Edwards admits affair
The John Edwards affair story has been the stuff of speculation for weeks:
...as did the barkeep and my friends at McClatchy. And so did the folks at Blue NC and Cone..
Now there is some there there as the candidate speaks. From our friends at the AP:
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is admitting to an extramarital affair but denies fathering the woman's daughter.Edwards tells ABC News that he lied repeatedly about the affair with a 42-year-old woman but says that he didn't love her. He says 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 says a former Edwards campaign staffer claims he is the father, not Edwards.
Edwards was a top contender for the Democratic nomination for president. He placed second in the Iowa caucuses last January but dropped out of the race a few weeks later.
Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina, was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004.
Here's ABC's early take.
This is ugly all the way around:
- * Ugly for the family. You don’t need me to explain that.
- * Ugly for Edwards’ career and rep. He goes from being kind of an interesting, different sort of national figure to just another pol who couldn’t keep it in his pants.
- * Ugly for the news business. The National Enquirer is not a legit newspaper by any stretch of the imagination, but everyone once in a while that blind pig finds an acorn.
- * Ugly for the news business part II. As if it weren’t bad enough to have to follow an Enquirer story, we now get treated to whole news cycles full of material that will push the puerile interest test. Ah, shucks, it’s not like there’s a national election to cover or anything.
- * Ugly for the electorate. Once again, they’ve been lied to. Not good for one’s faith in politicians.
Ugly, ugly, ugly.
Update: Edwards has issued an official me culpa, via the AP:
In 2006, I made a serious error in judgment and conducted myself in a way that was disloyal to my family and to my core beliefs. I recognized my mistake and I told my wife that I had a liaison with another woman, and I asked for her forgiveness. Although I was honest in every painful detail with my family, I did not tell the public. When a supermarket tabloid told a version of the story, I used the fact that the story contained many falsities to deny it. But being 99 percent honest is no longer enough.I was and am ashamed of my conduct and choices, and I had hoped that it would never become public. With my family, I took responsibility for my actions in 2006 and today I take full responsibility publicly. But that misconduct took place for a short period in 2006. It ended then. I am and have been willing to take any test necessary to establish the fact that I am not the father of any baby, and I am truly hopeful that a test will be done so this fact can be definitively established. I only know that the apparent father has said publicly that he is the father of the baby. I also have not been engaged in any activity of any description that requested, agreed to or supported payments of any kind to the woman or to the apparent father of the baby.
It is inadequate to say to the people who believed in me that I am sorry, as it is inadequate to say to the people who love me that I am sorry. In the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic. If you want to beat me up - feel free. You cannot beat me up more than I have already beaten up myself. I have been stripped bare and will now work with everything I have to help my family and others who need my help.
I have given a complete interview on this matter and having done so, will have nothing more to say.
Comments (6)
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The National Enquirer not legit news? ABC like most liberal media, is a friggin joke. Like hiding crap that goes on in Raleigh is real news? Now for some real news from Raleigh, I understand that 40 million dollars was moved from the chemical clean up pot, to go to the democrats pork fund. True are not True? Second part of exam, which newspaper in NC carried this?
Posted on August 8, 2008 8:01 PM
Doug let me answer your questions in two parts. First up: is the National Enquirer a legit news source.
No - unless you believe in alien babies or think the color of Lindsay Lohan's underwear is noteworthy. Taking a look at the web front carying the Edwards story, we also have these headlines: "ENQUIRER FIRST! BRAD PITT BASTARD" and "ELIZA DUSHKU HUNTS, EATS BAMBI-MOM" and in the tradition of SNL: "BERNIE MAC STILL ALIVE"
Now I will grant you that there might be a discussion to be had over whether ABC news has biases of one sort or another. (I typically use the south end of my vocabulary when describing any television news outfit, with very few exceptions.) However, to say the National Enquirer is more legit than ABC reflects a certain detachment from reality.
Posted on August 8, 2008 10:28 PM
Okay, now to the second part of your question, Doug:
You're asking me to remember something that happened more than a month (might be two months) ago now and would have constituted at most .002 percent of the $21 billion budget.
But I think you might be talking about the dry cleaning solvents cleanup fund. If you are, then we're talking about a $2 million transfer that would go to cleanup the site of the Green Square Project in downtown Raleigh. As I understand it, the site has contamination from dry cleaning solvents but wouldn't qualify under the rules of the cleanup program for funds. On its surface, it seems to make sense.
Now - you can argue whether Green Square, a big shiny new government complex, is pork or worth the money or what have you - goodness knows the honorables certainly do.
However, presuming the thing is going to be built (it is) and presuming the taxpayers are going to pay for it anyway (they are), then the transfer of funds doesn't seem that whacky, particularly given the chemicals to be cleaned are the chemicals for which the fund is supposed to be used.
Of course, you obviously have a different take or I'm thinking about the wrong thing. If you're talking about a different project, let me know, but that's really the only one I can remember or find in my budget summaries that seems close to what you're asking about.
As to who reported it - I've no idea. Frankly, it doesn't strike me as the kind of thing that would have gotten people too stirred up, but I could be wrong.
Posted on August 8, 2008 10:34 PM
Mark, I be honest with you. I was in Raleigh to play golf with some people that were important in their eyes. To be more honest, I very seldom ,listen to the liberals, your paper loves. It caught my attention, when someone asked about this 40 million dollars of tax payers money, that was in my opinion going to buy votes. You seem to dismiss 40 million dollars of taxpayers money as chicken feed. I talking about 40 million, not 2 million! I assure you, I do not know the facts. Gotta go finish later, war department home, wants to go eat. Yes I answer to a high power, but not them folks in Raleigh!
Posted on August 9, 2008 4:10 PM
Doug: Let me be gentle: if you don't know exactly what you're talking about how do you know the item was $40 million (or $40 or $4,000). I don't want to be jerky, but a lot of people throw around numbers carelessly when they're talking about the state budget. I'm happy to research, talk about, etc... anything state government related, but you've got to give me some better parameters than your recollection of what a couple of guys said to you on the golf course.
And no, it's not that $40 million is chicken feed, but in the context of the state budget it's a relatively small item. (I know, I know, $40 million here, $40 million there, pretty soon you're talking about real money.) Now there are some things I know cold because they directly affect Guilford County. For example, I know the civil rights museum got $500,000 that was raided from a legislative operations fund.
But the budget has thousands of items hashed out over hundreds of hours in the open (and many more behind the scenes). So help me out and ask your golfing buddy what the heck he was talking about and we'll run it down. Maybe start with this: what did the $40 million allegedly go the pay for?
Posted on August 9, 2008 6:15 PM
I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic. If you want to beat me up - feel free. You cannot beat me up more than I have already beaten up myself* former scumbag Presidental candiate
It ain't over until the legal divore lawyers clean your clock and you become one homeless out of work lawyer forever.
John Edwards made one mistake, he wanted back in the Democrat players club and they simply toss him under the Return Express Denver Bus. Mr Edwards will always be remember as the Paris Hilton of politics.
Posted on August 10, 2008 6:54 PM