After arriving in Denver for the Democratic National Convention, Congressman Chet Edwards (D-Waco) told Ken Herman of the Statesman that he thought the scandal involving former U.S. Senator John Edwards hurt his chances to become Barack Obama's running mate.
"I would have to think that a bumper sticker that said 'Obama/The Other Edwards' might have been a bit difficult," Edwards said Sunday after arriving in Denver for the Democratic convention.
Chet Edwards (not related to the former North Carolina senator) said he was notified Aug. 10 that he was on Obama's short list "and there was a possible plan to have my name released to the public" in the days that followed.
That was the same time that details began to emerge about John Edwards' affair with a former aide in his unsuccessful presidential campaign.
"I'll let you juxtapose the date of the John Edwards exposé with when they were about to release my name," Chet Edwards said.
Chet Edwards indicated no bitterness about the timing or toward John Edwards.
"It's really not productive for me to speculate" about how big a role the John Edwards situation played in the selection process. "I'll leave it to you to draw whatever judgment you want. It probably wouldn't be off base if you said something about that time period is exactly when another Edwards name jumped on the front page of every newspaper in America."
While the scandal did complicate the prospects for an Obama/(Chet) Edwards ticket, I do not think it was the deciding factor.
Edwards, who thinks Biden was a great choice, doesn't really seem to either. However, there is no doubt it was an additional hurdle for a darkhorse VP hopeful like Chet Edwards, who is not well-known outside of his congressional district.
When Obama told him "several days ago" that he would not be selected, there was no mention of any reason for the decision, according to Chet Edwards, who said the selection of Delaware Sen. Joe Biden was "the perfect choice."
...
"When I knew this was getting serious was June 30 when I was driving to Dallas from Waco," he said. "My cell phone rang and he said, 'This is Barack Obama. How are you doing?' Frankly, I thought it was one of my prankster friends kidding me."
While it surprised many to see Chet Edwards make the "short list," we will never know what might have happened had he not shared a surname with a certain former senator from North Carolina.
About two weeks ago, I wrote that the Harris County Democratic Party would probably need to do some hard work ahead of them, because John Edwards no longer seemed like the right person for Houston's biggest party fundraiser that was scheduled September 20. Soon afterwards Mr. Edwards withdrew from the event, leaving the party in certain need for a bit of scrambling.
Well, their work has been done. The only significant causality is the date. Now to be October 4, Retired General Wesley Clark will headline the JRR Dinner 2008. Good job to the men and women in Houston who made this happen. Hopefully, everything will proceed as normal, and the dinner will be its usual success.
Facing an uphill battle in his race for HD-52, Republican nominee Bryan Daniel has initiated an attack against his Democratic opponent, Diana Maldonado, exploiting the John Edwards affair. Edwards' finance committee chair Fred Baron paid Edwards' paramour Rielle Hunter's moving expenses from North Carolina to California. He said it was to help her avoid tabloid reporters chasing the story.
Baron has also supported Annie's List financially since at least 2006. Annie's List has endorsed Diana Maldonado and contributed to her campaign. Now we learn that Williamson county Republican party chair Bill Fairbrother is contacting media to pressure the Maldonado campaign to give $25,000 back to Annie's List.
This is a dangerous line of attack for Daniel who, according to the most recent TEC report, has taken $12,712 from 24 PACs and lobbyists. Daniels' campaign is fueled by PACs, any number of which harbor tainted money. Once the campaign goes there, it opens up the door to examinations of Republican transgressions. One need not look far. Take the current representative from HD-52, Republican Mike Krusee, for example. He was arrested in April for DWI and has been rumored to have an extra-marital relationship of his own.
The actions of Baron in doing what he could to prevent damaging stories about Edwards from surfacing during the primary were ill-advised, and a certain amount of blowback was inevitable.
Baron is a plaintiff's attorney who is best known for representing clients claiming toxic and chemical exposure. This makes him an old enemy of giant corporations and the Republican politicians they own. Fairbrother deliberately used the word "toxic" to sound off a dog whistle to Republicans who have long hated him. The irony here is that the money was toxic long before Baron touched it. It became tainted by the asbestos manufacturers and chemical companies that failed to protect their employees or suppressed information about the dangers of their products.
In recent years, Baron has been a leading fund-raiser for the Democratic party. It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of Baron's money to all Democrats in Texas. Baron is a dedicated Democrat because of his years fighting for plaintiffs. He knows the harm that big companies, who value profit more than life itself, are doing to you and me.
For the past six weeks, local Republicans have chafed at Maldonado's fund-raising success. The entire Edwards affair, and Baron's role in it, have given Republicans an avenue for attack. The question is open for debate whether that "toxic" money got cleaner after Baron touched it. One thing is for sure, it was put to good use by Annie's List, an organization that has helped elect 8 Democratic women to the state legislature. Their decision to support Maldonado was based on her record on education, her track record on the school board, and her stand on the issues that matter to Democrats and women.
Follow the HD-52 race at: http://eyeonwilliamson.org
This past week, we began a discussion regarding John Edwards' place as a keynote for Democratic fundraisers in the near future. Most in this community understood the political consequences of a troubled Edwards headlining a fundraiser, although some seemed to wish we did not have to act harshly in response to a revelation about his private life.
The good thing is, we don't have to. As reported by the Houston Chronicle:
Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards no longer has an engagement in Houston.
On Monday, he rescinded his pledge to speak in Houston at the annual fundraising gala for the Harris County Democratic Party on Sept. 20.
The party had touted the 2004 vice presidential nominee for months as the keynote speaker for the event, which was expected to raise up to $150,000.
But the speech became a casualty of Edward's 2006 extramarital affair with campaign videographer Rielle Hunter. Edwards admitted the affair Friday after denying it for months.
Edwards sent word to Houston-area Democrats Monday "that his family and he need some time in private and requested that we replace him as featured speaker," the county party said on its Web site.
"We have advised Senator Edwards that we understand completely his need to remove himself from this event and have expressed our sincere concern for his family and him in these difficult times."
This should be win-win for all parties involved. The JRR dinner should still have a prominent speaker -- he or she will be named later.
The media's self-righteous outrage in covering John Edward's affair is so over the top that one has to wonder why it is protesting so much. Why are the reporters and anchors so personally outraged? If they have a problem with affairs, what about McCain's cruel and calloused ditching of his first wife, who was crippled, for a younger and richer woman? What about that lobbyist lady friend of his that was mentioned in the New York Times? Or who was that Ms. what's her face with Dick Cheney on that infamous hunting trip when he shot one of his friends in the face?
Last night I switched channels from MSNBC's Hardball to CNN's Wolf to Faux's whomever (didn't hang long enough to find out b/c I refuse to have my intelligence insulted by a bunch of water carrying bushie propagandists). It was all the same: John Edwards, John Edwards and then John Edwards. Fuming, I turned off the idiot box and blasted off the following email to Hardball.
I assume most of our readers hear know now of John Edwards' extramarital affair. If not, the National Enquirer broke the story, and Edwards admitted to it on ABC.
The Burnt Orange Report didn't make any significant posts regarding the former senator's love life. We saw no need to -- we are a Texas based website. Carl Whitmarsh posed a good question in one of his email blasts, though:
Since it appears that Senator Obama and staff do not feel John Edwards is now appropriate to speak before the Democratic National Convention in Denver, the question becomes Is Edwards appropriate to speak before the Johnson-Rayburn-Richards Dinner in Houston? Without passing judgment, who is going to fill those $135 seats to hear a self admitted liarand adulterer who cheated on his cancer stricken wife?
The local party's key fundraiser will take place September 20 this year. Every year a top figure in national Democratic politics flies to Houston to help us out. (When I volunteered two years ago, Russ Feingold spoke to us.) Enough GOP scandals exist in the county, and we can't have a guy with Edwards' new stain being our headliner if we want to win big.
Most likely, the Dems in Harris County don't stand alone in this dilemma. Chances are that he was scheduled for other speaking arrangements in the future in Texas. For those explicitly for the Democratic cause, I sincerely hope his spot is replaced.
But with who? I'm sure there are many options out there. In Harris County, at least, we receive the little national press attention dedicated to House seats the Republicans have a chance of taking. Houston also has one of the best Mayors in Bill White, who stays out of specific races but still a strong Democrat. Intersecting in the county are also the two state races where Democrats look to gain in the US House, CD10 and CD07.
It can't be that hard. We should be able to find someone who will want to help us. The main problem is the clock that's ticking. Obama might find it easier replacing Edwards for the Convention because, well, all the possible speakers are scheduled to be there anyways. Unfortunately, us smaller events in Texas have some scrambling to do.
Update 11:35 PM: I just read Elizabeth Edwards' comments. They're a short and good read. It speaks from a point of view other than John's that this was truly a mistake. I'm glad to learn from Elizabeth that it was something handled privately with the family when it happened in 2006. Such inner-family honesty shows true courage. Unfortunately, such courage is not what is coupled with the honesty in most media reports. Hopefully John Edwards can spend any public time dealing on non-partisan issues, such as his championing of poverty, while this passes over. Then, I can only imagine, both Edwards can fully return to the political arena to give their help to the world.
(Welcome home Will. It's good to have you back. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
My name is Will Ikard and recently returned home to Austin after six months in Iowa where I worked the caucuses for John Edwards. I am so proud of my time working for him. John set the terms of this debate and made Democrats address the 37 million Americans who wake up every day in poverty, the 13 million American children who go hungry every year, the 200,000 American veterans who go to sleep each night on grates or under bridges. I am so proud of my time working for him.
But this was not John's year. Such is politics. My only consolation is that there is another candidate in this race who shares John Edwards' vision for making America what it can be. That candidate is Barack Obama.
Though Edwards and Obama certainly disagreed on some elements of policy, anyone who got to spend as much time with the candidates as I did knows that they share a commitment to changing America for the better. The clearest example of this, to me, is their shared rejection lobbyist money. Two major candidates showed courage and leadership by putting their own campaigns at risk and refusing to take money from Washington lobbyists and PACs. The other candidate defended the lobbyist system. I need no more evidence than that.
Barack Obama will bring about the change we so desperately need in this country. Please join me in voting and caucusing for him on March 4.
(And let's all cross our fingers for a John Edwards Attorney General-ship.)
John Edwards is one of those rare political figures who is both capable of inspiring hope while taking up the most difficult and tumultuous fights.
With the announcement of his pending withdrawl from the race for the Democratic nomination for President this year, there will be millions of Americans struggling to decide where to pledge thier ongoing support. Neither Hillary Clinton, nor Barack Obama can represent precisely the firebrand populism of the Edwards campaign, but on issue after issue, there is strong reason for Edwards supporters to join the rising movement for change that has been inspired by the Obama candidacy.
Barack Obama had this to say about Edwards withdrawl from the race:
"John Edwards has spent a lifetime fighting to give voice to the voiceless and hope to the struggling, even when it wasn't popular to do or covered in the news. At a time when our politics is too focused on who's up and who's down, he made a nation focus again on who matters - the New Orleans child without a home, the West Virginia miner without a job, the families who live in that other America that is not seen or heard or talked about by our leaders in Washington."
Obama added, "John and Elizabeth Edwards have always believed deeply that we can change this - that two Americans can become one, and that our country can rally around this common purpose. So while his campaign may end today, the cause of their lives endures for all of us who still believe that we can achieve that dream of one America."
From all of us Obama supporters to all of you Edwards supporters: we are here to welcome you with open arms.
John Edwards is one of those rare political figures who is both capable of inspiring hope while taking up the most difficult and tumultuous fights.
