Gloating Post About Edwards Should Not Be Front Paged

By: Lee Diamond
Published On: 8/9/2008 1:11:13 AM

I am offended by the "WOW, it looks like John Edwards....." has given up hope of being VP blah blah blah post that was front paged here this evening.

Edwards is not running for anything.  At this point in time, this is a private matter.

We live in a sick culture where people get off .............
............... on peering into the lives of other people.

I wrote about this subject obliquely when a most disgusting slimeball named Lee Stranahan was trying to out this issue, so to speak, at HuffPo.  I think he was doing it as a way of getting attention for himself and drawing people to his own crummy website.

I am not critical of RK. but I think that peoples' private lives are their own business and we should show more respect and common decency.  All the huffing and puffing about John Edwards is not helping Elizabeth Edwards or their children.  Spare me the self-righteous drivel.  I feel for them.  That is one reason why I condemned that scumbag Lee Stranahan.  How is further exposing their pain helping them?  Why are we talking about the behavior of a private citizen?  He is a private citizen.

If I see Arianna Huffington at the Democratic Convention, I will tell her that I am boycotting Huffington Post until they establish some clear journalistic standards for the website.  Critical to me is not publishing pointless tabloid articles and not allowing creepy people to post articles at a news site that serve only their own selfish interests.  We are not talking about publishing a book here or anything useful.

I would love to rant and rave seriously a lot more about this.  We all should look in the mirror and think about the world we are perpetuating.  Most importantly, what can we do to make it better?

Comments



If John Edwards..... (Flipper - 8/9/2008 2:24:24 AM)
had kept it zipped, it would not be front paged here at RK or anywhere else on the planet for that matter.

And if you think this is a private matter, try talking to some of his staff, financial contributors, volunteers, etc., who gave their time and money to him - they are outraged.  

The line that is generating the most heat is where he explains his wifes cancer was in remission during the time of the affair - wasn't that considerate of him.

Politicians live under a microscope - apparently they are the only ones who do not understand that.  Reporters, newspapers, magazines - they are all looking for stories just like this to sell more newspapers and magazines, but the sheer arrogance of power makes them oblivious to the fact that someone WILL find out.

You are correct - all the huffing and puffing is not helping the Edwards family, but Edwards behavior is what put them in this position, plain and simple.



I read "Wow" as more shock (Lowell - 8/9/2008 7:16:49 AM)
and dismay at the news.  I saw no "gloating" whatsoever by Ron1 in his front-page post.  Personally, I agree with you that this is mainly a private matter, between John, Elizabeth, their family, their god, etc.


Wasn't trying to gloat (Ron1 - 8/9/2008 12:35:05 PM)
And I agree with both Lowell's characterization of my post and his general view on the matter.

Moreover, I didn't expect it to be a front page diary; I took some time away from the blogosphere for 2-3 weeks to deal with some 'offline' life issues, and didn't realize that my diary status had changed after the last one I wrote.

Furthermore, by the time I diaried about this, it had been talked about obliquely and then in much more direct ways by OpenLeft and Daily Kos. TPM and ABCNews had already gone live with the headline. So, this was going to be out in the media environment. Another RK diarist wrote a diary about the revelation.

It is a chicken-and-egg situation no doubt -- how do we change the media environment to stop peering into personal family issues if we keep talking about it, but I doubt RK ignoring it would have reduced the hubbub at all.

But I was quite hopeful about John Edwards having a very instrumental role in the next admin, as either AG or Secretary of Labor or in some other capacity dealing with issues of poverty or maybe rebuilding New Orleans. If it were just an affair, that might still all be on the table. But the remuneration issues and the question of how and how much Ms. Hunter was paid probably take that all off the table, and that is very unfortunate. That was why I diaried, really. Despite his flaws and his political tone-deafness, I have always liked JRE. I did not want to see this happen.

Anyway, that's my explanation.

Going forward, I'll be focusing my diaries on organizing in Alexandria to elect Barack Obama the next President (and hopefully either Kathleen Sebelius or Wes Clark as the next VP) and on working to elect Judy Feder, Tom Perriello, and Glenn Nye to the House from Virginia.  



This definitely deserved to be a front-page diary (Lowell - 8/9/2008 3:56:05 PM)
simply because it's huge news - whether or not it SHOULD be - about a leading Democrat.  Thanks.


WOW A Has Been Politician Had An Affair (Lee Diamond - 8/10/2008 3:52:38 PM)
OMIGOD


I agree (mmc0412 - 8/11/2008 1:21:45 PM)
Lee - I agree with you.  It's a private matter that should remain private.  Unfortunately, the Democratic Party forced this out into the open.  They required Edwards to address the tabloid article or he would have no part in the Convention.  I read that somewhere anyway.  And, when I read it, I thought it was despicable of them to do that.  I mean it sounded like the Democrats were playing Ken Starr and wanted to impeach Edwards even though he was not in a position to be impeached for anything.  Of course, I suppose the other possibility is that enforcement may have come from the Obama camp if they were seriously considering Edwards for VP or another post (Atty General?).

Anyway, I hope the Edwards can deal with it all - especially Elizabeth and kids.