In re NRO's unenthusiastic support of John Edwards, I say...

...the best way to get rid of bad laws is to see that they are enforced on everyone.

This is a nice bit of writing:

John Edwards, the Dorian Gray of the Democratic party, is one of the most loathsome characters in American politics, corrupt himself and a source of corruption in others, a preening, moralizing fraud who went so far as to have a staffer claim paternity of the illegitimate child he fathered with a campaign contractor. Even after he was exposed, Edwards denied that he was the father of the child until a paternity test forced him to own up to the fact. But for the charms of John Kerry, he would have been vice president of these United States. But for the labors of the National Enquirer, he might have been president, Democrats having learned in the 1990s how to make their peace with such situations.

If being a louse were a crime, John Edwards would hang for it. But he is instead facing prison for alleged campaign-finance violations, and it is our obligation to come unenthusiastically to his defense. He may be guilty of bribery, and if he were a sitting senator he would likely be guilty of gross ethics violations, but the facts do not support prosecuting Edwards under campaign-finance laws.

The vetting process for Democrats is always...well...a little bit hit or miss.

John Edwards is First Name Uncovered in 'Millionaire Madam' Investigation.

Thank goodness the National Enquirer is there to keep the New York Times somewhat honest.

Remember when 40% of America wanted this pimple to be Vice President?

Anne Althouse offers a retrospective on John Edwards.

Althouse makes an interesting point about Edwards' rhetorical use of a non-existent 10 year old to underscore his point about "Two Americas."

I embarked on that Google search as I was writing the previous post, disapproving of reasoning/arguing with empathetic anecdotes. I thought it might help you, as you steel yourself against the political rhetoric that comes in the form of anecdotes, to remember that disgraced prettyboy John Edwards and his 2-Americas mascot, the (nonexistent) coatless little girl.


I've been writing about the shortcomings of the human imagination as we get hung up on one thing — such as a person in the room pleading with us — and neglect to think about all the people who aren't here in our presence. But when politicians use anecdotes, they merely paint a picture for us to see in our minds, and the thing that we fail to see may be more real in the world than what's painted in that picture, such as Edwards's nonexistent coatless little girl.

There must be a little girl, you were supposed to think, because her story is specific. She's 10-years-old and I see her there, kneeling by the side of the bed, and it's a cold night.

You can see it — the unseeable nonentity — in your imagination. The anecdote-purveyor clogs up your head with phony pictures. Fight the fake little 10-year old that the ultra-fake politician would use to gum up the imaginative mechanisms of your mind. Feel the oiliness of the fakery as it lubricates those mechanisms, and visualize the things they'd prefer to be left unseen.

Verisimilitude and specifity are among the arrows in the liar's quiver.  Detail will make anything seem unchallengeable, and, therefore, truthful.

If you voted for Kerry-Edwards in 2004, read this and do penance.

From the "Hell Hath No Fury" File.

Thanks Roger Ho.

Elizabeth Edwards filmed deathbed testimony to nail John Edwards.

In a final act of revenge, Elizabeth Edwards secretly recorded a testimony in her dying days that helped prosecutors indict husband John last week, it was claimed today.


John Edwards is due to stand trial on charges that could lead to a 30-year jail sentence after he pleaded not guilty on Friday to using $925,000 in campaign funds to cover up an affair and love child.

The estranged wife of the former presidential candidate is alleged to have filmed a damning testimony that was central to the prosecution’s case for charges.

Friends said the cancer victim, who died in December, wanted to ‘haunt’ her estranged husband and his mistress Rielle Hunter, with whom he fathered a child and made a sex tape

So many thoughts:  Wow. Awe-inspiring. Would I really want to be doing that in my final days?

It's like something out of Shakespeare.

It couldn't have happened to a nicer cheating-while-his-wife-is-dying-of-cancer-and-using-campaign-money-and-attempting-to-foist-his-own-child-off-on-a-campaign-lackey man.

John Edwards indicted.

Kudos for the National Enquirer for doing the work that the mainstream media couldn't get done.

Somewhere, in an alternate universe, America is paralyzed as President Edwards attempts to sort things out.