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You are here: Home / National Enquirer = Stopped Clock

National Enquirer = Stopped Clock

by Michael D.|  August 8, 20083:44 pm| 26 Comments

This post is in: Assholes

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The National Enquirer was right after all. John Edwards did have an affair and did meet her in her hotel last month.

An affair is one thing, and it’s bad enough. But to have an affair while your wife is battling cancer (yeah, cancer in remission, whatever)? It’s so Republican. I supported Edwards throughout his campaign. Now he just makes me ill.

Edwards denied paying any money to Hunter to keep her from going public but said it was possible some of his friends or supporters may have made payments without telling him.

I don’t believe him. Why would I?

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Reader Interactions

26Comments

  1. 1.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    August 8, 2008 at 3:45 pm

    Only you can make me have sympathy for John Edwards, Michael. Thank you.

  2. 2.

    SpotWeld

    August 8, 2008 at 3:46 pm

    It’ll be interesting to see how hard the push is to make this relevant to the current presidential campaign.

  3. 3.

    Noah

    August 8, 2008 at 3:47 pm

    Nice job announcing it right when the Olympics start.

    John Edwards gets the gold medal in douchebaggery!

  4. 4.

    TomK

    August 8, 2008 at 3:49 pm

    It’s not like John Edwards was a religious right family values nut. No hypocrisy, just someone being human. We should only care about these things when the person involved is a hypocrite.

  5. 5.

    Davis X. Machina

    August 8, 2008 at 3:53 pm

    There’s an upper limit on how bad I’m prepared to feel…and I’ll have hit it by suppertime.

    Three words: Charles Stewart Parnell.

    And they though it was the end of the world. Split the party over it, too.

    Now there’s a Parnell Street, or Sráid Parnell, or Parnell Bridge, or the like, in every town in Ireland, though they were bigger prudes, at the time, and later at the time of the various dedications,

    And don’t get me started on Vice-Admiral Horatio, Viscount Nelson, KB..

  6. 6.

    gypsy howell

    August 8, 2008 at 3:53 pm

    Oh who the fuck cares.

    Really.

  7. 7.

    Ed in NJ

    August 8, 2008 at 3:54 pm

    I originally backed Edwards, both in ’04 and ’08, so this is certainly disappointing. But not surprising. I think I’ve become numb to political hypocrisy.

    I do wonder how much, outside of the conservative bloggers chortling about catching a Democrat for once, this story will be trumped up by the MSM. It certainly brings up comparisons between Edwards, and McCain leaving his wife after she was disfigured in a accident.

    It would almost be worth it to see some campaign surrogate, faced with almost certain attempt by some hack to tie this to Obama, throw out something like “it’s unfortunate, but it happens. Even the Republican nominee is guilty of infidelity”. For all the teeth-gnashing it would cause on the right, it would force McCain to speak about how he came to be married to Cindy BigBucks.

  8. 8.

    Warren Terra

    August 8, 2008 at 3:57 pm

    From a comment to the orthologous thread at Pandagon:

    What about the fact that he funneled $114,000 of his Presidential campaign donations to his mistress to produce a video for which she had no prior experience to make and which has never been used in his campaigns?

    There’s no link to documentation in the comment, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t be real. Giving someone good pay for a job, even one they’re great at, could be a payoff. And the comment at least suggests there’s no evidence Hunter is great at this job.

    Darn good thing Edwards isn’t on the ticket, that’s for sure. And curses on him for not bowing out at least once it was clear that the gutter press knew where to dig for genuine scandal.

    I would differ with John Cole on one thing, though: it may have been cowardly of him to quietly admit it in the middle of the silly season, just before the wekeend and the Olympics and weeks before the Conventions – but while that was convenient for him, it was also convenient for the Party and for Obama; they could do without a lot of focus on this in the press.

    The most generous (and, I admit, somewhat absurd) version would be that Edwards – or, more plausibly, someone more interested in the Party’s wellbeing than in Edwards’s – arranged for the exposure of his Beverly Hills visit at that time, so ensure the disclosure and with it Edwards were put out of the way at an optimal time.

  9. 9.

    Incertus

    August 8, 2008 at 4:01 pm

    Didn’t care before, don’t care now. Didn’t care when it was Bill Clinton, or John McCain or any of the thousands of other politicians who’ve cheated on their spouses. I start caring when it affects legislation (or impeachment charges), and not one moment before.

  10. 10.

    Jim Henley

    August 8, 2008 at 4:02 pm

    Why diss the Enquirer? Do they really have a record of getting stories wrong? Or just a record of getting sleazy stories? My hazy understanding is that their accuracy compares favorably with the leading Emm Ess Emm outlets. I admit that’s a low bar, but you go to stakeouts with the media you have, not the media you might wish to have.

  11. 11.

    droog

    August 8, 2008 at 4:03 pm

    TomK Says:

    It’s not like John Edwards was a religious right family values nut. No hypocrisy, just someone being human. We should only care about these things when the person involved is a hypocrite.

    gypsy howell Says:

    Oh who the fuck cares.

    Really.

    It matters because that wanker* was ready to run the party to the ground in order to feed his ego.

    *Figuratively. Wanking is what he should have done.

  12. 12.

    Paul L.

    August 8, 2008 at 4:03 pm

    Daddy issues from a moonbat at MYDD.

    Update [2008-8-8 16:18:43 by Todd Beeton]:Not to mention that it gives the right so much satisfaction. My Republican Dad might as well have been walking on air when he came in the door today, announcing the affair as though it were some right-wing triumph. Perhaps I’ll bring up the fact that John McCain left his wife, in a wheelchair no less, for Cindy McCain? No doubt he’ll have the same level of disgust

    Was Mccain running for President at the time?
    Did Mccain lie about his affair like this?

    When the National Enquirer first reported the alleged Edwards-Hunter affair last October 11, Edwards, his campaign staff and Hunter vociferously denounced the report.

    “The story is false, it’s completely untrue, it’s ridiculous,” Edwards told reporters then.

    He repeated his denials just two weeks ago.

  13. 13.

    Incertus

    August 8, 2008 at 4:04 pm

    I would differ with John Cole on one thing, though:

    John might feel that way–far be it from me to speak for him–but Michael D. is the one who wrote the post.

  14. 14.

    tim

    August 8, 2008 at 4:09 pm

    Who cares if you “believe him,” Michael? It’s none of your business, nor anyone else’s of course.

    For all you know, Elizabeth gave him the green light to find another outlet because she has been so ill. Shit like this goes on EVERY DAY in thousands of marriages; people cope and deal with horrible situations and being human, and having needs and vaginas and penises.

    It’s always fun when a sex “scandal” hits in America and the inner prudery of so many on the left reveals itself.

  15. 15.

    Warren Terra

    August 8, 2008 at 4:12 pm

    I shouldn’t feed the trolls, but yes, Paul L, McCain lies about his affair with Cindy all the time – not the relationship, but the chronology. McCain went out with Cindy while married to his first wife, and even got his marriage license before his divorce was finalized. McCain was also widely rumored to be highly unfaithful to his first wife with other women before he met Cindy. When he describes his relationship history, McCain says that his first marriage ended and then he started going out with Cindy.

  16. 16.

    Warren Terra

    August 8, 2008 at 4:14 pm

    Ouch. I consider myself rightly rebuked by Incertus. My disagreement is with Michael D.

  17. 17.

    Paul L.

    August 8, 2008 at 4:50 pm

    McCain was also widely rumored to be highly unfaithful to his first wife with other women before he met Cindy.

    So widely rumored equals confessed after being caught.
    Edwards was shown that the “wingnuts” were right about him being the primping slimy little weaselly ambulance chaser.

    In one of Edwards’ silver-tongued arguments to the jury on behalf of a girl born with cerebral palsy, he claimed he was channeling the unborn baby girl, Jennifer Campbell, who was speaking to the jurors through him:

    “She said at 3, ‘I’m fine.’ She said at 4, ‘I’m having a little trouble, but I’m doing OK.’ Five, she said, ‘I’m having problems.’ At 5:30, she said, ‘I need out.”‘

    She’s saying, “My lawyer needs a new Jaguar … “

    “She speaks to you through me and I have to tell you right now — I didn’t plan to talk about this — right now I feel her. I feel her presence. She’s inside me, and she’s talking to you.”

    Well, tell her to pipe down, would you? I’m trying to hear the evidence in a malpractice lawsuit.

  18. 18.

    ed

    August 8, 2008 at 5:10 pm

    Gee, I seem to remember Ann Coulter calling Edwards “a faggot”. Surely Miss Outer Wingnuttia, 1999, couldn’t be wrong. Are you sure Edwards didn’t confess to this affair just to cover up the “holla at cha’ boy” truth???

  19. 19.

    tomjones

    August 8, 2008 at 5:21 pm

    Love how Paul L. completely ignores the first part of Warren Terra’s post, which is supported by facts and totally refutes Paul L., to focus on the second part of the post, which points to rumors.

    There’s the Paul L. we knew and loved during the primaries!

  20. 20.

    gil mann

    August 8, 2008 at 5:25 pm

    Henley’s right. I knew this story was true because of–not in spite of–the fact that it came from TNE. They got sued so much in the 80s that they never run with anything unless it’s bulletproof.

    Still don’t give a shit, but then, I haven’t given a shit about this guy since he let Cheney make him his bitch in ’04.

  21. 21.

    Brachiator

    August 8, 2008 at 5:30 pm

    Davis X. Machina Says:

    There’s an upper limit on how bad I’m prepared to feel…and I’ll have hit it by suppertime.

    Three words: Charles Stewart Parnell.

    Abso-friggin-lutely!

    Ireland might have avoided the worst of its later civil war had the prudes and political intriguers not forced Parnell out of his political leadership role because of his affair with Mrs O’Shea.

    Life is complicated. I don’t know squat about the Edwards’ marriage and the compromises that they made.

    But the larger problem is that I don’t know that Edwards could have “explained” the affair and still have run for president.

    And the larger irony is that McCain, whose life is also complicated, gets the wounded war hero discount with respect to dumping his wife for Cindy.

  22. 22.

    Kathy

    August 8, 2008 at 5:56 pm

    Anyone hear the “director’s cut” discussion of this at the Slate Political Gabfest? Quite interesting, Emily Bazillon made the argument that how can anyone who is stupid enough to deny this when the Enquirer is on his tail at the hotel he visited, possibly be qualified to be President. The fact that he is (was) a possible VP candidate made the issue relevant. Had his name not been in the mix, it wouldn’t be.

  23. 23.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    August 8, 2008 at 7:45 pm

    And the larger irony is that McCain, whose life is also complicated, gets the wounded war hero discount with respect to dumping his wife for Cindy.

    The North Vietnamese broke John McCain’s capacity to feel, my friends.

  24. 24.

    rasscot

    August 8, 2008 at 9:38 pm

    Why is it anyone’s business. Christ, get over it you
    self-righteous bastards.

  25. 25.

    vanya

    August 9, 2008 at 1:37 am

    An affair is one thing, and it’s bad enough. But to have an affair while your wife is battling cancer (yeah, cancer in remission, whatever)?

    Actually when your wife is battling cancer is exactly when it is most excusable to have an affair. Why are husbands (or wives) required to take vows of chastity if their spouses are too ill to be sexual partners?

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