesting part of the story is that its Edwards’ own staff who presumably would have blown the whistle on him(they now claim).Must have been that the shills at the NYT,WaPo and Network TV were too understaffed to cover the story, what with all of their important investigative reporters up in Alaska going through the trash of Sarah Palin’s hairdresser

My Heart broke as I watched John Edwards leave the campaign in December!
HE was always my choice and I campainged for him tirelessly!
It broke again; when I found out he had this horrible affair! It broke again when I saw Elizabeth’s pain On Oprah!
This is such a sad thing. It happens all too often when women clearly DO NOT RESPECT THE HOME AND MARRIAGE OF ANOTHER WOMAN!!
BUT the blame clearly belongs to John Edwards and I think he has owned that to the best of his ability for now; Do I believe it is over..
NOT ON YOUR LIFE!
Too bad and very sad ordeal for everyone but especially Elizabeth and her Children!

John oh John! Why hast thou cheated on thy wife? Has thou no shame? Thy sins has been made manifest by the national enquirer..Oh what revalation! Thou wantest to be president but thy wife canst trust thee..then why does thy frontal lobe decieved you to believe that the country would trust thee..Oh corrupt imbecile..thou foolest thine self. John oh John, Why hast thou cheatest on thine wife!

The more she speaks out, the less sympathy I feel for Mrs. Edwards. The day she called Reille Hunter’s baby an “it” … “it doesn’t look like my children” shows she her own lack of emotion/empathy for a child who didn’t ask to be brought into this controversy.

“David, you’d consider it torture if our enemies were doing it to us. Stop being such a hypocrite. ”
Harold,
No I would not consider it torture; however, if I were a lawful combatant the treatment would be against the Geneva Convention.
“Only Bush and Cheney made torture military policy.”
No Harold,
As I stated before the techniques were in place long before President Bush took office.
He was merely the first President to have the techniques leaked to the extent that they became common knowledge.
“And it obviously had an effect on you.”
Martin H,
As I also stated previously the effect was actually beneficial in improving my confidence to be able to withstand harsh interrogation techniques.
“The Bataan death march was not torture. It was reprehensible, but it was a deliberate act of military attrition. It was not willful application of pain in order to gain information. It doesn’t make it right. It was just never torture.”
Hawk,
Acquiring information is not always a goal of someone using torture. Some people use torture because they enjoy hurting people.
“I find it hard to believe you were, or are.
You are a shame to the fighting men of our country.”
I am an Air Force pilot who will deploy sshortly to Iraq for a year to train the Iraqi Air Force I will try to keep your sentiments in mind while I am there

Don’t you all know Edwards cheating on his wife was all Bush’s fault! Geez you would think after 8yrs you folks would have caught on.

Personally I think THE EDWARDS should refund every nickle to their supporters. I say THEIR because she not only knew and helped cover it up but was Edwards PitBull!!! I never want to hear about these 2 again!!!!! SHUT UP AND GO AWAY

I said it yesterday and I just twittered a response again today: Complete BS — fantasyland — not true.

This Edwards’ thing gets worse by the minute. First we have Edwards lying; next his wife, who is struggling with cancer supports him in running for President, knowing that he is lying; and finally his staff prepares themselves to sabortage him if he wins, while pretending to support him. I mean the deception is non-ending. I think they all should be doing some serious soul searching. I think that they all did the public a grave misjustice. It was all of their responsilbilty to be forthright with the public. The staff should have gone to Edwards and told him of their suspicions and asked him to come clean. And then the media should have been told so that the public could have been informed and allowed to make an informed decision. Who knows, somewhere at the beginning of all these lies, the public might have been forgiving and accepting of Edwards. Everyone has weak moments, but to continue to lead the public down a long road full of lies destroys trust.

James,
I brought up the Bataan Death March (along with the treatment the Vietnam War POW’s received) after Jan made the following posts:
“the people who devised and implemented torture are invited on all the A-list talk shows and suffer no penalties. Should we call it twisted values?…”
to which I replied :
The interrogation techniques you refered to where devised long before President Bush took office. Those actions you refer to as torture are also used on our Aircrew and Special Forces at SERE school.
Me and my buddies do not believe we were tortured so perhaps your perspective needs a little adjusting.”
followed by her reply
“Bush/Cheney were the first to make them official state policy. Need I remind you that we have participated in prosecuting former national leaders for very similar things, latest coming to mind being Milosevic. I assume you approved of prosecuting Milosevic. Is that incorrect?”
I could have listed several other Official State sponsored torture policies including Adolph Hitler.
I did not see a link that confirms the examples you gave but giving you the benefit of the doubt, prosecutions of soldiers acting w/o or against orders do not serve as precedent for declaring all of the activities they perform illegal.
At least one of the examples you used included a beating applied.
Again the treatment and protection given a “lawful combatant” is different than an unlawful combatant.
I will, however agree to some extent that having techniques applied in a training environment might be considered less threatening. I can assure you that the realism that is produced in SERE school is unlike any other training program anyone is likely to experience. One tends to forget that it is only training in those conditions.
If waterbaording was the worst thing that some jihadi terrorist did to me if I were unfortunate enough to be captured, I would be grateful.
Perhaps Daniel Pearl would agree with me if he were still alive. In the event that you were unaware Khalid Shiek Muhommed was one of the Gitmo prisoners that is reported to have been subjected to harsh interrogations. He also admitted to chopping off Daniel Pearl’s head.
He provided the location of the remains to confirm what he had admitted to.
I think that you are putting a very wide description on what constitutes torture but that is your right and we are just going to have to agree to disagree on that.

I think we should send all detainees to Jan’s town ( as long as it’s far away from me!)
David- I can’t Thank You enough for your service! Some people are truly ignorant about our country’s safety and why we are so safe!
John Edwards?- A Stupid,stupid, selfish man. He not only cheated on his loyal and faithful wife, he cheated his children.
The Mistress? – Who cares.
Elizabeth Edwards?- I think she has handled it pretty well. Maybe her book is her voice in all of this mess. She has terminal cancer, whatever happens after she is gone, she has her thoughts and feelings in writing. I have not read her book, but her children will always have her words and see her strength. Some women will do what they feel is best for their children. Their family has already been through a terrible tragedy with the death of their son. Maybe she had enough forsight to know her children needed a bonded family as she battles her disease instead a nasty divorce. That is strength, bravery, and love.

Juanita said ” put him on a pedestal”
Well after criticizing Bush for eight years we have BHO who is on the pedestal. Let me take it back he is on pedestal on the world stage. Soon we will have world tour of his concert. There will be fashion lines after his name. He already has collector plate and coins among other to his name.
Fidelity has been around for thousands of years even before ten commandments and Edward is not the first or the last one to succumb to that. It will happen again and again except expose’ will be selective and after all we will become banana republic with moral values of a republic and bumbling which will result in more regulation and censorship and politician will proclaim transparency but forget after election. The whole political machine is corrupt and power corrupts more.
Welcome to twenty first century of electronic media with facebook and twitter to boot.

What a joke this is. You did not blow the whistle on Clinton in 1992 because you believed in him but for your own advancement. As you so clearly said in your book: “…I didn’t want to throw away what he could achieve as president and I could achieve by his side…” It was all about you. And now you sit in judgment of others with a holier than thou attitude. What a joke.

All I can say about John Edwards is, he better not waist our time running in 2012 or 2016 election. The way I see it he is done!
On the other hand someone mention about Obama cheating on Michelle, it is pretty damn rude for you to be saying that, and if it is true than maybe you should back that up with something, otherwise it is rude!!!!!

What if he had won? We do not need our country having to revisit the Clinton drama at this particular time in our world. Edwards should be ashamed he didn’t step aside IMMEDIATELY. And as sorry as I am for his wife, I have to wonder if she was as hungry to be first lady to the extent of being willing to hide the matter. That is so sad.

I agree that extramarital affairs are no indication of a politician’s effectiveness, as history has borne out. What bothers us emotionally is that we want our leaders to set a good example for us and our children, by keeping their commitments, eschewing selfish desires, and sacrificing their own needs for the greater good. It is not supposed to be “typical men,” but extraordinary individuals who gain the honor of being voted into office. We put a huge amount of trust in them, to protect our quality of life and to improve the future for our kids. Any wise candidate should know this.