Let he (or she) without sin cast the first stone.

Who on DU has ever cheated on a spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend or other SO? Don't answer that, because it's none of my goddamn business. It doesn't matter what your occupation is, what goes on in the privacy of your home or bedroom or other private area is not my business.


Ok, you may go back to your public shaming of John Edwards....

it brings to mind clinton, craig, mc cain, etc...we will be talking about them and comparing them to this scandal...I would think most of the ones that have been outed would not like this stuff about edwards going on and on..

The difference between them and Edwards is, they weren't running for president of the United States.

Does running for President mean we have the right to know what goes on in his bedroom? NO. All that matters is the policies and issues he stands for.

to people whose only qualification--literally--is that they are willing to fuck him. Corruption is bad.

I'd say you are being dishonest. The woman was a filmmaker. To say she was hired because he wanted a piece of ass is slanderous.

There greatness certainly towers over their picadillos.

He betrayed his party by running with such a large lie when he knew that public knowledge of the affair would probably cripple him as a presidential candidate. He betrayed all democrats who intend to win the WH back.

Imagine how it would feel if today, on the day of this news, he were our nominee for president. Maybe you wouldn't be pissed, but I would be fucking boiling, and it would have absolutely nothing to do with his affair.

and if you know you ahve damning dirt in your closet, you shouldn't be running for presidnet because it WILL come out, especially when you cheat on your wife while she's dying of cancer AND you're running for president.

It's not fair to your wife first of all. It's not fair to your party second of all. And it's not fair to the American people.

we all do

Part of what candidates run on is THEIR FAMILIES. HE brought them in to the public eye and HE made the decision to make Elizabeth and his marriage a key part of his campaigning. Those of us who bought the hype are ALLOWED to be upset and are ALLOWED to talk about it.

It's a DU stoning. Where are we, Saudi Arabia?

Edwards drop from someone honorable to just another fucking politician and it brings out the emotions in people that trusted him. Maybe people should think a little about the supporters that did have an emotional investment in him and have just been shown the were lied to.

my compliments

Does it matter? Damn right it does. These people are in the public eye, trying to be a public servant. It does matter.

you're probably willing to fuck over the general public.

If you are SO WEAK of character that you get involved in an affair with someone while your wife has a terminal illness and you are asking Americans to consider voting for you and trust you- but you can't KEEP IT IN YOUR FUCKING PANTS, you DESERVE what happens. And I can sit around here and throw stones ALL DAY on this issue.

People are judged by their character.

He is not the man he pretended to be.

Now, actions one does while in the duties of public office, those matter. How does sex in a private bedroom matter?

She was completely unqualified for her job. This is not problematic to you?

Your personal morality is fine by me. When you are a presidential candidate you are held to a higher standard. That's not my opinion, tht's just the way it is.

why should we believe what they tell us. Didn't he say something like "trust, honor, obey" to his wife? . Also I am sure this is just what Elizabeth needs now. What a fake!

Personal life is this: age of partner, sex of partner, number of partners.

Public life is this: lying, which one has to do to cheat on a spouse. Not just lying to one's spouse, but lying to ones constituents.

That makes the person a liar.

If someone can get away with lying, where do the lies stop?

Hypocrisy and lying do not look good on Democrats.

Judgment: Any Democrat anywhere who cheats on his wife has problems. Deciding to run for the highest elected office in the land with this secret, is beyond selfish; it's downright arrogant.

I hope all our prior presidents and leaders were virgins before marriage........

Ok, some people have a religious injunction against premarital sex and against adultery. But the problem with adultery is the effect on spouses and kids. How many of us were or know people who were devastated by a spouse's infidelity?

and so I hate them...this doesn't sit well with me. I barely voted for Bill the second time.

by that notion, God help anyone who has ever had pre-marital sex

Most embarrassingly nonsensical post on this topic I've read today.

This was a great betrayal on so many levels and it's the last thing Democrats need to deal with now. Thanks.

He threw the stone at Bill Clinton and now he's in a box of his own making. I have no pity for him whatsoever.

keep his pants zipped, then it sure would have been good for him to keep his mouth zipped.

I'm an Atheist so the whole sin and stone casting thing seems a bit silly to me. If you can't judge a person by their actions, then what measure should be used? Charisma level? Fashion sense? Hair product? What?

Edwards publicly stated he did NOT support same sex marriage. Elizabeth Edwards is battling cancer. He has kids. Why can't I think his affair is wrong? Why would the fact that I have never cheated on my husband make my opinion any more valid than someone who has?

If someone beats his/her spouse, am I not allowed to judge that too? Is causing physical pain to someone you love worthy of judgement but emotional pain isn't? Where does one draw the line?

Infidelity does.

We have a winner!

Regardless of one's religion (or lack of, as in my case) the universal truth is: Do your actions do harm to others?

I don't care what a person does in his or her bedroom (or hotel room), as long as s/he does it with another consenting adult, and no one is harmed in the process. John Edward's pecadillo doesn't meet these criteria. And as he campaigned as a family man, he has made this an issue.

If we can judge him for this at all, and I agree that we can, simple arithmetic would still demand that the war pigs be disqualified from politics.

So let's judge away, taking care not to mistake the affair we know about for the war that has killed hundreds of thousands, and continues to kill daily. The millions bereaved, maimed, sickened and paupered by the neocon policy suggest sterner judgment.

Elizabeth and her children are certainly the ones stigmatized, and they are paying a steep and undeserved price for JE's disturbing lack of impulse control. However, they are not the only ones hurt by his selfish, stupid actions.

Long ago, Gary Hart lied. He got caught. Then Bill lied. He got caught. Now Edwards has lied. He's been caught. The MSM is busy painting a picture of our party from these "trends" (ignoring the relevant republican data, of course) and doing their best to spill some ink on Obama. Will ignoring the MSM's antics make them go away? Doubt it. Ignoring them has never worked before.

It would be ridiculous to think that a man as intelligent (brilliant!) as John Edwards didn't know what he was getting into when he chose to start an affair with this woman. So why would someone as smart as he do so? Perhaps, as one other leader said, "because he could." Or maybe he thought he wouldn't get caught. Whatever his reasons, he has put the health of his party at risk. He has put his needs above the needs of our country.

As for your war pigs comment, I'm sure you realize that has nothing to do with this issue. Plenty of evil exists in this world. Pointing out the lesser evils does not in any way diminish or excuse the greater evil. What's more, while it's true that the war pigs should be "disqualified" from politics, that's not how it works. Sadly, stunts like JE's make the chances of them being voted out less likely.

And as for judging, we do so all the time-- even you. We judge our candidates on the information they present to us about their achievements, their vision and their character. It's our job to judge. And when a candidate lies about any of those attributes, it's fully justified that we judge him again.

...and is a result of American prudery and stupidity. It's not Edwards' fault that so many Americans, Democrats included, want to assign the Edwenis(tm) high importance, or to attach it to Obama's candidacy.

I'm a good girl.:)

again and again. I dont really care about the affair or if he is the father, it happens. But he lied about it while running for president. Imagine the nerve of that fucker. Im not a moralist by any means, but after all we democrats have gone through due to public lies about private affair, he should have known better.

Let's be real here--there would be dancing in the streets here at DU is this was a Republican. It's the fact that he lied about being faithful to his wife. If there is no shame in having an affair, then why hide it from your wife and the public? Why sneak around? It's because Edwards knew it was not right, that he was breaking what should have been a sacred vow to the mother of his children.

Edwards slandered OTHERS' honesty.

If he had come out and admitted it last year and then moved on with his run, then fine and dandy. But if he runs for president after having lied, and knowing that if the truth does come out his candidacy (if he had been nominated) would be in severe jeopardy then he has betrayed his fellow democrats.

Edwards does not hold an office anymore. Therefore this whole story is irrelevant.

I respect anyone who tries to mend their marriage after having strayed. I remember an episode of Oprah where they said that 70% of all married men have cheated at least once, and around 50% of married women have cheated. Monogamy may not be as natural to our species as we would like to think that it is, so I try not to judge anyone. I have a great deal of respect for a spouse who can forgive and a cheater who does all they can to reform.

That just doesn't cut it in my books. Obviously Bush is better than Hitler. BFD.

"Yeah, but what about..." loses its rhetorical impact around the time one enters 7th grade. It's a pathetic tactic.

and I am loath to judge anyone based solely on that. But lying is lying -- and that does go to the heart of what I look for in a politician -- integrity, character, and credibility.

And YES, previous great presidents have had very messy private lives. But that's just it -- they remained private (or below the radar in the rumor mill.) JFK etc... didn't have to deal with a media bent on exposing their indiscretions publicly AND thus weren't put in a position of having to try to cover them up and lie about them.

But unfortunately that doesn't excuse the lie. Which is a terrible shame.

I do care that he took my campaign contributions and asked for my support while lying about something that he is smart enough to know would make it impossible for him win. I care about the possibility that he used those contributions to pay off his mistress.

It's the fact that he was apparently willing to SET HIMSELF UP FOR A HUGE SCANDAL while running for president.

Does that strike you as smart or prudent in any way? Does that make you confident in his ability to use good judgment?

It's called personal integrity, honoring my word, and the person I gave it to.

Not every human puts self-gratification before honor, integrity, and care for others.

I have, on the other hand, been the person cheated on.

It's degrading. I deserve better. So does Elizabeth Edwards.

Cheating is a kind of self-gratification that happens at the expense of others. It harms others. It's not trivial.

I don't feel the need to shame Edwards, publicly or privately. I do feel the need to respond when someone publicly defends the infidelity, because that ALSO brings pain to the victims.

And I have no interest in publicly shaming John Edwards - he did that to himself and his family. But his message is still a good one. :cry:

and I have never been with anyone I knew to be married or seriously involved either. It's just plain wrong. If one can't keep commitments, one should have an open relationship or just stick to playing the field.

I do care about what would be happening right now if Edwards was the nominee, or if Obama had chosen him as VP.

I am disappointed he thought it could be kept quiet (in this day and age) and ran for president considering how much is at stake this election year.

If he had come out before the run, or even during the run, and said "this is what happened, but I still believe that I can do good things for the American people" then that is one issue. But he didn't do that. He continued a run knowing that such knowledge would put his candidacy at risk--that is, as far as I am concerned, disloyal to all Edward supporters and even all Democrats.

the country. If he would have won the nomination and this would have blown up in the GE we'd surely have McClown in the oval office and all because he thought he could get away with it. When you are a public official, especially of his stature there are A LOT of people counting on you and you have elevated responsibilities to be aware of.

This was a disaster for him and he should be rightfully ashamed.

And people need to stop acting like Edwards personally did this to them. It's insulting to Mrs. Edwards and the children. It's not about *you*, even if you gave $1,000 to his campaign and he used it to pay this woman. That's the chance you take when you make a DONATION; it's exactly that, a donation; a gift.

for lying about something I don't believe he should be asked about. Same with Bill. Why should he have to announce to his children and the world that he's boinking some chick?

What gives someone the right or the reason to ask the question?

It is not reasonable to assume that it could go to ANY use whatsoever, including as possible hush money to
a mistress and a fall guy.

Saying you "take a chance" when you donate is cynical, at least. Please show me the candidate who will say in a commercial:
"We need your support to win this nomination. Please give what you can. Oh, and I need to tell you: if I'm up to some
fucked up shit, I might need to use your money to ice it over. You know how those things go."

Here is the issue: EDWARDS COULD HAVE WON THE NOMINATION. HIS AFFAIR DID NOT CAUSE HIM TO LOSE THE NOMINATION, WHICH MEANS THAT
THE TWO WERE NOT CONNECTED. THIS RAISES THE POSSIBILITY THAT WE COULD BE SITTING HERE NOW IN DEEP SHIT IF HE WERE THE NOMINEE.

because he couldn't keep his dick in his pants.

Whether judgement about extramarital affairs should or should not be part of a campaign is entirely another matter. Thisi s about whether he put the party at risk by running as president if he refused to be honest about it before hand.

Imagine if he had been our nominee--today the WH would, without a fight, become the Republians. That is the betrayal of all democrats.

shook their collective head at what a BIG huge stinkin' deal was made out of Clinton's affair? They simply could not believe there could ever be such a huge shitstorm over a politician affair.

While Edwards is not president and there's not any congressional action AND this will probably (hopefully) last exactly one news cycle, I was reminded of that.

and that Americans need to grow up when it comes to human sexuality