EDWARDS - CREEPY, BUT ONLY ONE IN A BUNCH

I’d like to say I don’t want to give the impression that I don’t like John Edwards, but I’d be lying. I don’t like Edwards and am not the least bit ashamed of shouting it from the tree tops. For a couple of takes on why, see my April 26 blog, “And the Winner Is....” You could also reference: May 8, “Waiting to Exhale,” May 21, “School Funding,..” and May 24, “Tidbits” for starters. Here’s more on the phony among phonies…

Edwards told a Google “town hall” yesterday that he had read the October, 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, the summary of evidence leading up to the war. According to his staff, that’s not true. Today, Edwards spokesman Mark Kornblau said Edwards had “misunderstood” the question and that he had not read the report.

Busted.

When Kerry interviewed Edwards for the first time for the VP job prior to the 2004 presidential campaign, Edwards told Kerry that he was going to tell him a story that he had never told anyone before. According to Robert Shrumm, advisor to the Kerry-Edwards campaign, the story went like this; “That after his son Wade had been killed, he climbed onto the slab at the funeral home, laid there and hugged his body, and promised that he’d do all he could to make life better for people, to live up to Wade’s ideals of service.” According to Shrumm, Kerry was stunned. Not at the story, but because Edwards had told him the exact same story, almost verbatim, a year earlier, saying at that time also, that he had never shared the memory with anyone else.

Creepy.

Before Kerry eventually tagged Edwards as his running mate, he asked him as a condition that he give his assurance that should they lose in 2004, that Edwards would not run against Kerry in 2008. Edwards agreed. That promise lasted until Edwards decided to run for president against Kerry last year.

True friend. Man of his word.

According to Shrumm’s forthcoming book “No Excuses,” Kerry has said that he wished he’d never picked Edwards. That he should have gone with his gut.

As these candidates have demonstrated with their recent views on the war…hindsight is 20/20.

Post script on Edwards: When you see Geoffrey Fieger hawking John Edwards’ virtues in campaign commercials, you know that SOB is, well, a SOB!

JD.