J Edwards: The Hazards Of Loyalty

The Hazards Of Loyalty
Hypocrisy, hubris and Rielle Hunter.

By ARAM BAKSHIAN JR.

For a man whose first—and only—winning election campaign was waged against an inarticulate septuagenarian hog farmer, John Edwards made quite a splash when he arrived in Washington in 1999 as the new junior senator from North Carolina. Lauch Faircloth (the hog farmer in question) had been anything but a formidable opponent, and Mr. Edwards did seem like a fast-talking opportunist, the quintessential trial-lawyer-turned-politician. But the members of the liberal establishment swooned—pundits and politicians alike. They found themselves charmed by his enthusiasm, his good looks, his populist appeal. Here, they said, was a younger Bill Clinton without the baggage, a potential standard bearer who could help the Democratic Party reclaim the middle ground that Newt Gingrich had seized for the GOP with his mid-1990s "revolution."

[Lenny]

Originally Posted by EmptyTimCup

...that one of Mr. Edwards's early boosters was the late Ted Kennedy, who "saw almost unlimited potential in this young, energetic, well-spoken, good-looking Southerner." In a conversation with Mr. Young, Mr. Kennedy waxed sentimental about Washington in the early 1960s: "It used to be civilized. The media was on our side. We'd get our work done by one o'clock and by two we were at the White House chasing women. We got the job done, and the reporters focused on the issues. . . . It was civilized." We now know that Mr. Edwards's idea of civilization was much the same as Kennedy's.

Edwards believed he was JFK incarnate.

[Larry Gude (Premo)]

I'm still waiting for the true story; How Howard Dean and other Dem party bosses knew about Edwards problems and used him anyway to knock down the Clinton machine by dividing and conquering and elevating another charming, pretty boy, know nothing, done even less hack first term senator.