You caught the pick-pocket; now what about the serial killer?
Something I'm puzzled about. So John Edwards is a pariah, right? Right at this point in time, a reporter wouldn't ask the former Vice Presidential Candidate for directions to the bathroom for fear of giving this cad, this heartless bastard, this callow lecher any kind of a platform. And I don't really have a problem with that. I'm not going to say that John Edwards was always an evil fuck, but his brush with national office certainly turned him into one.
The thing that puzzles me is that reporters have no problem soliciting opinions from so-called "serious people" who are objectively more evil than John Edwards. Consider a favorite Breakfast Nook whipping boy, ol' Newton Leroy himself. Not only did Gingrich do the exact same thing as Edwards--cheat on a cancer-stricken wife and lie about it--he adds to that a career of corruption and malfeasance in public service. His presidential campaign doubled as a money-making scam, since he and his wife ran up something like $6,000,000 in campaign debt they have no intention of paying off. What the fuck? The only reason Gingrich hasn't been arrested as a common thief is that he his, in the words of Lloyd Alexander, "a most uncommon thief."
And Vice President Cheney is all over the news when he wants to be, despite the fact that he helped start a war that he directly benefited from, due to his previous affiliation will Halliburton. It's not cheating on your wife, I know, but millions of people suffered or died, in part so Dick Cheney could make money. And yet, he's still treated like a serious person, and not like the shambling bag of evil he is. Even Donald Trump, whose serial adultery, outright criminality, and sheer awfulness are known worldwide, is treated with more respect than Sunny John. Like I said, I have no problem with making Edwards a pariah. His dishonesty and hubris deserve that kind of punishment. I just the press were a little more openhanded with the shunning, because the continued presence of men like Gingrich and Cheney in the public discourse cheapens all of us.
The thing that puzzles me is that reporters have no problem soliciting opinions from so-called "serious people" who are objectively more evil than John Edwards. Consider a favorite Breakfast Nook whipping boy, ol' Newton Leroy himself. Not only did Gingrich do the exact same thing as Edwards--cheat on a cancer-stricken wife and lie about it--he adds to that a career of corruption and malfeasance in public service. His presidential campaign doubled as a money-making scam, since he and his wife ran up something like $6,000,000 in campaign debt they have no intention of paying off. What the fuck? The only reason Gingrich hasn't been arrested as a common thief is that he his, in the words of Lloyd Alexander, "a most uncommon thief."
And Vice President Cheney is all over the news when he wants to be, despite the fact that he helped start a war that he directly benefited from, due to his previous affiliation will Halliburton. It's not cheating on your wife, I know, but millions of people suffered or died, in part so Dick Cheney could make money. And yet, he's still treated like a serious person, and not like the shambling bag of evil he is. Even Donald Trump, whose serial adultery, outright criminality, and sheer awfulness are known worldwide, is treated with more respect than Sunny John. Like I said, I have no problem with making Edwards a pariah. His dishonesty and hubris deserve that kind of punishment. I just the press were a little more openhanded with the shunning, because the continued presence of men like Gingrich and Cheney in the public discourse cheapens all of us.