POS John Edwards

[GoPackGo]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EDWARDS_AFFAIR?SITE=WIMIL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Edwards admits to affair, denies fathering child

By PETE YOST
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards on Friday admitted to an extramarital affair while his wife was battling cancer. He denied fathering the woman's daughter. Edwards told ABC News that he lied repeatedly about the affair with 42-year-old Rielle Hunter but said that he didn't love her.

He said he has not taken a paternity test but knows he isn't the father because of the timing of the affair and the birth.

ABC said a former Edwards campaign staffer claims he is the father, not Edwards.

Hunter's daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter, was born on Feb. 27, 2008, and no father's name is given on the birth certificate filed in California.

Three weeks ago, the National Enquirer said its reporters caught Edwards visiting Hunter at a California hotel. In the interview, scheduled to air on ABC News' "Nightline," Edwards said the tabloid was correct when it reported on his meeting with Hunter at the Beverly Hills Hotel last month.

Edwards was a top contender for the Democratic nomination for president, pursuing his party's nod even after announcing that his wife, Elizabeth, had a deadly form of cancer.

He placed second in the Iowa caucuses last January but dropped out of the race a few weeks later. He has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential choice for Barack Obama. The former North Carolina senator was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004.

David Bonior, Edwards' campaign manager for his 2008 presidential bid, said Friday he was disappointed and angry after hearing about Edwards' confession.

"Thousands of friends of the senators and his supporters have put their faith and confidence in him and he's let him down," said Bonior, a former congressman from Michigan. "They've been betrayed by his action."

Asked whether the affair would damage Edwards' future aspirations in public service, Bonior replied: "You can't lie in politics and expect to have people's confidence."

In 2006, Edwards' political action committee paid $100,000 in a four-month span to a newly formed firm run by Rielle Hunter, who directed the production of just four Web videos, one a mere 2 1/2 minutes long.

The payments from Edwards' One America Committee to Midline Groove Productions LLC started on July 5, 2006, five days after Hunter incorporated the firm in Delaware.

Midline provided "Website/Internet services," according to reports that Edwards' PAC filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Midline's work product consists of four YouTube videos showing Edwards in informal settings as he prepares to make speeches in Storm Lake, Iowa, and Pittsburgh, as he prepares for an appearance on "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" and travels in Uganda in 2006.

Edwards' PAC following the six-figure payment with two smaller payments totaling $14,461, the last on April 1, 2007.

At the time Hunter was compiling the videos in mid-2006, Edwards was preparing a run for president.

Hunter's name appears on credits in the four videos as director and cameraman.

Episode One of the four videos captures a conversation between Edwards and an unseen woman as the two chat aboard a plane about an upcoming speech in Storm Lake, Iowa.

Cutting between clips of the speech and the conversation with the woman, Edwards touches on his standard political themes, declaring that government must do a better job of addressing the great issues of the day, from poverty and education to jobs and the war in Iraq.

"I want to see our party lead on the great moral issues - yes, me a Democrat using that word - the great moral issues that face our country," Edwards tells the crowd. "If we want to live in a moral, honest just America and if we want to live in a moral and just world, we can't wait for somebody else to do it. We have to do it."

Anyone else disgusted with this POS?

[Zool]

Fucking humans. Whats next? Foot tapping in bathrooms? Preachers sleeping with their secretaries? Priests molesting alterboys? Hell in a handbasket I tell you.

[Tyrone Bigguns]

No more disgusted with him than i am with the roughly 15-20% of americans who cheat on their spouse.

[GoPackGo]

No more disgusted with him than i am with the roughly 15-20% of americans who cheat on their spouse.

unlike 15-20% of americans he did his cheating while his wife was fighting for her life. Not to mention he went in public talking about leading by example when it comes to morals.

Edwards tells the crowd. "If we want to live in a moral, honest just America and if we want to live in a moral and just world, we can't wait for somebody else to do it. We have to do it."

[sheepshead]

sure, except the guy wanted to be president. If he cant be faithful to his wife, how the heck would he treat us? I also heard he might speak at the DNC. I hope so, like the year they had Jim Carter and Mike Moore doin a hang--classic.

[Tyrone Bigguns]

No more disgusted with him than i am with the roughly 15-20% of americans who cheat on their spouse.

unlike 15-20% of americans he did his cheating while his wife was fighting for her life. Not to mention he went in public talking about leading by example when it comes to morals.

Edwards tells the crowd. "If we want to live in a moral, honest just America and if we want to live in a moral and just world, we can't wait for somebody else to do it. We have to do it."

1. Love or sex has a strong grip. Plenty of people cheat on their spouse during trying times..illness, family emergencies, etc.

2. Morals. A pol who is a hypocrite..whoda thunk it.

The morals he was talking about aren't the same type as infidelity. Now, i know you and others may say that is splitting hairs..but, i don't. It would be like the ministers of the south preaching during the 40s and yet not changing the morality regarding the treatment of the black man.

Newt asked for a his divorce while his wife was in the hospital. That doesn't..at least to me...take anything away from his ability to lead.

I can understand if that bothers you..but, sex doesn't bother me in the least.

Stupid..no doubt. But, as woody allan said..the heart wants what the heart wants.

[sheepshead]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AE847UXu3Q

[Harlan Huckleby]

No more disgusted with him than i am with the roughly 15-20% of americans who cheat on their spouse.

that sounds more like the percentage that get caught

[texaspackerbacker]

Like Jay Leno said, the Democrats cancelled the lyin' cheatin' bastard's speech at the convention .......... and replaced him with Bill Clinton .

[sheepshead]

Even though the LA Times, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, etc., etc., did their absolute best to protect him, John Edwards, a man who was reputed to be in the running for Barack Obama's VP slot, was battered so heavily by the National Enquirer, the blogosphere, and talk radio that he felt compelled to publicly admit to having an affair,

In an interview for broadcast tonight on Nightline, Edwards told ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff he did have an affair with 44-year old Rielle Hunter, but said that he did not love her.

Edwards also denied he was the father of Hunter's baby girl, Frances Quinn, although the one-time Democratic Presidential candidate said he has not taken a paternity test.

Edwards said he knew he was not the father based on timing of the baby's birth on February 27, 2008. He said his affair ended too soon for him to have been the father.

A former campaign aide, Andrew Young, has said he was the father of the child.

According to friends of Hunter, Edwards met her at a New York city bar in 2006. His political action committee later paid her $114,000 to produce campaign website documentaries despite her lack of experience.

Edwards said the affair began during the campaign after she was hired. Hunter traveled with Edwards around the country and to Africa.

Edwards said his wife, Elizabeth, and others in his family became aware of the affair in 2006.

Edwards made a point of telling Woodruff that his wife's cancer was in remission when he began the affair with Hunter. Elizabeth Edwards has since been diagnosed with an incurable form of the disease.

Wow, that is just riddled with fascinating little nuggets, isn't it?

First of all, there are two people who got thrown under the bus there (Andrew Young voluntarily got himself into this mess by claiming, probably falsely, to be having an affair with Hunter). One of them is Rielle Hunter, whom Edwards is painting as a whore because she apparently slept with two different married men on the Edwards campaign. Then, even more impressively, there is his cancer stricken wife who he says has known that he has been boffing another women since 2006. Whatever else you might say about Elizabeth Edwards, does she strike you as a mousey "stand by your man" type who knows her man is out cheating on her and says nothing about it? Me? Not so much. However, could I see her letting her wimpy husband claim that publicly so that he could deflect criticism (How can you people get mad at me when Elizabeth has known since 2006 and doesn't mind)? Yeah, that seems more likely.

Then, there is this incredible line,

"Edwards made a point of telling Woodruff that his wife's cancer was in remission when he began the affair with Hunter."

Ok, let's say that's true. Let's also assume this is true,

"Edwards told ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff he did have an affair with 44-year old Rielle Hunter, but said that he did not love her."

What the heck? Let's even say this is true,

"Edwards said he knew he was not the father based on timing of the baby's birth on February 27, 2008."

So, the affair has long since been over, the baby isn't his, and he doesn't love Rielle Hunter. Ok, that all makes sense...oh, wait a second. If all three of those things are true, why the hell was he meeting her in a hotel room? Just to catch up on old times? Oh, he could have done that over the phone, couldn't he? Well, gee, let's think about this: why does a married man usually have a covert meeting in a hotel room with a woman?

Hmmm...enquiring minds still want to know, but does the mainstream media want to find out?

PS: Once again, this story just proves that if you want to be informed, you've got to read blogs because the mainstream media just isn't going to tell you the whole truth if it hurts "their side."

PS #2: I wonder how dumb they feel at the Daily Kos after banning liberal blogger Lee Stranahan for discussing this?

[hoosier]

To paraphrase Woody Allen, John Edwards did to Rielle Hunter what W has been doing to the country for the past seven years. :P

[sheepshead]

As everyone knows, John Edwards admitted yesterday to carrying on an adulterous relationship with a "documentary film maker" while his wife was battling cancer. Yes, we know, as we've known since 1992, that EVERYONE commits adultery but the bar of decency and common sense while engaging in adultery has certainly been lowered in the past 24 hours. You can step right across it now.

Part of the reason for Edwards to admitting to the affair, other than being caught by a slew of National Enquirer reporters while sneaking into a hotel to visit his former paramour and her child allegedly by an Edwards staffer (as Ace said yesterday, this woman was apparently passed around like a bong at a Phish concert) was that "clearing this up" was the price for an Edwards role at the Democrat convention.

Well, not so fast.

Barack Obama was quick to demonstrate that there is always room for one more under the bus. This by way of Jake Tapper:

“If I'm not mistaken, I think that they already indicated, the Edwards family indicated that they probably wouldn't be attending the convention," Obama said, per ABC News' Sunlen Miller. "I understand that. This is a difficult and painful time to them. And I think they need to work through that process of healing. My sense is that that’s going to be their top priority.

"John Edwards was a great champion of working people during the course of his campaign," Obama continued. "Many of his themes are ones that Democrats as a whole share. Those will be amplified in the convention, and I wish them all well. “

[texaspackerbacker]

To paraphrase Woody Allen, John Edwards did to Rielle Hunter what W has been doing to the country for the past seven years. :P

So, Hoosier, I guess you and Woody Allen were in the bedroom with them?

How else would you know that he KEPT HER ON TOP?

Who was on top with you and Woody?

[Tyrone Bigguns]

No more disgusted with him than i am with the roughly 15-20% of americans who cheat on their spouse.

that sounds more like the percentage that get caught

That figure is from studies...course, i'm sure that it is a bit under reported.

[Harlan Huckleby]

No more disgusted with him than i am with the roughly 15-20% of americans who cheat on their spouse.

that sounds more like the percentage that get caught

That figure is from studies...course, i'm sure that it is a bit under reported.

how did you conduct your study? Is that the percentage of married women you scored with?