Edwards Is a Scumbag, This Is Not News, The MSM Colluding With Liberals IS News–UPDATED Well, I Guess It’s News, We’re Pretty Used To It

Glenn Reynolds has a poll going on at his site. Here it is:

OKAY, ANOTHER INSTAPUNDIT READER POLL:

Which is worse?
A politician who has an affair while his wife has cancer, and lies about it.
A reporter or editor who covers for the politician who has an affair while his wife has cancer.

Overwhelmingly, people are saying that the bigger problem is the news organization covering for the dirty politician. Well, duh! Glen says, “There are two Americas — the real one, and the one the press tries to fob off on us.”

Edward’s actions hurt his wife, his children, the woman he’s having an affair with, or not. Maybe everyone was in the loop, knew what was going on, and that’s just how the Edwards family rolls. I get the sense with all these political wives, that they made concessions to their husband’s lifestyle choices a long way back and that these dalliances are part of the deal–kinda like being married to a Rock Star. Or maybe not. I don’t know. It’s not really my business. And, honestly, I don’t care.

The presses actions are pure evil, however. Americans trust them to get the information out so they can make informed decisions. So, Edwards having an affair might be no big whup to his home team, but I might have a different opinion about having him run America’s affairs, knowing his personal behavior, or not. The key is, I need the information to make an informed decision. It is the presses job to give that information and let me decide, not make the decision for me.

Bottom line, no rational person trusts the media to give the information so that Americans can make a decision. A rational person takes the press for what they are: the protective arm of the Democratic party and the haven liberal ideology.

And here’s how it will go with the press, now, if the past is any indication. Now that the media got caught, again, ala Lewinsky, they’ll go after Ms. Hunter. She will be the villain. They will allow John Edwards to say that he doesn’t love her, that the kid isn’t his, that he didn’t know his wife had cancer at the time, and that he was just making a friendly visit in the middle of the night because he’s a nice guy (no way it was a booty call, no way was it a visitation to see his kid).

The press will give him a pass. They won’t ask tough questions. They’ll opine about how it’s a painful, private family matter. They’ll regret the invasion on a personal life. They’ll find statistics on how many people have affairs during trying times–lots of people cheat when their spouses are dying, I mean, look at Love Story. They’ll kvetch about how no good people can go into politics because of the “politics of personal destruction”.

If John Edwards had an “R” after his name, he would be hounded day and night. His family questioned. The woman involved wouldn’t matter. She would be the tool exposing the hypocritical Republicans evilness and be irrelevant. Or, she’d become a hero to the Left and be given an opportunity to forward her career via Penthouse. Either way, Edwards wouldn’t have been able to breath for months with these sort of allegations hanging. But he’s a Democrat. As such, he can count on the press covering for him, looking the other way, ignoring his behavior. In fact, his behavior isn’t really an issue because it’s his ideas that matter.

And it’s not just the mainstream media covering for Edwards. The leftist blogosphere has been willfully ignorant, too.

More here.

John Hawkins has been ahead of the curve on this story from the beginning.

Advice Goddess notes the LA Times finally reports it and sends an intern in to do the job.

The Anchoress has more.

Ann Althouse is disgusted:

Imagine if he’d gotten the nomination. What a selfish bastard — to run for the nomination while parading his cancerous wife about and knowing that if he won this story could have come out at any time — maybe in October — screwing up his party’s chances!

Go away now.

Edwards is an idiot. And he’s throwing his women under the bus while he’s being one, so I just wondered before I finish this up, how the feminists are interpreting his acts. Ah, with all the hypocrisy one would expect, I see. Amanda Marcotte, Edwards short-time blog presence says:

My official stance is that unless it’s a matter of hypocrisy, it’s none of your damn business. So, if someone has a history of dogging gay people, prostitutes, people who have sex outside of marriage, etc., their business is now public property because they treat your business like it’s public property. Edwards, as far as I know, has never been a “sanctity of marriage” wanker, and so this is officially None Of Our Business, and anyone who dogged him on this story should be fired on the principle that they don’t know journalism from rooting around in the trash. Hypocrisy is a story; human weakness is not.

And where is Jill at Feministe? Where is anyone at Feministe? Sigh. Same place as Kos kids, I guess. This is what happens with inconvenient truths on the Left. Check that, at least they’re talking about it at Kos now. Yes, Edwards had an affair and THEN wanted the nomination. Let that sink in for a second. And, worse, though, Kossacks, you ENABLED him by not doing your own INVESTIGATION so that YOU were not caught with your pants down. Do you even get that? You didn’t want to see and exposed yourself to giving this election away because you were willfully blind.

Ok, enough. For now.

Updated:

Michelle Malkin has more questions:

And bloggers are taking a second look at Edwards’ very splashy People magazine photos spotlighting the renewal of his wedding vows with Elizabeth in June 2007–a stunt that scored major gushing from the lib media.

Was this staged to throw off questions about his fidelity? Did the family actually go along with such a ploy? Ugh.

Like I said, I think some political families make agreements. Color me cynical.

Posted in Political Animals
Tags: Election 08