This week in Friday afternoon news that the media hopes you don’t notice
Last week, it was Maryland’s Speaker of the House, Mike Busch’s wife that was offered a courtesy by mainstream media. They intentionally held the news of her drunk driving arrest until Friday when they had the news Wednesday. This week it’s former Democratic Presidential Candidate, John Edwards’ extramarital affair.
Edwards admits to affair, denies fathering child
By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer
Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards on Friday admitted to an extramarital affair while his wife was battling cancer. He denied fathering the woman’s daughter.
Edwards told ABC News that he lied repeatedly about the affair with a 42-year-old woman but said that he didn’t love her. He said he has not taken a paternity test but knows he isn’t the father because of the timing of the affair and the birth.
ABC said a former Edwards campaign staffer claims he is the father, not Edwards.
Edwards was a top contender for the Democratic nomination for president, pursuing his party’s nod even after announcing that his wife, Elizabeth, had a deadly form of cancer.
He placed second in the Iowa caucuses last January but dropped out of the race a few weeks later. He has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential choice for Barack Obama. The former North Carolina senator was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004.
In 2006, Edwards’ political action committee paid $100,000 in a four-month span to a newly formed firm run by Rielle Hunter, who directed the production of just four Web videos, one a mere 2 1/2 minutes long.
Hunter’s daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter, was born on Feb. 27, 2008, and no father’s name is given on the birth certificate filed in California.
The payments from Edwards’ One America Committee to Midline Groove Productions LLC started on July 5, 2006, five days after Hunter incorporated the firm in Delaware.
Midline provided “Website/Internet services,” according to reports that Edwards’ PAC filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Midline’s work product consists of four YouTube videos showing Edwards in informal settings as he prepares to make speeches in Storm Lake, Iowa, and Pittsburgh, Pa., prepares for an appearance on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” and travels in Uganda in 2006.
Edwards’ PAC paid Midline $100,000 in a four-month span in 2006, and followed that up with two smaller payments totaling $14,461, the last on April 1, 2007.
August 9th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Move over former President Bill Clinton and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Libertarian Party Candidate Bob Barr, Senators Craig and Livingston, Reverends Ted Haggard, Jimmy Swagart, Jessie Jackson & Jim Baker…, and all other leaders stretching back to King David and before. The impact of Senator Edwards’s behaviors on his wife and kids first of all, all of those in the American electorate as well as our kids, and the social justice movement will be far reaching.
Not only has he hurt God, there will be hurt and damage done to his family, and his behavior will resonate with the public, especially those individuals who were looking for someone to trust in given all of the debauchery that has been made public recently in Republican circles and within the Republican administration.
Senator Edwards and his sins will also have a subliminal and deleterious impact on Senator Obama’s fledgling campaign I suspect, a candidate whose hands he raised and publicly endorsed while he was obviously engaging in the sin of deception himself. The word among skeptics will be, see I told you those Democrats aren’t any different than the Republicans, so you might as well vote to keep the Republicans in power. Just when Republican salaciousness appears to have reached its peak, another Democratic star has tumbled from the sky.
This man who fought for social justice is obviously a man of very weak character. How would Jesus judge the situation, particularly when Edwards is a leader and a supposed role model? I suspect that similar to the woman who was taken in the act of adultery and brought to Jesus by her accusers, Jesus would have mercy on him and seek to succor the souls of Edwards and his family-members in deference to his sins against God, his family and the public?
However, even with mercy and forgiveness from God and the people, Edward’s adulterous behavior coupled with his willingness to hide what he had done will have a long-term impact on what he can and cannot do in the future – trust has been lost. None of the individuals in the ‘adultery Hall of Fame’ have ever been looked upon the same as they had been in their first estate. All of us need to watch and pray that we enter not into temptation.
John the Baptist, perhaps to his own hurt would tell Edwards that it is wrong to cheat on your wife and to lie! And what of the woman who cheated with Ms. Edwards’s husband? I suspect that she will likely be the one to get off this time (John chapter 8 in reverse), just as Jennifer Flowers was able to do given her adulterous affair with Bill Clinton!
August 9th, 2008 at 10:30 am
In a way this shocked me. Not because I didn’t think that Edwards was capable of cheating… But because I thought he had better sense to not allow something like this to happen… Getting her pregnant? Um, birth control… Did they not know it exist?
Paying her with money that can be tracked and traced to him? Really? Ridiculous. He has enough of his personal money that he could have given her, rather than campaign dollars. But I guess “his wife” would’ve been able to figure out what was going on sooner.
What a shame that he was cheating on her while she was having the battle of her life, battling for her life. **shaking my head**
And what is this about it being someone else’s in his camp’s baby? Huh? Are they going to do the great mix up on the day that the blood test is done? Or was this woman getting it on with whoever she could hook up with? Just wondering… It sounds suspicious on Edwards part though. I bet he is the father of that baby.
And he didn’t love her? That’s pretty low. I would’ve rathered him actually be in-love with this woman. It wouldn’t sound so trashy to me. I guess I would understand the risk of destroying your life, your marriage, and your political career if emotion, such as love, rather than just plain, lustful, mindless sex was his motivation.
A
August 11th, 2008 at 9:06 am
This whole situation is most unfortunate to say the least. Watching the Nightline interview Friday night, it was obvious that Edwards was extremely defensive and most uncomfortable. It didn’t seem like Edwards was repentant. It actually seemed more like he was tired of dealing with this and wanted to very quickly get it behind him. Can you imagine carrying something like this around on your conscious for that long while you are actively lying about it publicly?
The most telling thing about the interview for me was when Edwards was attempting to describe how this happened. He said that he was a small town country boy (whatever that is) who when he was elected to Congress and then chosen for the VP slot under Kerry, began to develop a narcissistic and egocentric attitude. There were so many people all around him telling him how good, intelligent, and important he was that he began to believe them. The scripture is true: “Pride goes before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18) He began to believe, according to him, that he could do whatever he wished and escape consequence. Fantasy land.
Perhaps this is the same type of deadly fantasy land that some of our clergy brothers enter as well - perhaps even with greater intensity. To have people get to a point where they are praising you because every time you open your mouth they hear the Voice of God! I can see how some of our brothers have been led astray…sometimes willingly. People worship the instrument and forget that without God, the instrument is just sounding brass and tinkling cymbals.
However, I’m with you Rev. We all need to watch and pray in order to avoid this or any other type of temptation for there, but for the grace of God, go I!
Dear Lord may healthy doses of sincere humility envelop us all so that deadly pride may not overtake us.
P.S. - I’m with you that him saying that there was no emotion involved sounded “trashy”, but there is NO WAY that he could have admitted any type of emotion if he was hoping to salvage his marriage. And now the other woman is refusing a DNA test so this will hover over his head (and more importantly his wife’s head) indefinitely. They’ll always be wondering if this is his daughter. Oh what a tangled web we weave…