Step away from the computer for a bit, and the intertrons blows up with the latest panty-sniffing gossip. At any rate, I see via memeorandum that Edwards has admitted to sleeping with that Rielle Hunter:
John Edwards repeatedly lied during his Presidential campaign about an extramarital affair with a novice filmmaker, the former Senator admitted to ABC News today.
In an interview for broadcast tonight on Nightline, Edwards told ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff he did have an affair with 44-year old Rielle Hunter, but said that he did not love her.
I still really don’t care, as I have mentioned before, and realize this is one of those issues that is just going to be a total pain in the ass for me. For starters, I have never liked Edwards and always thought he was a phony and a fraud, have stated so repeatedly, and every time I do I end up dealing with days of back and forth with his supporters who tell me that I am just showing my inner Rethuglican and that Edwards was at least speaking truth to power. Now that he admits to cheating on his wife, I have some more evidence to back up my long-held feelings, and will more than likely be accused by the same Edwards supporters of piling on.
Second, I know that I have to at least mention this, lest I be accused by right wing trolls of avoiding the issue. Consider it officially mentioned.
Third, I generally am of the opinion that this sort of thing really isn’t anyone’s business, and the only reason it ever is anyone’s business is when the hypocrisy of the family values crowd comes in to play. Maybe I have a double standard- when most people cheat, I think “What a jackass” and I feel bad for their spouse. When Republicans who spew their family values bullshit and sanctity of marriage crap, I go to town. This just seemed like a case of the former to me, but having said that, it is pretty clear that Edwards lied to the media, and from what I can tell, appears to still be lying or spinning or whatever you want to call it, so I guess that does raise the bar.
One really salient point that the commenters at ObWi covered, however, is how exceedingly reckless this was on the part of Edwards and, for that matter, his wife (as she allegedly knew about the affair when he was running). Can you imagine what would be happening right now if he had won the nomination? Democrats everywhere should be pretty pissed off at John Edwards for that bit of behavior.
So there you go. Flame on.
*** Update ***
And now this post is redundant, as Michael already covered it while I was writing this…
*** Update #2 ***
And there is your hypocrisy angle.