Affair Timing [Lisa Schiffren]
THE CORNER
Excuse me, but I fail to see how it was better, morally or in terms of the specific degree of John Edwards' sbetrayal of his wife, if he did it while her cancer was in remission. What, she got through the scary death sentence part, so now it's okay to cheat? As I recall, the Edwards campaign let it be known that they discovered that the cancer had returned in the course of marital relations. (It was TMI then, too.) So, if she's in remission and they have resumed their intimate life, then all bets are off and cheating is now okay? In this case, timing is not everything.
While we are on this subject, one reason that the story was so fascinating to begin with was that the Edwards were sold as "soulmates and true partners." Elizabeth took Hillary to task for not having as much joy in her personal life as she did. And that may be true, but the point is that we know what the main source of Hillary's personal misery was. Now we must wonder how deluded Elizabeth was.
When Elizabeth, facing death, chose to go on campaigning in her husband's quest for the presidency, some people (like me) thought that it was ignoble of her husband to put her through that when time was so precious. A wife who loved her husband might be inclined to selflessness that worked against her own prospects for longer life. A good husband would sacrifice this round of his grab for power for the wife he loved. Other people, some of whom I respect, were adamant that she was choosing to "go on living," and "this is what political people do." Stopping the campaign out of respect for his wife's declining health would be "letting the cancer win," in this worldview. Campaigning for John was Elizabeth's way of defying the awful illness.
Interpretations of behavior vary, and it is often unclear which is correct. But I think it is now clear that one member of the couple might have been selfless, but the other was exploitative. And the thing I can think of that is worse than having a (flagrant, ongoing) affair while your wife is dying — regardless of love or issue — is encouraging her to go on working hard to get you elected to the presidency, when the cost is so high. She might better have been home with those children that brought her joy.
Edwards's statement [Mona Charen]
If I had not seen so much of the world, I'd almost be tempted to believe him. That bit about becoming "narcissistic" was an elegant touch. But ladies and gentleman, this is a profoundly sleazy person who has simply crafted one more pitch to a jury.
re: John Edwards [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
I'm not looking to defend John Edwards here, but Elizabeth Edwards believed in her husband's platform. She's, by all indications I've ever seen, a true-believer liberal. She's a good citizen, however much we may disagree politically. John Edwards knew that and I doubt she would have been happy if her cancer meant the end of his run, a campaign she believed was good for the country. I don't think it's fair to give him grief over that.
And as I've previously stated, I hate cameras following people into hotels and such. I find the media angles Byron has been following fascinating though. Because when it is Rush Limbaugh the National Inquirer is reporting on, it is news, when it's John Edwards, though
Edwards: The Players and the Stories [Byron York]
Edwards has made some pretty definitive assertions in his new statement. If any of them are not true, he could be in a pretty hazardous spot, because there are a lot of moving parts in this story. There is Rielle Hunter, who knows the whole thing. There is Hunter's friend Bob McGovern, who, according to the National Enquirer, played a big part in setting up the Beverly Hilton meeting. There is Andrew Young, the Edwards aide who, through a lawyer, claimed paternity of Hunter's child. And there is Andrew Young's wife, who will have her own perspective on things. And those are just the people who might have pretty direct knowledge of events.
And finally there is, of course, the Enquirer. Speaking to Enquirer editor David Perel the other day, I got the impression that his number-one reason for withholding the photos from the Beverly Hilton is that he wanted to see how Edwards would react. (And then there was the matter of the upcoming Democratic convention giving a big showcase to the story.) The Enquirer appeared to be waiting for Edwards to make some sort of wide-ranging statement. Now he has. We'll see what the tabloid does next.
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