Posted by
Roxanna M. on Saturday, August 09, 2008 12:59:35 PM
Is there any contest? John Edwards, former democrat senator from North Carolina, who after issuing denials for the better part of the last year finally confessed to having an extramarital affair.
Now, I have my own opinion about people who cheat on their spouses, but Edwards' conduct is especially loathesome in light of the fact that his wife has an incurable form of cancer. Edwards took care, however, to point out that this affair occurred while his wife was in remission. Well, as long as she was in remission.
Saying, "In the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic.", Edwards claims to have taken responsibility for his actions. Really? Then why did he also say, "I'm not the first person to do this" or mention having heard "John McCain talk about the mistakes that he's made in his past with respect to his first marriage."
Taking responsibility means standing up and saying, "I did it. It was wrong, and I'm very sorry." Pointing fingers at others is a juvenile attempt to deflect responsibility. It's a way of saying, "See I'm not so bad."
Also particularly galling is the fact that he had this affair while preparing to run, and then ran for President pretending to be a family-values, standing-by-my-cancer-stricken-wife kinda guy, knowing full well what he had done and hoping that it would never come to light. This just reinforces why this man has always made my skin crawl.
As an aside, it's interesting to watch the hypocrisy being playing out in the democrat party. Obama said that Edwards and his wife probably won't attend the Democratic (sic) convention, which I think is politicalese for being uninvited. However, Bill Clinton, the most famous philanderer in the modern democrat party, is being given a prime speaking slot. Let's face it, Clinton's decades-long history of extramarital affairs makes Edwards look like a piker.
Meanwhile, David Bonior, former Congressman from Michigan and Edwards' 2008 campaign manager, said he was "disappointed and angry" and that Edwards' supporters have "been betrayed by his action." Why? Was it really all that long ago when all the democrats could say was that such things were "private". How many times did we hear that during the Lewinsky scandal? Glad to see that the democrats have admitted that such things aren't so private after all.
The usually humorless Bonior brought a moment of levity to the situation when he said, "You can't lie in politics and expect to have people's confidence."
Then why do they keep doing it?