Senator Stevens and John Edwards...something that's been bothering me all day.

[Cleita]

Why was Stevens, a convicted felon, given a hero's farewell in the Senate today, but John Edwards has for all intents and purposes been shunned by all his former colleagues for nothing more than being a horn dog? The fawning all over Stevens was also participated in by Democrats, yet those same Democrats can't give the time of day to a fellow Democrat who once was part of the same Senate too. Why is the other party always allowed to bully our guys and treat them as inferiors and why do we give them the time of day at all either?

[Taverner]

1. Sex is bad...mmmmmkay?

Seriously - you are correct

[woodsprite]

9. You need to qualify that - DEMOCRATIC sex is bad. n/t

[Rockholm]

41. Democratic sex is bad, yes this is true........

but try having sex with a republican. Ugh.

[onehandle]

2. Sadly, you've given the Edwards haters an opening to hate him in this thread.

They forget that Edwards was #1 at DU even right after he dropped out.

[SammyWinstonJack]

35. I haven't forgotten.

They forget that Edwards was #1 at DU even right after he dropped out. :thumbsup:

[robinlynne]

43. Edwards is still up there in my book.

[KoKo]

54. It's not "Edwards Haters." There are DU'ers who actually worked for him for Senate

from NC who have watched him all these years. And...seen him disappoint us, time after time after time.

[EFerrari]

3. Exactly. K&R

[KoKo]

50. See my post #49....I'm not jerking you around here...it's experience

with him.

[amdezurik]

4. sanctimonious jerks are everywhere

even here. all trembling in fear their own "sins" will be exposed so they shun those who were caught and refuse to slink away

[babylonsister]

5. It's the hypocrisy! Yesterday, the GOP wouldn't acknowledge Stevens.

Today, a standing 'o'. Go figure.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4500034&mesg_id=4500034

[Occam Bandage]

32. "If you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite."

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

6. Not an Edwards Hater

Although I might have been, had he won the nomination, been disgraced, and cost us the White House.

I think that is what is at the root of the Senate's disdain. As for Stevens, a little sendoff for the longest serving member is in order. Hopefully it will give him a warm fuzzy feeling as he does his community service picking up trash along the Alaskan Highway.

[Cleita]

7. I guess no one is going to give him thanks for dropping out

of the race because he knew that if it got out it would cost us the White House. I would have preferred if he had done a complete mea culpa and admitted the real reason he was dropping out, but he did take one for the team. Now must we be so hard on him?

[karynnj]

45. and because he was losing?

It wasn't altruism.

Ignoring the source of their "problems", another difference is that Stevens has been there for over 40 years. I noticed in the video that he went over to hug someone on our side, then recognized that it was Byrd. They may have been friends for 4 decades. I don't know his record well - I'm sure he did more than just get pork for Alaska, wear a Hulk tie sometimes and fight to get drilling in ANWR. They also know that they would have expelled him had he won -- and he knew it too. They know he returns to Alaska to face sentencing.

The Edwards situation has little in common with this. He is not part of the Senate now, so there was nothing equivalent to a last day. It came out in the middle of an election, so I assume no one wanted to give it more attention than it had. I still see articles that credit him for things he did while running - which is better than many who lost badly. He also was only in the Senate for 6 years, 2 of which were mostly running for higher office. He then spent 2007 running on a bash Congress for not getting us out of the war - when there was nothing HRC, Biden, Dodd and Obama could do. Feingold's harsh comment likely happened because of that. In addition, no one knows if any fellow colleague called him of Elizabeth. As there was no public last day, there was no forum like Stevens had. I don't know who he was friends with in the Senate - but, there may well have been Senators who reached out to him.

[Donnachaidh]

8. please do NOT put Edwards and that daft old crook in the same line

Yeah, yeah, he couldn't keep it in his pants -- big whoop. Stevens is a convicted FELON. There is a huge difference.

And if the other pukes want to give him a *sendoff* -- I could give 2 sh*ts about that.

[Warpy]

10. I sincerely hope that both he and Spitzer

are hired at Justice below the level of AG so that they'll need no Senate approval but they'll be able to do what they do best: going after the Wall Street barons who put Stupid into office and crashed this country into a brick wall.

Neither of them would ever be approved by the Senate. However both would still have a role to play in a DOJ that isn't controlled by Wall Street goons put in there by the Bush family.

[Cleita]

12. That would be my wet dream.

We really need him on our side. Maybe the office staff can sneak saltpeter into his morning Danish.

[Inspired]

21. Maybe they should have thrown him a baby shower.

Just to show the love.

[Warpy]

30. Excuse me?

I'm not expecting the country to hire him as a husband.

However, hiring him as a prosecutor is a great idea. He's a very good one of those.

[cali]

42. he's never been a prosecutor.

he's been a successful civil litigator. And my objections to Edwards had nothing to do with his having an affair.

[karynnj]

46. He was NEVER a prosecutor

[Warpy]

57. Civil litigator prosecuting corporations

or defending clients from the illegal actions of said corporations, semantic hairsplitting.

I'd still like to see him in the DOJ.

I'd just never want to marry him.

[SammyWinstonJack]

36. .

:eyes:

[glitch]

44. Sweet. {{{Visualizing}}} nt

[KoKo]

53. Spitzer and Edwards are two very different situations about ethics though..

Spitzer seems to have been caught in a "scam" and Edwards "elected by choice" to do what he did. Think about the differences in the two and their circumstances. Spitzer wasn't running for a second time to be President and taking in money and hearts and minds of all those who supported his Message of "Two America's" and saw Edwards as the person who could carry that message to the White House.

Spitzer was NY Attorney General who angered many on Wall St. for going after their "beloved own." He wasn't carrying a message about America's Poor to the WH!

One got caught in a "honey pot entrapment" and the other elected to carry on an affair, have a child and then run for President (sneaking out on his wife who had cancer recurrence while claiming to be a "family man") when he had to know that he would get caught. If he didn't know he would get caught then he was totally clueless about Gary Hart and Bill Clinton. If that's the case...what kind of President would he have made if he thought he was so "above it all" that he'd never get caught. Appearing in a Hotel Room in CA where NE caught him like a "deer in headlights," wasn't warning enough. He then lied about it all while his mistress now lives near he and Elizabeth in Chapel Hill (having moved from CA) and the baby and mistress are "just down the road." No wonder Elizabeth ditched her wedding ring! Sheesh...He's Tabloid News...John Edwards in the worst way.

[Warpy]

58. Spitzer might have been set up

but he walked right into it. For all we know, Edwards might also have been set up on some level and walked right into it.

Between the two, Spitzer was on shakier ground because of his record of going after prostitutes in criminal investigations.

However, neither would be that big an ethical problem in going after corporations, lobbyists, foreign agents and members of the current administration.

I'd love to have both of them quietly working at the DOJ.

[SoCalDem]

11. Stevens was well-known to be a scoundrel..Edwards played "pure as the driven snow"

It's always about the hypocrisy..

People admired the chuzpah of Stevens..and pushing the envelope the way he did "for his state" was an admirable thing to his greedy constituents.. they willingly overlooked his "taking a little for himself"..

cheating on an ill wife, while USING her and the kidlets as a tableau for his "family values" campaign is dirty dirty dirty..

[Cleita]

13. Get over it. Do you blame him after the way

Clinton got raked over the coals from affair Monica? I hope Obama is as pure as the driven snow as he seems too, however, if a little sex scandal sneaked up on him, it wouldn't change the way I think of him as my President at all. You know Americans have to grow up and start thinking more like the Europeans do about their leaders and the sexual peccadilloes that come up. Also, Elizabeth evidently knew early on, so he wasn't that big of a pig.

[SoCalDem]

14. Personally, it's not that big of a deal who cheats on whom, BUT

he used his clean-cut persona as his calling-card..and he was found to be lacking.

He's a grown up and he had to know the consequences.. He felt it was worth the risk.. I would have liked to have seen him become Atty Gen.. I liked his ideas..still do, but his political career is tainted by the hypocrisy.

Clinton's a different case because everyone "knew" he was a hound-dog...

[Cleita]

15. His political career is pretty over, so I think he's getting his penance.

Anything he does from now on won't be as grand but he can still use his talents in the service of his country and this is what this is about.

[EFerrari]

23. Clinton is a different case because he was a better spinner. n/t

[karynnj]

47. That's not even what JRE said

He said he confessed in 2006 when it ended - before it came out the first time in fall. However, there are photos showing her next to JRE in late 2006 when he opened his campaign in New Orleans (EE wasn't there.)

the dilemma is:

Either EE knew the story the NR had in late 2007 was true - and STILL thought it could be covered up and he could still run
or she found out some them early in 2008 or even mid 2008.

[KoKo]

51. You are correct from my personal experience with him..

see post #49

[arthritisR_US]

16. Leibershit got better treatment than Edwards did and it makes me sick! n/t

[Cleita]

17. Oh he got royal treatment for being a Benedict Arnold, didn't he? n/t

[arthritisR_US]

28. he sure did...Edwards may be a lousy husband but Leibershit is an absolute

disgrace of a human being, a traitor to his party.

[KoKo]

52. It's apples and pineapples between these two. No comparison...

:-( Edwards is going to take a decade or more to rehab himself with Progressive Dems who knew how he could have cost us the Presidency. See Post #49...I'm not conning you here.

[Raineyb]

60. Indeed and I'd take Edwards over LIEberman any day. n/t

Regards

[Time for change]

18. I agree, and I'll add

that sex revelations are fatal to Democrats, but hey, what about McCain leaving his wife after she waited for him for several years. That's a lot more serious than what Edwards did. But McCain's affairs weren't even mentioned on tv, while it Edwards' affair was covered intensely for several days. And McCain was the one running for President.

[SmileyRose]

20. Edwards V McCain hornballapoloosa

sensationalism wise - people can picture Edwards getting his freak on, get inspired to get their own freak on, then come watch more of the TeeVee for more inspiration. If the newspeople ask America to picture McCain gettin his freak on - America would first barf then change the channel.

[SmileyRose]

19. Supposedly

while Edwards is popular with the masses, he is not real popular with his fellow politicians. Jimmy Carter shares the same fate so at least Edwards is in good company. IMHO, being shunned by the inside the beltway crowd is his best endorsement.

[Grey]

22. Wish I could recommend more than once

for the double standard.

[Kitty Herder]

24. IOKIYAR.

[Cleita]

27. Yep, Jerks.

When are we going to make them the underclass.

[tritsofme]

25. Why should current senators be concerned with washed up former senators?

They have the business of the nation to attend to; not the feelings a man whose stupidity very well could have made us being saying the words President McCain come January.

[Cleita]

26. He wasn't stupid. He dropped out early in the race.

We all wondered why. It didn't make sense because he had a good chance, but he did drop out because he knew what the result would be. I doubt very much even if he stayed in the race if he would have beaten the Obama train anyway. So it's really a moot argument.

[leftofthedial]

29. repukes

versus Democrats

double standard.

[Occam Bandage]

31. Edwards is not a Senator. Stevens is.

[Cleita]

33. Read much? He once was a senator so he was once a colleague of most

of those same senators who were praising Stevens. Not only that he is still a member of the Democratic Party and deserves a little better treatment than he's been getting.

[Occam Bandage]

34. I did not say, "was."

[karynnj]

48. The vast majority of the Democrats weren't there

Reid, Lieberman (I), and Byrd seemed the only ones. Edwards was given a sendoff on his last day.

What do you expect - that they invite him to the Senate to praise what he did 4 plus years before? I think the Senate was out of session then. To invite him later that month to the convention would be stupid. He was a negative at that point.

I would bet that if he had Senate friends - and I actually did not follow Edwards enough to know, I think they would have reached out to him - privately. I also think that if he does something - say a program on poverty - that he could be called to testify before the Senate - and he might then be praised in the introduction for that work.

[JI7]

37. there is no comparison there, with Stevens it's because he is leaving the Senate

nothing more than that. if he had already left the Senate as Edwards did nothing would have been said or done.

[opihimoimoi]

38. YUP...ya said it there....

:toast:

[Blue_In_AK]

39. FORTY years. n/t

[smoogatz]

40. Stevens is a Republican.

All this "ethics" silliness means nothing to them.

[KoKo]

49. I live in NC...

Don't ever mention John Edwards name to me again. My first instincts were correct about him when he dissed the Iraq Invasion Protestors outside a Fundraiser here in Raleigh, NC I and others were there with our signs...we who worked to get him elected)...and dissed those of us who were protesting him who gave money and walked the streets to get him elected to Senator.

His name should not be spoken. If you knew what we'd been through with him (I'm talking about Progressive NC Dems), I'm telling you ...you wouldn't want to walk on the same side of the street with him. It's so sad that he ruined the message he could have had...from the time he ran...he's been full of LIES!

Sorry to say this...and it's not his "message" but the "character of the Man, himself" who has been at fault.

Elizabeth Edwards, however is a HERO! She got conned...... :cry:

[Cleita]

59. Sorry Koko01.

Edwards is not a convicted felon. I'm sorry you had a bad experience with him and you are within your rights to talk about it, but the fact stands that he hasn't committed any felony like Stevens has. I think it's disgusting the send off that he got in Congress including from Democrats. Stevens should be getting the same treatment people are giving Edwards who committed a grevious sin but not a felony.

[defendandprotect]

55. The Stevens thing was disgusting ...the boy's club house

[Generator]

56. Are you kidding?

Stevens is innocent. OBVIOUSLY-he's a RepubliCON. (That's how they think) And anyway-they don't CARE. The Republicons love theives. They really do, haven't you noticed? Also Republcons NEVER give up on their guys. They are LOYAL as long as you are LOYAL. Lieberman would have been gone YEARS ago from the Re pugs. Our side loves to dump a progressive faster than Obama dumped us all. (that's a joke for myself) Anyway-Edwards-not just the sex. It was a multitude of bad timing and factors. It came out RIGHT before our dear progressive leader with the D behind his name's convention. CAN't HAVE any HINT of sexual bad things near the magic man. Also-Edwards is rumored to have had proof of the sex-a baby! That's a big no no. Next big no no-his campaign rumored to have PAID the baby mama. Really really bad. And yes-he does look like a TOTAL sleaze. It JUST happened.

OH AND I did you forget? He cheated on a wife dying of cancer that you and I both know-is more beloved by many in the party and out of the party than Edwards EVER will be, Elizabeth. Many of us have had cancer and the thought of our husband cheating on us while we are dying, getting the bitch pregnant and running for president is a bit too much to you know-HANDLE-much less forgive. Also, many of his closest advisers are disgusted with him too. I don't know if he will ever redeem himself. Stevens never wanted to or needed to. The Republicons love their criminals. But mostly with Edwards it's Elizabeth.

As for our Democrats applauding Stevens-well "our" Democrats seem to worship mostly power (and thieves that get away with it for thirty some years-that's some good mojo!) and take us for suckas!