For John Edwards, isolation is a symbol of his downfall

[alp227]

Last year, by then under criminal indictment, John Edwards sat with a longtime friend in the 10,000-square-foot house that is the centerpiece of his 102-acre Chapel Hill estate. The friend, a New Jersey lawyer named Glenn Bergenfield who had attended law school with Edwards, was one of the select few members of a diminishing club: those whom the disgraced Edwards wanted to see, and those who wanted to see him.

Sometimes Bergenfield just listened. Edwards always talked about his children and often of his late wife, Elizabeth, and, after a while, he usually got around to the matter of Rielle Hunter, the woman with whom he had an affair and a child. These were the characters of the soap opera that Edwards’s life had descended to — the Would-Be President, the Other Woman, the Love Child, the Courageous Wife, the Dying Wife — but here in this large, lonesome house, the conversations were intimate and introspective. Edwards sounded utterly befuddled by what he had done, as if he were talking about a stranger.

His confusion extended to the latest chapter in the drama — criminal charges alleging that in an effort to conceal his affair during the height of his 2008 presidential campaign, he illegally arranged for secret contributions of about $1 million to take care of Hunter’s needs as she prepared to give birth to their daughter, Quinn. Sometimes his painful bouts of self-analysis turned to frustration over his belief that he had been singled out among a long list of philandering politicians, living and dead, for pariah status.

“He knows he made mistakes,” Bergenfield says on the eve of Edwards’s trial, which is set to begin Thursday with jury selection. “But John thinks that the treatment of him is so unflinchingly horrible and that what he did is not so different from what others did — JFK, Clinton, the whole rogues’ gallery. We’ve had this conversation about his situation, and I remember he did compare it to Clinton. He said, ‘I did a horrendous thing, but I don’t know why I’m getting such an unforgiving treatment when you think of what other people have done.’ ”

full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/for-john-edwards-isolation-is-a-symbol-of-his-downfall/2012/04/11/gIQAnHKQBT_singlePage.html

[DURHAM D]

1. jesus - what an ass

[pkdu]

2. One word........ "Elizabeth"

I still have some sympathies for John Edwards , but he needs to realize that what he did to Elizabeth , in her condition , is what people find so repulsive.

I cannot cast a stone for that , but I can see why many do.

[Tansy_Gold]

3. What he did that was different was

not just to lie about all of it and lie repeatedly about it, but to do it under the most tragic of circumstances when there were people (his wife, his children) who desperately needed him to be there for THEM and he wanted only to be elsewhere for HIMSELF and then, on top of all of that, to try to cover it up with money given to him by people who thought he was better than that.

You fucked up, John. You fucked up six ways to Sunday. You fucked up morally, you fucked up ethically, you fucked up legally. You devastated the wife and family you already had and then you treated the wife and family you might have had like trash. Through it all, you were all about you and now you can't understand why it's all about you.

Sheesh.

[Phlem]

4. Not defending him

but didn't McCain do essentially the same thing? And he's supposed to be some veteran hero?

-p

[jzola]

6. McCain wasn't running for the Democratic nomination for President.

What if he'd gotten the nomination. It was a betrayal of all of us. I'm sorry for him---mostly because he obviously still doesn't get it.

[gateley]

5. One of the comments said

"To be cast away and shunned is probably one of the most effective punishments a human must endure."

And that seems to be what has happened. I never liked him, but I kind of feel bad for him -- for anyone who is so alone.

But to become so self-absorbed that you don't care about your terminally ill wife, misleading and betraying millions of people, the jeopardy he'd be placing our country in if he'd become POTUS is unforgivable. No mercy.

[brush]

7. Edwards as Potus?

It's highly unlikely that he would have become president even if had managed to fool enough people to get the nomination. Besides what he did to his cancer-stricken wife and kids, a betrayal of the highest order, what most likely would have happened to the country was that the repugs would have gotten wind of Edward's deceit and immediately blasted it all through the media to win the election. With a continuation of the repugs in office, the dismantling of the middle and working classes would have continued at speed on the way to corporate fascism and we would have all been fu cked. The 99% would be looking at permanent serfdom and/or being cannon fodder for more wars at corporate behest for other countries resources.

[gateley]

9. I agree, but HE thought he could become POTUS and still behaved recklessly. nt

[4lbs]

8. JFK and Bill Clinton didn't father children with their mistresses did they?

Oh, and Clinton was uh... oh... um.... impeached.

Right?

It's just that the impeachment vote failed by one vote.

[SharonAnn]

11. With Edwards case, it's the money not the morality. It's the money!

[cbayer]

10. I have nothing but contempt for the man.

And I would never believe a single word he says.