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Sunday: Edwards and etc.
posted at 2008-08-10 19:40 | Last modified 2008-08-10 21:50
First, the non-Edwards news...
..and yes, there is some, but not much. It's been pretty much wall-to-wall.
- The N&O's Eric Ferreri had a really good story on an unapproved NCCU satellite campus near Atlanta, at a church run by a NCCU trustee and big donor.
- Greensboro’s Mark Binker slices and dices the finer points of energy policy in the US Senate race. Bonus: a nifty clip-‘n-save cheat sheet. There’s a link to it at his blog.
- Charlotte’s Stella Hopkins and Ted Mellnik report Mecklenburg County is at the leading edge of a surge in NC foreclosure rates.
Edwards: The Saga Continues
Newsweek’s Jonathan Darman has the closest thing yet to Hunter’s side of the story – a personal account of the friendship he struck up with her while he covered Edwards’ campaign in 2006. He says Hunter blamed Elizabeth Edwards for her firing from the Edwards campaign.
"She seemed perfectly cheerful about it, but she proceeded to tell me a tale of woe—how the campaign hadn't understood her, how they'd ruined the Webisodes, how they'd impeded her vision and how Edwards himself had failed to defend her. The chief villain in this saga was Elizabeth Edwards. 'Someday,' Rielle said, 'the truth about her is going to come out.'"
Approaching terminal irony in 3..2..1… The story’s here.
Speaking of irony, Fox’s Roger Friedman notes the song that's used under Hunter’s webisodes isn’t exactly an endorsement. Wonder when the soundtrack was mixed? Check it out.
The N&O’s Craig Jarvis has more background on former Edwards staffer and self-proclaimed baby-daddy Andrew Young.
The N&O's Rob Christensen takes fair issue with the schadenfreude surrounding the Edwards story, but also thinks there’s more to it than we’ve heard so far. So does the NYT’s Gail Collins, and Arianna at HuffPo.
I'm with them. There are holes in this story you could drive a WellsFargo truck through. Like...
- Why did his campaign hire a novice filmmaker to produce a handful of web videos for the well-above-market rate of $114,000?
- Why is Edwards supporter and former campaign finance chair Fred Baron paying Hunter and alleged father/former staffer Andrew Young $15K/month each in living allowances? The N&O’s Lorenzo Perez and Anne Blythe asked a friend of Baron’s that same question.Generosity to one’s former co-workers is an admirable trait, but $30K a month allowance plus cross-country moving expenses? This one puts the large in largesse.
"Jay Harvey, past president of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, said he wasn't surprised Baron would use his own money to help Hunter and Young. 'Fred's the kind of guy that's very helpful to friends. He's just a big-hearted guy, Harvey said Saturday night. 'When I heard [his statement], I didn't put any black-heartedness on Fred, who was concerned about what these staffers were going through.'
- Why did the Edwards campaign pay Fred Baron $389,698 at the end of 2007? Is it really customary to pay the finance chair more than the campaign strategist (Joe Trippi & Assoc., $382,379)?
- Why wouldn’t Edwards tell ABC's Bob Woodruff when his affair with Hunter ended? Wouldn't you think he’d have been eager to relate the day, hour, and minute it ended if it would prove he didn’t father her baby? He also failed to answer a question about how often he’d visited Hunter since the affair “ended.” That would’ve been another no-brainer if he had nothing to hide.
- When Woodruff asked Edwards whether he would take a paternity test, Edwards agreed, but he was quick to add that Hunter might not cooperate. He couldn't say why he thought so - on the contrary, he says he and Hunter hadn’t discussed it. Just hours later, Hunter announced she won’t participate in a DNA test, even though her own family called for one on her behalf. If Edwards is the father, that’s the best possible outcome for him: Hey, he offered, right? If he isn't the father, he's got to be kicking himself right now, since he won't be able to prove it.
- The kicker: Fred Baron told the NY Post that, after he relocated the Youngs and the Hunters out to Santa Barbara earlier this year, Young and his wife and their kids lived for months in the same house with Rielle Hunter and her baby. Speaking as a woman here, I want someone to SHOW me the betrayed wife who’d move her kids across the US to set up housekeeping with her husband’s mistress and child - no matter who's footing the tab. Forgiveness is one thing, but cohabitation is something else entirely. Unless, of course, Hunter was never Young’s mistress to start with.
Does it matter if Edwards is the father? Yes, it does. Especially since he's denied it. For a lot of voters, the only thing worse than a politician who cheats on his sick wife and lies about it is a politician who may still be fudging even as he’s confessing. Fathering an illegitimate child might end his political career. Lying about having fathered one certainly would.
By the way, congrats to ABC’s Jim Woodruff on a good interview. In case you’d forgotten, as I had at first, he battled back from horrific head injuries caused by an IED in Iraq. You’d never have known it watching Friday’s interview. Sure, there were some questions I wished he’d followed up on, but given the sensitive topic and the time constraints, I thought he did a really nice job. It's great to see him doing so well.
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