The Elizabeth Edwards Pity Party
by Kurt SchlichterElizabeth Edwards has hit the chat show circuit to hawk her new memoir “Resilience.” Her interview with Oprah airs Thursday. Elizabeth has some important lessons to teach the young women of today. The most important of these lessons is to be nothing like her, though I’m pretty sure that’s not the message she is trying to send.
Typically, when someone whines about his or her circumstances, I take a common sense approach and start by blaming the victim. The fact is that bad things tend to happen to people who make bad, or at least dumb, decisions. No money? You’re probably not working hard enough. Dead end job? You probably didn’t get an education. Creepy husband who cheats with a trampy party girl and humiliates you in front of the entire nation? You probably chose to marry and stick with a creepy husband who would cheat with a trampy party girl and humiliate you in front of the entire nation.
Elizabeth is not at fault for the death of her son in a tragic auto accident, or for her fight with cancer. But she sure as hell is at fault for partnering with the kind of guy who would exploit both those things to further his own ambitions. Democratic strategist Robert Shrum tells of how when Johnny got the vice presidential nod in 2004, he told John Kerry a story he had never told anyone else, about how he kept a vigil by his son’s body and tearfully promised to uphold the boy’s ideals. Kerry was appalled – because Edwards had told him the very same story a couple years before, including the part about never telling anyone before.
Just writing about that makes me want to shower. And Elizabeth hitched her wagon to the guy who did it.
Maybe I’m biased because I deal with smarmy plaintiff’s lawyers every day. The worst of them have that same fake empathy, grating self-righteousness and noxious narcissism that John Edwards threatened to bring to the White House in 2008. Few of them can match his hair, though. It’s awesome.
When Johnny decided that Elizabeth’s illness was bringing him down, he decided to have a fling with Rielle Hunter. Rielle changed her name from the more pedestrian Lisa Druck. Lisa had a fling with Jay McInerney – remember him?. McInerney, part of the cultural wallpaper of the 1980s, actually used her as the inspiration for the heroine of one of his novels that no one ever reads any more.
Rielle seduced Johnny with a powerful pick-up line that no man could be expected to resist – “You are so hot!” We’re lucky this guy never got near the Oval Office - he’d go to a Latin American summit and end up doing Castro’s laundry.
Did I mention they might have had a kid? A kid John Edwards won’t claim. Classy.
I know one truly professional plaintiff’s lawyer who I greatly respect and who actually knew Johnny well and supported his candidacy. Sitting around waiting for a deposition to start, she told me how hurt and disappointed she and her friends were. She did not mention what I assume were the stacks of money she and others had forked over because, though I cannot for the life of me understand why, they sincerely believed he was the right man to lead our country. He had betrayed them, and Elizabeth knew it and let them put their time, money and reputations behind him anyway.
She is not a victim. She is an accomplice.
So, now that she has emerged from the 28,000 square foot palace where she still lives with the Paladin of the Downtrodden to tell her story, I hope just one interviewer has the guts to ask the only question I’d like to hear her answer:
Why don’t you and Johnny have the decency to just go away?
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123 Comments
in her first interview about her new book i wondered if folks would buy her victimhood bs. she knew and she stayed. not only stayed but supported the deceit. the choice was and still is HERS. but hey, admitting to the truth ain't gonna sell books.
John Edwards is THE poster child for liberal hypocrisy married to godawful behavior… remember when he and The Haughty John Kerry (who, by the way, served in Vietnam) put down 'deposits' on Ford Escape Hybrids during the campaign? Did they ever take delivery? What do you think?
If this man was a conservative he would be vilified in textbooks for the next, say, century or so. While his wife is to be pitied for her condition and his subsequent callous cad treatment of her, she put up with his dishonesty for most of her adult life. Sad, and pathetic.
By the way, the so-called 'love child'? He was caught cradling the baby at a motel in CA by reporters, and he fled the scene. DNA tests are being refused by both parties. Sounds like a immaculate conception to us, you bet…
I was hoping I wasn't the only one who felt that this plastic-wrapped interview had a creepy-yet-classless-yet-narcissist undertone. Bizarre, first to last.
I pity Elizabeth Edwards. . . she married Damien Thorn. That's gotta be hard.
Johnny is the metrosexual's metrosexual, but when he talked, he sounded like goober gone to law school. What was unbelievable is that North Carolina saw through it and kicked him to the curb from the Senate, only to be elevated to prominence by the DNC. In overall analysis Biden is probably worse. John cares too much about being a fashion statement and how he looks, to cause any major stink, while Joe, our "pitbull" on watch" is there to make sure there is no waste in spending? Oh boy, the fox not only owns the henhouse, he's charging rent. If the scandal hadn't hit, BO would have made him AG. Yes there are miracles – and yes Kurt, they should just go away.
As Larry Elder would say, Elizabeth is a victocrat. To stay in that disfunctional relationship and cry about it in public kinda proves that. I say John Edwards is pond slime. Shiny green on the surface but ugly smelly brown scum inside. Sorta like every liberal politician I ever saw…. Kerry is a bigger and more prolific pond slime. I would compare Kerry to the mess the Chinese had to clean up before the Olympic rowing and sailing events. The algae slime covered almost 8 square miles!
I guess it will take a village to raise this child. I sure hope this child is not raised by the ones who disown it.
tough call on who's worse… both score poorly on the truth, but Edwards' lying was calculated and deliberate. Biden's, on the other hand, was just running at the mouth verbal flatulence. Edwards was clueless about government and policy; Biden is mostly just wrong, and sometimes spectacularly so. 35 years in the Senate has left him with an opinion on everything even if he has little knowlege of anything. Basically, like Barry, he likes to pontificate. Remember, he thought splitting Iraq into three separate states was the solution- even a first year undergrad at Georgetown would know better…
there is kind of an early Sam Neill quality to John Edwards- although Damien Thorne was way cooler… the much unloved 'Omen 3' was actually fairly entertaining pap. Wonder if he thinks Barry is the 'Nazarene'?
I have to agree with you dcase. While Johnny boy obviously has a problem keeping his matrimonial vows Biden is obviously the more verbally flatulent. To me it is as if Biden lacks the mental fortitude to engage himself in not speaking with regard to topics that he has no conception of. It must be wonderful to pontificate (to borrow your word, nicely done by the way) the practicalities of obtuseness.
Kurt, Kurt, she’s a liberal hero a victim extraordinaire, get with it man.
Perhaps this is where logic flees the scene where I'm concerned, but I can't take any joy in going after Elizabeth Edwards. My husband isn't a lawyer, but he works in an industry that has more than it's fair share of smarmy, ladder-climbing, unethical types who are married to pretty clueless women. I try to keep my eyes wide open when it comes to who my husband associates with in the course of his work because I know when someone is giving me the creeps, hubby better pick up on it or I get worried that his moral compass might be off– so far I think we've done okay.
But the wives… they can be willfully blind. I don't know if they get sucked into the lifestyle and the prestige of being married to a wealthy man, though I suspect that has a lot to do with it. There's no doubt that there were tons of signs that John was willing to work the fringes of ethical behavior while he was coming up and Elizabeth rationalized it away. But after the death of their son, the late-in-life births of their younger children and her subsequent cancer, I'm guessing she was more invested in those aspects of her life than obsessing over what Johnny-boy was doing. Once the affair was made public, I bet everything she thought she had been working for came crashing down and for once, she had to face the fact that she was married to a charlatan. That had to be a rough reality to face. And sadly, it doesn't look as if she's facing it well.
The book… seems like a little payback. Perhaps the cancer has something to do with that. Might as well get in a few jabs while she has the chance. But I just don't have the heart to judge her too harshly. She's made some bad decisions and she's stuck with them. She has to live the reality every day. I don't respect that she's taking the martyr role but she seems defeated to me. Ironic that she's calling the book "Resilience" because she doesn't come off as a phoenix stepping away from the ashes. Rather, she looks like she's sitting there smoldering and in pain.
We don't know what kind of manipulation she endured from that huckster through the years. Guess she didn't know he was a snake when she picked him up. It's all just sad and pathetic.
I love how she says she's not sure if the love child is her husband's baby. Wow. Not even a little curious about that? I think modern science has ways of determining such info.
What a folly. And it goes beyond politics. I hate when women stand by their philandering politicians.
I hope they press poor John on his alleged paying of the mistress from his presidential campaign funds. If it proved to be true, the guy should be getting some serious jail time. I feel sorry for Elizabeth, but she goes on Oprah to complain about the One Who Shall Not Be Named. At this point, we know the details, so why not just say her name. Why am I having American Pie flashbacks?
Thanks for the great article. I loved the Paladin of the Downtrodden title given to him.
Biden really isn't that bright; insiders relate that Obama is extemely disappointed in his choice of him. When he was in the senate he was impressed by his stentorian manner- with these folk image is everything- and has been routinely horrified by his 'loose lips sink ships' appoach to governance. What will be interesting is if he stays on the ticket or not. We think he is a goner…
"she's not sure if the love child is her husband's baby. Wow. Not even a little curious about that?"
Oh, she knows.
I thought liberal women were supposed to be independent and strong. Is it only as long as their husbands say so?
You're probably right.
I say "probably" because one of the things I've learned over the years is that you can never understand what brings people together or what keeps them together. I've known many people who hang onto horrible, horrible people because somehow it makes them happy. I can't say that I understand it, but there it is. That said, I do know that if I were her, I would have been gone a long time ago.
I suspect that was Bush. . . or that second America he kept harping on about.
how could we miss poor Bushie? of course he was the Nazarene the secularists sent Barry O to apprehend… makes all sorts of sense. He was living in that second America in Crawford…
Except Damien had brains….
I feel sorry for her son's death and her cancer, but she sold her soul to stay with this odious individual.
John Edwards still doesn't realize how much he shamed himself in front of the whole world. And what about the damage that whole sordid event did to America's political process. And what about the woman, Rielle? What a mess.
What a sleaze Edwards is. And I think that there are times when a dignified silence is called for. This is one of them, Mrs. Edwards.
BTW, does anyone else think that if Edwards had stayed out of the race, Hillary would be the POTUS? I do.
Wow, I've read lots of things that are disagreeable on this website, but this is probably the most low-class diatribe I've seen yet.
You're saying because she married the guy she loves more than 30 years ago, and he turns out to be a cheater, then it's all her fault and she deserves what she gets.
What a sleaze pimp you are.
That's like saying tha Alzheimer's Disease your mother has is her fault because she ate corn-on-the-cob from aluminum foil back in the 50s.
You sorry excuse for pigeon droppings.
He must be the best snake-oil salesman south of the Canadian border. He regularly got the dull-normals on a jury to buy his smarmy nonsense passing itself off as a legitimate case, so Elizabeth was probably easy. If I had tried channeling a dead baby in front of a jury in my home courts, the judge would have brought the gavel down hard–on my head.
There were stories during the campaign last year and in late 2007 that some of Edwards' more liberal positions, and some of his more liberal hires, like blogger Amanda Marcotte, actually were at the urging of Elizabeth. If that's the case, then she's more than just a devoted wife who stood by her husband at a time of her illness despite what she knew about the affair, and comes off more as someone who wanted power just as much as her husband did, and was willing to cover up what had happened to keep it from derailing John's campaign.
Just goes to show that appearances, emotions, and intellect are, at best, loosely related.
North Carolina saw through it and kicked him to the curb from the Senate[.]
Check again.
One wonders what Elizabeth Edwards thinks of Ann Coulter's attacks on her metrosexual husband now?
I have a feeling in a couple of years he'll be married to the other woman, living in a condo in your neck of the woods, peddling some new snake oil – and people will buy it.
Elizabeth Edwards = Lady MacBeth. Even though I truly hope she beats her cancer, this creepy gal has plenty to answer for: She KNEW Johnny was cheating on her but she STILL posed for campaign shots with him, smiling all the way at the campaign volunteers and supporters who were handing over cash to her husband WHOM SHE KNEW TO BE A FRAUD.
I have real sympathy for Mrs. Edwards as she battles her illness. I hope she makes a full recovery. But she knew the cad she married for 30 odd years, and stayed around to enjoy the lifestyle she provided him. Was it loyalty to him, or loyalty to the lifestyle? Whose to say? But posturing as a victim of his behavior doesn't wash.
http://shermansmarch.blogspot.com
It's a feminist (man bad, woman good) thing, you will not understand it.
Maybe Johnny wanted to to have sex wit someone who wasn't……….cancer riddled? He might have thought is was "sexually transmitted". And the only way to keep free of it himself
As long as he maintains anything like that accent of his, he's dead meat in this town. It's one thing to have bubba in the White House, quite another to have him living next door to you in SF. And just for the record, his accent would be the only thing I don't object to, but I'm not too popular in this town either. And my idea of the Deep South is San Diego.
Victimhood is a liberal standby. If this was Sarah Pallin talking about her husband, she would be ripped to shreds.
Such is life. Hey, she had or has cancer. That is a double word score.
I understand your POV to a certain extent. As a child of divorce because of adultery and a love child, I wince when people say it's obvious she should have left him. Divorce sucks big time for a kid. And having experienced that as a child, I don't know if I would make the same choice my mom did if I was faced with the decision.
But I do have a problem with Elizabeth Edwards and her side of the story. And the biggest problem is with how they're dealing with the lovechild. My mom divorced because she knew my dad's obligation lied with taking care of ALL his children. And she knew she would always be bitter if faced with the "other woman" when visitations came up and such. So she divorced; it allowed my dad to take care of his obligations. She didn't say, "well I'd really like to stay a family, so let's just let this kid live out in limbo land where he doesn't know who his dad his." I totally respect my mom for that. And I respect my dad for taking care of ALL the consequences of his bad choices. 25 years after the fact, its made him a much better person. If only John and Elizabeth Edwards would take responsibility for all of his. . . .
So you're not going to run for mayor of San Francisco?
You act like you are surprised. This is conservatism.
Wow Pie Girl, you made three posts. Good for you. But talking to yourself is a sign of craziness.
ooo give it to me
i love it when you talk dirty.
He reminds me of a Ken doll.
I feel as sorry for Elithbeth as I did for Hillary, why stay with such a pig?
I'm too busy with my activities as chairman of the New Committee of Vigilance (working with the carpenters and rope-makers at the moment). I run from the mayor of San Francisco.
Funny, I saw a far more vicious post about Elizabeth Edwards over on Huffpo a couple of days ago. Even the liberals who commented on the post thought it was unnecessarily mean. This column is sweet and fluffy by comparison.
You're hangin with a bunch of rope makers?
Joe, I'd respect you an awful lot more if you didn't constantly resort to (an inane, almost obsessive predilection for) name-calling. "Low-class," "sleaze pimp" and "excuse for pigeon droppings" don't strengthen your case and won't convince anyone – they make you sound like you're unwilling to engage at a higher level.
The spirit of your comment is something interesting and debatable. In light of some ridiculous potshots conservatives have taken at Ms. Edwards in this comment thread, you could have earned yourself some social capital and credibility by stating your point more eloquently. I know I'd have listened.
This time – as every time you've commented before – you've failed miserably to elevate the level of discourse.
Ridiculous.
I've heard talk in political circles that Elizabeth is not only the farther left of the two Edwards', but was actually the instigator of some real dirty tricks. (In the 2004 Dem primary, some flyers were distributed among evangelical Protestants in the south, harping on Kerry's Catholicism, in the hopes of stirring up old-school anti-Catholic sentiment. Word was that was Elizabeth's idea, as was the mention — on several occasions, by Kerry and Edwards — of the fact that Mary Cheney is a lesbian, done to appeal to anti-gay minority demographics.) Elizabeth isn't a good person, but a power-monger. Her illness and John's cheating are bad things to have happen to her, but she didn't just suffer the affair — she connived at it by campaigning with him. I actually don't think she should have divorced him — I'm old fashioned, and I think when there are young kids involved an affair is actually a frivolous reason to get divorced — but she should have brought him up very short and told him the White House was out. Unless, of course, she wanted it as badly as he did.
AF, since when did you become so banal? I miss the old days when you treated every conservative as equally abhorrent. We miss the pluck and ingenuity of your "early" diatribes.
They'd be the best ones to ensure that you hang properly…..
Spooky, I work with "self-righteousness and noxious narcissism " plaintiff attorneys that backed Edwards too. Gosh they really do suck sometimes!
LOL! Very clever!
I believe the proper term is *cough cough* "well hung". . .
Did you ever see "Bob Roberts"? Tim Robbins sings a song in that movie that seems apropos. It includes the following line: "Be a clean living man with a rope in his hand."
How can anyone believe it's not Edwards' baby? Just look at the photo:
http://images.nymag.com/images/2/daily/intel/08/0...
Oh no…I see this digressing to a point where I something about the carpenters and their wood.
I knew the moment his nibs started talking about "2 Americas" that there wasn't a sincere bone in his over-coifed, smarmified body. Have to figure that the woman who's been married to him for 30 years surely caught on a looooooong time ago.
The scary part is that a whole slew of Americans actually gave him and his "oh so heartfelt" message a second thought, and the same slew of Americans will just as avidly kill a wasted hour of their day to hear what she has to say about anything.
Yawn.
Like the line, didn't see the movie. That was about the time I decided I would never again see a movie with that clown in it. But thanks for hinting that I might be a clean living man. I'll forward that to my kids. But then they'll just say I paid you to suggest it.
You're all in fine form today.
Who knew that a hanging could be so laced with innuendo?
But then, as Freud might say, sometimes a hanging is just a hanging.
If you're paying, I'm willing to suggest all kinds of things. Here ya go, first one's free:
"LawhawkSF is the most respected man I know."
The video of this phoney clown primping and fondling his own hair was the American public's awakening to what a vacuous, shallow Democrat this guy is, he's Obama without the tan. It's a matter of time before Obama implodes. Count on it.
She has always seemed very haughty to me. I remember reading about a man, a regular guy, who had the Edwards move next store to him and they treated him pretty badly because he owned a gun and was a Republican. She called him an awful man etc. She showed no compassion nor understanding of someone different to herself. So sometimes what goes around, comes around.
So now you're the one giving away bumper stickers?
Andrew, he's doesn't even have a car (yep, he's one of them………)
"LawhawkSF has been a positive influence on my budding fictitious legal career."
It's interesting. I've been reading the comments on this thread and it seems as if anyone who has had first-hand experience with Elizabeth doesn't walk away with a good impression. Turns out my compassion may be misplaced.
I have noticed, as I get older, that married people tend to be very alike and when one partner is behaving poorly, the other most likely knows more than they might admit. Sounds like that's the case here. If nothing else, Mrs. Edwards is learning that karma is indeed one hard bi*ch.
Andrew: You will shortly be the proud possessor of a wheelbarrow, three loaves of bread, and a keg of beer. Keep those testimonials coming!
We're in deep poo-poo now. MEDICAL SCHOOL!
He can put it on the back of his horse!
Excellent. For two kegs of beer, I'll make you a war hero.
OR, for three loaves of bread and one keg of beer, I could swear that you've been beatified . . Saint LawhawkSF anyone?
Whatever you say dude, it's your money.
"LawhawkSF has been a positive influence on my budding fictitious medical career."
LOL! That's the spirit!
This woman is an accomplished attorney in her own right, to compare her to 'clueless women' just doesn't hold much water. Her husband was one of the richest and most powerful men in North Carolina, and he got that way by being a ruthless lying unethical SOB. He ran for the Dem. Pres. Nod by spouting falsehood after falsehood…..about non-existent homeless veterans huddling under a bridge, about fake (ala acorn) housing discrimination in SC, about Fox News being so biased that he couldn't appear in a debate they hosted.
When you live by the hustle and jive, don't cry when it turns on you.
I like the sound of that, Andrew. Let me check the inventory.
Hey, she might be the first person let on TV in years to talk bad about a Democrat politician. For that I embrace the breakthrough aspect of her interview.
Suzie: It's easier to be a fictitious doctor than a fictitious lawyer. To start with, people don't automatically hate you, however justified that may be. Just looking out for your interests.
I remember that.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-04-0...
"Edwards views Johnson as a "rabid, rabid Republican" who refuses to clean up his "slummy" property just to spite her family, whose lavish 28,000-square-foot estate is nearby on 102 wooded acres."
The fact she couldn't see his property from her house was irrelevant.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=115...
You'll have to zoom out a click to see Edwards' place which is north of Old Greensboro Road.
Her former neighbor has moved which should make her happy.
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/01/02/john-edwards...
John Edwards for President – A NEW ENERGY ECONOMY. C'mon, you neocons forgot his campaign platform, already? This was the guy who was going to lead America into a new era of green. He and his buddy Al Gore, whose Tenn. home is nearly 5 times larger than an average 'Merican home, invented global warming. Instead, Johnny blew a $100,000 on a video of himself and slept with the videographer; baby ensued. Happy, Cinco De Quatro!
Elizabeth says she's staying with him for the children's sake, but how good of a situation can that be for them? Or her?She should leave and take him for as much $$ as she can. As for the Skank, she will not allow a paternity test of the baby. Why not? Perhaps it is not Edwards' kid, but she is getting money from him and if the truth came out then the gravy train would come to a screeching halt. I hope the investigation for misuse of campaign funds results in serious trouble for him. Pumpkin-headed narcissistic jerk deserves no less.
Okay, but I faint at the sight of fictitious blood!
Yeah, I'm guessing I was a bit naive when it came to Ms. Edwards.
Nice. So true.
Re the (alleged) misuse of campaign funds:
Let's see, who prosecutes these kind of crimes? Why, the Attorney General, of course. And who is the Attorney General? Well that would be Eric Holder. I'm sorry, Unhappy Bear, but Mr. Holder will be much too busy prosecuting the evil attorneys who wrote those memos.
Dude, like that's important. This is only an Internet message board, not the $64,000 Pyramid.
I typically save intellectual discourse for in-person conversations. Why should I take this site seriously?
Note to self… Don't follow Elizabeth Edwards example and marry a politician… :/
You're right; don't bother. We're certainly not taking you seriously, after all.
These two won't ever go away. They will just retire into a long winter's nap and, after a two year hibernation, will return triumphant on 60 Minutes or 20/20, weeping in unashamed repentance before an aghast but sympathetic Diane/Morley/Stone, begging the good-hearted and just American people to forgive them. They will walk hand in hand under an autumn colored maple tree…ugggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, it's going to be sickening. But make no mistake, it will happen. They both will arise from the ashes, tormenting us once again with their pathetic story. Give Edwards 5 more years…he will be running for governor of North Carolina.
When that "Oh, So Pretty!" video of Edwards did not derail his campaign, I knew the image of the American male as we love him and cherish him was in deep, deep dookey.
What a pathetic human. Boo hoo! Boo hoo! Poor victim.
No doubt the stress, from her cheating husband and her being a walking fraud in light of this, impaired her immune system causing her disease to advance. Yeah, he loves her.
Now that's ax-cen-tu-a-tin the positive…
Has anyone considered that she might want to run for office later? Standing by your cheating politician husband sure seemed to work for Hilary.
That can't be true. She has cancer. You cad!
These two are so American pop culturish! They will BOTH be back.
Gee, I don't know. Is it kind of like when the left said Tony Snow got cancer because he had to lie all the time for Bush/as a conservative?
Even worse, the left said Snow deserved to get cancer for having been a part of the Bush administration, Fox, etc.
And of course, besides all the absolutely vile comments rejoicing in his death, they were selling t-shirts mocking his cancer/death.
And who can forget Clooney, you know, Obama's pal, mocking Heston having Alzheimer's and declining to apologize because he deserved whatever is said about him for having been President of the NRA.
I have been asking that question of the Clintons for years and never got an answer. I doubt anyone will get that wish fullfilled by the Edwards' either. Why would John Edwards NOT think he could get away with it. Bill Clinton did and served two terms and now his wife is running around pretending to be Secretary of State. Elizabeth Edwards is exactly like Hillary Clinton without the devious and sinistre brain.
I guess liberalism is mocking Tony Snow getting cancer, saying he deserved it for being a conservative, selling t-shirts mocking his cancer/death, and rejoicing in his death.
And then there's Clooney mocking Heston having Alzheimer's.
There's no shortage of liberal viciousness
That IS liberalism..
Therefore it'd be liberalism when you can do any slimy thing you want as long as your media friends don't make a big issue about it. Heck, you could get away with murder!
BTW, does that Ted Kennedy guy still post around here?
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