Schadenfreude in spades!

[trysail]

"hypocritical" As Zoot as noted, it is NOT Democrats who pontificate about family values and Christian morals...

Edwards did more than his share of pontificating.

"promiscuous" ???? Your definition and mine on "Promiscuous" must differ wildly...

It just might. Promiscuity extends beyond sex— it describes a person who disingenuously projects a false affection that characterizes snake-oil salesmen. It's right out of Dale Carnegie's "How To Win Friends and Influence People." My antennae have developed to the point where I can spot a hustler a mile off... and, believe me, I know when I'm being hustled.

"whore-liar" Big points for inventing a new hyphenated word….. I prefer the well earned epitaph of “whore-monger” for myself but I failed to see any inference to this in the story…. “affair” yes….. “whore” no….. But now, of course, there is the “liar” part…. No doubt about that one. But as far as principals go, I think his having told his WIFE about it, he owes nothing else to no one….. Not only would the public recognition of this affair embarrass him, it would obviously embarrass her and his entire family…… Just who does he most owe the truth to??????? Would YOU lie about it to the press???

In a prior life, I was forced to endure interminable hours of bankers "accentuating the positive" along with the idiotic scripted sales pitches of moronic, scummy Wall Street securities salespeople. These folk would sell their souls and their mothers for a $2.00 commission; they are not vaguely acquainted with any concept of integrity. These are the same folk who created mortgage-backed securities stuffed with subprime mortgages and the subsequent morass which we are enjoying; they are the same folk who created the great IPO/tech bubble of the late '90s. Eventually, I coined the acronym "PWL" as shorthand for Promiscuous Whore-Liars. It is wholly descriptive of slick, pinguid snake-oil salespeople and demagogues.

John Edwards and his ilk qualify.

I have always observed a strict policy with respect to the 4th estate— I don't talk to 'em. Having been in a position to observe and compare what went into the media machine and what came out the other end, I recognize that it's a fool's game. The media is essentially a bunch of narcissistic gossips stuck with the arrested development and behavior of a bunch of 18-year olds. They are the same type of people as those who create the traffic jams that arise solely from rubber-necking.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Why did anyone expect John Boy, the Breck Girl, to be different from every other pol?

 

[Stella_Omega]

I am stunned— astonished, amazed and astounded— by the number of respondents to this thread who jumped to the conclusion that my dislike for John Edwards and my delight at his political downfall had anything to do with his private sex life (other than the fact that he [apparently, because we haven't heard anything from her] betrayed his wife).

In a sense, this thread serves as something of a social experiment. Like a lynch mob, many respondents automatically assumed that my dislike for Edwards JUST HAD TO BE rooted in a puritanical reaction to the recent revelation of his sexual behavior.


[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/B]

Not at all. You made it very clear that you hate the guy, ever since you showed up here.
I don't think one, single person here has made that particular assumption about YOU.

 

[trysail]

John Edwards [ Finally ] Admits He's The Baby Daddy
January 21, 2010

NPR Morning Edition
January 21, 2010
Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has come forward to admit that he is the father of a child born to a videographer he hired before his second White House bid. In a statement to the Associated Press, Edwards said the child is his.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122802297
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122805210

 

[al_Ussa]

Wasn't he the guy that speaks to ghosts?

 

[Handley_Page]

What he does with his dick and his private life is his own fucking business, and he doesn't have to justify his behavior to you. Who the hell are you? Jesus fucking Christ? And what's he supposed to do with the press full of hypocrites? Of course he's going to deny it because it's none of their damn business either.

I can't believe the 6th grade morality of the American public who still expect their leaders to behave according to some child's conception of idealized "grown-up" behavior. People are human beings. Deal with it.

What he does with his dick doesn't get Americans killed and doesn't cost me any money so what the hell do I care? It's his business and no one else's

Here here.
We occasionally get this sort of thing over here, too.

 

[3113]

Hey, it's not like he's a fundie Christian who's been advocating family values while visiting his mistress in Argentina and telling everyone he's hiking the Appalachian trail...

Oh, wait that was Gov. Standford....

Well, it's not like he went up to his wife while she was in the hospital dying of cancer and asked her for a divorce so he could marry his mistress...

Oh, wait, that was Newt Gingrich.....

Ya know, Ty, this Edward's affair here isn't sounding like much of a Schadenfraude given what all the conservatives who are in favor of family values and share you disbelief of global warming have been up to....

And come to think of it, Edwards didn't even have a house set up in Washington D.C. for Bible study AND sex....

While Charles W. “Chip” Pickering Jr. was the Congressman from Mississippi’s 3rd District, the Republican, a former Baptist missionary, lived at the Fellowship Foundation residence at 133 C Street SE in Washington. He also used that convenient Christian pad to bed a woman not his wife, according to divorce papers filed by Leisha Pickering, mother of the ex-congressman’s five sons.

Which is to say, do you really want to be so gleeful and cast stones in this particular glass house? Because dancing for joy about this Schadenfraude just makes you a target for later. By all means, post the news of a celebrity or politician's affair. It's news, it's entertainment and it's worth discussing among us writers. But cheering about it only sets you up. I sure hope the politicians you favor hew to the straight and narrow, because if even one makes a single, sexual misstep (and one of them will, you can bet on it!), you're never going to hear the end of it...not because we care about their affair, or even their lying about it, but because you made an asshole of yourself in reporting this one.

Try to be a little more neutral next time you report such things. You'll get a better discussion in the thread, and people won't fill their pockets with stones to cast at you when the time comes.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I'm waiting for the Congressbody whose official 'family' photo includes both spouse and lover of (fill in the gender of your preference) persuasion. Oh, and all three (or so) of them must look really happy. It's coming and boy are the Fundies going to be upset with the voters in ___________________! Anyone seen this month's National Geographic?

 

[trysail]

....

You really don't get it, do you? I feel sorry for you. This is about an intangible called "character."

He looked you ( not me ) straight in the eye and he lied through his teeth..., and he kept it up for two years. He clearly thinks you're a dope and a gullible fool who will swallow anything. The only reason he finally admitted the facts was because the publication of a book is imminent— Edwards broke the 11th Commandment.

His lie wasn't even the normal political gobbledegook; it was an intentional, deliberate, baldfaced lie. It didn't surprise me, it's what I expect from him. It's what his whole life has been. This is a man who is incapable of distinguishing truth from the expedient.

I don't give a good goddamn what the man does in his bedroom; it makes no difference to me. If Elizabeth wants to act as a procuress or a dominatrix, that's fine by me. If Edwards wants to fuck whores or sheep, that's fine by me.

I've been perfectly straightforward in disclosing right from the git-go that I had an intense dislike for this man; I always thought he was a phony. I've always thought he was something that crawled out of the gutter.

 

[JackLuis]

You really don't get it, do you? I feel sorry for you. This is about an intangible called "character."
-
I've been perfectly straightforward in disclosing right from the git-go that I had an intense dislike for this man; I always thought he was a phony. I've always thought he was something that crawled out of the gutter.

His boyish southern charm and good teeth were only half of his arsenal, He lies much better than GWB ever did.

But you can see it in his eyes, still.

 

[trysail]

The following was published in the Guardian ( U.K. ) on Saturday:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/03/john-edwards-scandal-andrew-young


It is frightening to reflect upon the fact that someone so totally devoid of any semblance of an ethical compass could come so close to winning the hearts and minds of a majority of the American public.


This guy was a fraud and a phony right from the git-go ( character traits required for successful mass tort lawyerin' ).


Can you imagine being married to someone like this? I feel sorry for Elizabeth and the kids.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Its wonderful to see you having such a good time rolling in the mud, Trysail.

Have you ever done it naked?

 

[stephen55]

This is how it's really done...

American political sex scandals, if that isn't an oxymoron, are so much less tactful than their British counterparts. Consider the Profumo Affair.

Brigadier John Dennis Profumo, 5th Baron Profumo CBE, Baron Sardinian, got caught having quality time with Christine Keeler.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0d/John_Profumo_1960.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/34/CKeeler1.jpg

This is wikipedia's account of the "no impropriety whatever"...

In the early 1960s Profumo was the secretary of state for war in Harold Macmillan's Conservative government and was married to actress Valerie Hobson. In 1961 Profumo met Christine Keeler, a London call girl, at a house party at Cliveden, the Buckinghamshire mansion owned by Lord Astor. Many years later he would claim, in discussion with his son, David, that he had met Keeler previously at a night club in London called Murray's and "probably had a drink with her."[2] Also present at the Cliveden party were Profumo's wife and the fashionable osteopath, Dr Stephen Ward, a long-standing acquaintance of Keeler.

The relationship with Keeler lasted only a few weeks before Profumo ended it. However, rumours about the affair became public in 1962, as did the allegation that Keeler had also had a relationship with Yevgeny "Eugene" Ivanov, a senior naval attaché at the Soviet embassy in London. Given Profumo's position in the government and with the Cold War at its height, the potential ramifications in terms of national security were grave, and this, along with the adulterous nature of Profumo's relationship with Keeler, quickly elevated the affair into a public scandal.

In March 1963, Profumo stated to the House of Commons that there was "no impropriety whatever" in his relationship with Keeler and that he would issue writs for libel and slander if the allegations were repeated outside the House.1 (Within the House, such allegations are protected by parliamentary privilege.) However, in June, Profumo confessed that he had misled the House and lied in his testimony and on 5 June, he resigned his cabinet position, as well as his Privy Council and parliamentary membership.

There was never proof of actual espionage activity involving Keeler, the Soviet Naval Attaché Ivanov, and Profumo, but there was ground for suspicion. Peter Wright, in his autobiography Spycatcher, relates that he was working at the British Counterintelligence Agency MI5 at the time and was assigned to question Keeler on security matters. He conducted a fairly lengthy interview and found Keeler to be poorly educated and not well informed on current events, very much the "party girl" described in the press at the time. However, in the course of questioning her, the subject of nuclear missiles came up, and Keeler, on her own, used the term "nuclear payload" [The mind boggles at that one...],in relation to the missiles. This alerted Wright's suspicions. According to Wright, in the very early 60s in Britain, the term "nuclear payload" was not in general use by the public, and even among those who kept up with such things the term was not commonly heard. For a young woman with such limited knowledge to casually use the term was more than suspicious. In fact Wright came away convinced that at the very least there had been an attempt by the Soviet Attaché (perhaps through Stephen Ward) to use Keeler to get classified information from Profumo.

Lord Denning released the government's official report on 25 September 1963, and one month later, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan resigned on the grounds of ill health, which had apparently been exacerbated by the scandal. He was replaced by the foreign secretary, the Earl of Home, who renounced his title to become Sir Alec Douglas-Home.

Stephen Ward was prosecuted for living on the immoral earnings of prostitution and he committed suicide in August. He was defended by James Burge QC (who was later the basis for John Mortimer's character Rumpole of the Bailey). Keeler was found guilty on unrelated perjury charges and she was sentenced to nine months in prison. Profumo died on 9 March 2006.

So, if you're going to create a political sex scandal....do it right!!!

 

[stephen55]

And now for something completely Canadian

The Munsinger Affair....

The Hon Col. Pierre Albert Sévigny PC, OC, CD, VM, ED, BA, B.Comm, served as Associate Defence Minister in the Progressive Conservative government of John Diefenbaker.


A decorated war hero, Sévigny lost a leg in the Battle of the Rhine.

http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/9644/okocs2.jpg

He was also fond of sleeping with Gerda Munsinger.

http://journalquebecpresse.org/uploads/guerda_munsigner_001_400.jpg

Wikipedia has this to say.....

The Munsinger Affair was Canada's first national political sex scandal. It focused on Gerda Munsinger, an alleged East German prostitute and Soviet spy living in Ottawa who had slept with a number of cabinet ministers in John Diefenbaker's government.

At the height of the Cold War between the Americans and Russians, and acting on information provided by American sources, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) warned Justice Minister Davie Fulton that Gerda Munsinger, an alleged prostitute and a possible spy, was having a sexual relationship with a cabinet minister. This was eventually revealed to be Sévigny, when investigators realized that a mysterious thumping sound on their surveillance tapes was an artificial limb dropping to the floor.[2]

Dr. Richard Kimble always swore that his wife was murdered by The One Armed Man. John Diefenbaker's government was brought down by The One Legged Man.


Upon his death, a fellow Canadian politician had this to say...

"He was a very good stump speaker, very emotional on the podium," said Heward Grafftey, a Conservative MP who sat with Sévigny in the House of Commons.

"I don't believe his sexual peccadillos diminished his considerable achievements or made him any less honourable. "

He did, after all, have the decency to remove his artificial limb before engaging his dick.

As the old saying goes...Men have two heads and only enough blood to fill one at a time...

 

[SeaCat]

A) I don't like politicians in general. My opinion is you have to sell your soul and lie like a trooper to become a pol.

B) I honestly don't give a shit what someone else is doing with other people as long as they don't preach one thing to me and do another.

C) As long as no laws are broken, ie. rape etc. then why should anyone give a shit?

That being said I understand where the interest in these things comes from.

Either people have an axe to grind and are looking for something on their rivals. (Politics as usual.) Or they are so unhappy with their own lives they have to find something juicy about someone in the public eye so they can feel a bit better about their own sorry lives. (As evidenced by the current scandals surrounding Tiger Woods and Jesse James.)

Cat

 

[trysail]

My god— it's even worse than even I ever imagined. Here I sit listening to NPR's Saturday "All Things Considered" and damned if Guy Raz didn't interview Jay McInerney about Big City, Bright Lights and Story of My Life which produced a mind-blowing revelation: Alison Poole ( of Story of My Life ) was based on Rielle Hunter ( then Lisa Druck ), the eventual paramour of John Edwards.


Un-frickin'-believable. Edwards really was a full time swimmer in the gutter. It's astounding— and the sonofabitch damn near sweet-talked the American public into electing him President. Not only is Edwards a slimeball; he has to be deranged— how could anybody be stupid enough to believe all this wouldn't eventually come out?


Just when I thought it impossible for this clown to fall any lower in my estimation, I discover that even I have underestimated this pond scum. My powers of description absolutely fail me; it's tempting to say that truth is stranger than fiction but, in this case, in a totally bizarre alternate world the fucking fiction turns out to be the truth.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alison_Poole

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128897928

 

[Liar]

And you're really getting off on wallowing in it, don't you?

 

[Stella_Omega]

It's good to see you having so much fun, trysail.

 

[bronzeage]

My god— it's even worse than even I ever imagined. Here I sit listening to NPR's Saturday "All Things Considered" and damned if Guy Raz didn't interview Jay McInerney about Big City, Bright Lights and Story of My Life which produced a mind-blowing revelation: Allison Poole ( of Story of My Life ) was based on Rielle Hunter ( then Lisa Druck ), the eventual paramour of John Edwards.


Un-frickin'-believable. Edwards really was a full time swimmer in the gutter. It's astounding— and the sonofabitch damn near sweet-talked the American public into electing him President. Not only is Edwards a slimeball; he has to be deranged— how could anybody be stupid enough to believe all this wouldn't eventually come out?


Just when I thought it impossible for this clown to fall any lower in my estimation, I discover that even I have underestimated this pond scum. My powers of description absolutely fail me; it's tempting to say that truth is stranger than fiction but, in this case, in a totally bizarre alternate world the fucking fiction turns out to be the truth.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alison_Poole
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128897924

I just looked at your links. I don't see anything about this woman being a bad person or anyway intrinsically evil. She appears to be an intelligent and hard working woman.

To say John Edwards met her "in the gutter" is a strange use of the metaphor. It reflects poorly on your judgment.

 

[3113]

To say John Edwards met her "in the gutter" is a strange use of the metaphor. It reflects poorly on your judgment.

Naw. It just reflects on his kinky fantasies.

 

[bronzeage]

Naw. It just reflects on his kinky fantasies.

John Edwards does have great hair.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Edwards,_official_Senate_photo_portrait.jpg

 

[voluptuary_manque]

John Edwards does have great hair.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Edwards,_official_Senate_photo_portrait.jpg

So did JFK and look what a sleeze he turned out to be. Elect more bald politicians!

 

[Stella_Omega]

So did JFK and look what a sleeze he turned out to be. Elect more bald politicians!

Shave your head darling, and we'll start your campaign early.

 

[Guest]

. . . .

 

[trysail]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_murders




Charming people.