Or is it both? How else to explain the former vice-presidential candidate reemerging as a public speaker at Hofstra University after only one month of “penance” for his monumentally selfish affair. Meanwhile, recent print editions of the National Enquirer continue to detail the extent of the cover-up and the extensive hush money paid via Edwards’ legal cronies. There’s plenty of stuff there for a raft of disbarment proceedings and class actions suits by justifably livid campaign donors. I wonder how much Hofstra is paying him (lectures by bigtime politician’s often carry fat fees). Shame on the university for having him. At least Elizabeth, according to the article linked above, has the good sense not to come.
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17 Comments
1. heather:how about: John Edwards has a problem with ordinary morality. He is a bad human being. And he has a long way to go to make up for his sins.
Aug 29, 2008 - 10:22 pm 2. Lawrence Kellogg:Hofstra is not known to be a big-money lecture venue. I think it is more likely that Hofstra offered him a platform, near the mega-media center (albeit the dinosaur MSM center) of NYC and, glutton that he is for the applause of the crowd, he accepted. Such invitations are typically made months in advance, so it is also likely that this is a lecture long in the planning that Hofstra, in its infinite lack of wisdom— and a desire for publicity almost equal to Edwards’— did not choose to rescind. Hofstra will look, for an hour or so, like the center of the American political universe, and Edwards can again go into Billy Graham mode and preach to the multitudes, probably enlarging on his transparently self-serving “Ah made a mistake and mah wahf’s cancer was in remission” drivel he served up to the skeptical-looking Bob Woodruff of ABC. Hoftsra reminds me of the many groups that invited Bubba to their podiums, for truly big bucks, after his last 24 hours in office when he went on his pardon spree, and after he was disbarred, and after he should have been deemed a national pariah, and yet the lecture circuit still included organizations drawn, as moths to the proverbial flame, to his vaunted “charm.” Some universities and other groups simply don’t don’t know how to send out the message of these important sentences: “We hereby rescind our invitation to you. You no longer deserve the platform we were going to provide. Get your own platform, but it’s not going to be ours.”
Aug 30, 2008 - 3:13 am 3. David Thomson:John Edwards is simply taking full advantage of the “we will forgive you for just about everything as long you support left-wing causes” mindset. Have we already forgotten Ted Kennedy and Bill Clinton? This is actually something of the norm for Democratic Party politicians. Only Republicans are severely punished for committing similar misdeeds.
Aug 30, 2008 - 4:31 am 4. srlucado:Drudge is linking a story that Edwards has actually *increased* his speaking fee to $65,000.
What organization in its right mind would pay that ambulance-chasing, adulterous liar $65,000? What could Edwards possibly have to say to justify charging that kind of money? (”How my exposure as a lying, adulterous ambulance-chaser earned me big bucks - and it can work for you, too!”)
Free enterprise…gotta love it.
Scott
Aug 30, 2008 - 4:36 am 5. gina Mallet:Hofstra is really disgusting — $65,000 to a sexaholic ambulance chaser.
what’s he gonna talk on? How to raise multiple families?
Aug 30, 2008 - 4:40 am 6. Sally:I read somewhere else that the Student Union is paying him $65,000 to come and speak, which may say more about the Student Union than it does about Edwards. For that kind of money you’d think they could have gotten someone a little more compelling instead of just another shameless huckster with a tawdry personal life.
Aug 30, 2008 - 4:44 am 7. Zhombre:I agree with Heather. Edwards is nothing but a 21 century variation of the 19th century confidence man and he is a huge sh*theel on top of that. The man has the morals of a pit viper.
Aug 30, 2008 - 6:34 am 8. Promoguy:Or just maybe and I will admit it is a stretch.
It’s an attempt to get him into the state so that all of the idiots who donated to his campaign can serve him with papers, suing in order to get that donation back.
Aug 30, 2008 - 6:56 am 9. Lem:..and class actions suits by justifably livid campaign donors.
Warren Buffett might be on to something. Let’s imagine a campaign donation disclaimer.
My speeches are provided “as-is”, without guarantee of any nature. I am not responsible for any undelivered promises either real or otherwise, that may result from hearing my words. Any use and accounts of my words w/o express written consent of major league… wait a minute, that’s a whole different ballgame
Talk about campaing finance reform.
Aug 30, 2008 - 9:58 am 10. PC14:Where are the feminist protesters? Get out to Hofstra, wear the “I Also Had John’s Baby,” t-shirt while holding the cute baby doll.
Aug 30, 2008 - 10:37 am 11. Lem:Where are the feminist protesters?
They are too busy plotting how to have a fling with Palin
Aug 30, 2008 - 10:58 am 12. chuck:Do I have to pick just one?
Aug 30, 2008 - 12:03 pm 13. Captain Hate:How can there be the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression if people are willing to spend their hard earned money to hear Silky blather on about chasing ambulances, effective methods of birth control, or working at the mill?
Aug 30, 2008 - 1:41 pm 14. Barry Dauphin:Couldn’t he have a personality disorder and be short on cash.
Aug 30, 2008 - 3:02 pm 15. David:He has a personality disorder.
Aug 30, 2008 - 7:30 pm 16. glenn:Sally’s right, it’s what the Edwards appearance says about Hofstra that’s important.
Aug 30, 2008 - 11:52 pm 17. Mark Poling:I’ve had the same thought about John running short on cash. When you run the numbers on how much per-month is being spent on Rielle and the Fall Guy, it starts adding up (and I’m sure that the fixer fees to the fellow ambulance-chaser in Texas ain’t chicken feed either….)
Aug 31, 2008 - 10:23 pm