John Edwards Affair/Scandal/Coverup:
Democrat Party Pariah Attempts to Resurrect
A Political Career in Shambles
Former VP candidate Speaks for First Time in Months
John Edwards is hoping that a third media blackout is the charm to resurrecting what remains of his battered political career.
- The first media blackout was by a protective Mainstream Media which protected both Edwards and MSM news customers of all news about Edwards' affair with mistress Rielle Hunter. It ran from November 2007 through August 8 2008, when Edwards 'confessed' on ABC's Nightline.
- The second media blackout as imposed by the Democrat Party. After Edwards' Nightline appearance, he was still under the illusion that his services were needed at the Democrat Convention in Denver. He was mistaken and prominent Democrats told him--both publicly and in private--"Thanks, but no thanks. Stay away."
When Edwards attempted to resume speaking engagements after the Dem convention to keep himself in the public eye, he was again counseled to cool it. Edwards then issued a statement that he didn't want to be a "distraction" to an Obama campaign which had considered him as a top-tier VP candidate--before his ABC mea culpa. He canceled his remaining speaking engagements until after the election. - The third media blackout has been imposed by Edwards himself. Edwards spoke at a closed-door appearance at Indiana University November 11. Recording devices and cameras were banned from the speaking room. Spontaneous questions were off-limits as well.
Mary Catherine Ham says that Edwards, "only took written questions submitted beforehand, and the affair didn't come up. We shall have to wait."
Ham's assessment of an Edwards' comeback:
Can he make a comeback? Democrats were angry at him, not because he cheated (as they made sure to stipulate, so as to avoid being pegged as insufficiently non-judgmental), but because he endangered their electoral prospects. Surely, he'll stick around as a middling speaker, but in the Age of Obama, how does a sullied Southerner the Dems don't even need to gain the Bubba vote forge a path back to prominence?
Sounds like a good call to us.
DBKP: The John Edwards Scandal Library Over 120 DBKP stories on the affair/scandal/coverup from December 2007. |
CNN's Andrew Mooney wonders about an Edwards' comeback as well--and also uses the 'P' word: pariah.
The man who had been considered a major contender for the Democratic nomination instantly became a pariah in his own party and didn't merit so much as a mention at the Democratic National Convention a month later.
...
But with the 2008 presidential election officially in the history books, Edwards may be looking to accomplish what a handful of other national political figures have been able to do: successfully re-emerge from an embarrassing public scandal that by all appearances has left his political career in ruins.
But Edwards' future just may hinge on how he goes about re-entering the public sphere. While it remains a long shot that Edwards will ever run for office again, he could re-emerge as a powerful voice for a set of issues he championed during the Democratic presidential primary: poverty and healthcare.
One wonders how effectively Edwards can talk about poverty when the multi-millionaire trial lawyer's experiences for decades have been more of the penthouse variety.
SANCTUARY AMONG THE RESTROOM STALLS
The Mainstream Media blacked out all mention of Edwards' affair with Hunter for almost nine months. Even after reporters from the National Enquirer--an Edwards' nemesis throughout the affair--caught the former Democrat presidential candidate leaving Hunter's Beverly Hilton hotel room, the MSM refused to report on the spectacle of Edwards barricading himself in a public rest room at 3 am to escape the Enquirer's inquiring minds.
Edwards, who campaigned on the morality issue--he included his family and cancer-striken wife, Elizabeth prominently at campaign trail appearances--denied the allegation the Enquirer reports of his infidelity in October 2007.Then, after a November 2007 interview in which Edwards boasted of "staring down the National Enquirer", the former NC senator didn't have to answer any unpleasant questions from a decidedly un-curious MSM for nine months.
All of that ended with the Enquirer's reporters attempting to question Edwards in the early AM on July 21 in the Beverly Hilton. Though Fox News confirmed the confrontation a few days later, the MSM--except for a few newspapers--banned mention of the incident to their readers/viewers.
Edwards kept a high profile for several days, until MSM reporters from NC newspapers attempted to question Edwards after he spoke at an AARP symposium in Washington DC in late July.
Edwards ducked out on the reporters--escaping through a side entrance--and immediately ducked out of public life, retiring to his palatial spread outside Chapel Hill, NC. When he re-emerged from hiding on August 8, public statements appeared within minutes of each other from Edwards, wife Elizabeth and Edwards' campaign money-man, Fred Baron.
Parts of all three statements were later found to be disingenuously-parsed at best; falsehoods at worst.
RIELLE BABY DRAMA
HUNTER KNOWS ALL, WRITES ALL?
Edwards denied being the father of Rielle Hunter's infant daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter--he still denies it--even after the Enquirer published pictures of Edwards holding Frances Quinn in a room at the Beverly Hilton. Skeptics, however, will point to Edwards' previous denials of the affair itself as proof that what Edwards alleges is not always reliable.
According to the National Enquirer, Rielle Hunter is writing an explosive tell-all book about her affair with Edwards--as a sort of insurance policy, in case her money payments stop.
Rielle Hunter aka Lisa Druck the 44 year-old divorcee, former videographer and mother of Edwards' love child plans to publish the bombshell tell-all only if the "hush money" she's been receiving ends, sources reveal.
Fred Baron, the wealthy Dallas ex-trial lawyer and former fiancé chairman for Sen. Edwards failed presidential bid died Halloween Eve, Oct. 30, from complications of multiple myeloma, a blood cancer. Baron had admitted paying Hunter's bills and also those of Andrew Young, another Edwards' crony who claims the baby is his.
Now that Baron is dead, Rielle, who has no job not source of income, realizes her serial payments could end unless Edwards makes them directly -- which so far he has refused.
Before he died, Baron maintained that the money he was doling out to both Hunter and long-time Edwards' operative, Andrew Young--who initially claimed Hunter's baby was his--was from his personal money stash and that Baron was making the payments without Edwards' knowledge.
ENQUIRER: "Now Rielle is writing an explosive tell-all memoir that blow the lid off the whole steamy affair and cover-up - a book that could keep her and her love child rolling in greenbacks for years to come.
"Rielle views the book as her personal insurance policy," an insider divulged.
"She's been keeping a journal since she began her affair with John."
DIRTY DIAPER DNA
Rumors abound over the possession by the Enquirer of one of Frances Quinn's dirty diapers. From Did John Edwards father child of Rielle Hunter? The latest poop:
Even though he admitted cheating with campaign staffer Rielle Hunter (top), The National Enquirer wants to prove he's the father of Hunter's baby. How? We hear that, on the night they caught Edwards visiting Hunter and child at a Beverly Hills hotel, Enquirer reporters grabbed one of the baby's poopy diapers.
Now, say sources, intrepid Enquirer editor David Perel hopes to compare the infant's stinky DNA with that of Edwards, who has denied paternity. "All they need is a cup he drank from," an insider tells us.
"I will neither confirm nor deny possession of a dirty diaper," Perel said dryly. "But I would like to do a DNA test."
David Perel told DBKP: "There's a lot of ways to go on DNA testing."
"I'm not saying we have material for DNA testing. But if we did, at some point we'd be interested in having a test done."
Edwards appeared in San Francisco on Wednesday at a private debate with former Bush honcho, Karl Rove, in front of a group of bankers. Two nights, two speaking engagements, one question: Does John Edwards really think he has a political future?
Some former staff members are doubtful.
But even as Edwards is appearing to take the first steps toward a comeback, former supporters -- many of whom where blindsided by his admission of infidelity -- may be unwilling to give him a second chance this soon.
"I wish he would keep himself locked in a cave for a year," a former senior staffer to Edwards' campaign said. "The best strategy he could adopt right now is to stay below the radar and just be quiet and let people move on."
One wonders what John Edwards would do with himself without politics. He speaks on political subjects and clearly was comfortable in the limelight. Sources tell DBKP that Edwards "isn't much interested in returning to the courtroom any time soon."
Edwards is not the only one hoping for a comeback. Others also wait for an Edwards' resurrection. Edwards' return to the spotlight might touch off a cottage industry of tell-all books by others involved in the Edwards' affair: Andrew Young, Bob McGovern, Pigeon O'Brien, perhaps even Andrew Baron.
Interested or not, John Edwards may not be the one who makes the call between a return to politicis or the courtroom: a political career seems likely to be wishful thinking.
Especially, if Rielle Hunter cashes in her "personal insurance policy" and publishes her tell-all book.
by Mondo Frazier
images:
* national enquirer
* dbkp file
* aycu26
* Doug Ross@journal
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