John Edwards

John Edwards -- former US Senator from North Carolina, former Democratic presidential candidate, former Democratic vice presidential hopeful -- walked out of a federal courthouse in North Carolina today a free man.
He had been charged with the misuse of federally regulated campaign funds, which had been diverted, according to the federal indictment, to pay the costs of hiding his pregnant mistress, and afterward supporting both his mistress and his daughter by her, so that he could continue on his political path to…to what?
Anyone who is interested in legal details can find them on CNN, but let me make just one legal point - the federal prosecutors did not prove that Edwards criminally violated any federal campaign law; they didn’t even produce one credible witness who testified to such activity. Their only witness, Andy Young, who worked for Edwards and “took the rap” for sometime by agreeing to say he was the baby’s father, could only prove on the stand that he misused the money given to him to help the mistress and her child. He built a million dollar home with it.
So, today, the jury found Edwards not guilty of the least of the charged offenses and was hung on the others. The waste of taxpayer dollars in the John Edwards case is almost criminal in itself.
But, none of that is really the point to the John Edwards story.
Edwards, himself, says as much whenever anyone puts a TV camera in front of him.
He lied to his wife, dying of cancer. Elizabeth Edwards was a wealthy woman. She learned about his affair too late. But, if he had had even the slightest trust in their relationship and marriage, he would have tried to explain, to resolve the problem with her, instead of hiding it from her by not using their joint funds to support his mistress. We will never know what Elizabeth Edwards would have done, faced with the facts, because her husband decided for her. He decided for her by not giving her the chance to make a mature decision.
He lied to his children or at the least put them in very difficult positions as youngsters - the sadly worn face of the daughter who stuck by her father, sitting every day in the courtroom to hear the sordid details, speaks volumes about the suffering of John Edward’s children.
John Edwards clearly did not trust, or perhaps even love or have real affection for, his mistress. He covered up their affair. He refused publicly on numerous occasions to admit he was the father of her child. He sent her packing around the country, pregnant and with a newborn infant, so that he could continue to play at politics. Play is the right word, because Edwards must have known in the latter months that the story time bomb was about to explode.
So, he sacrificed his wife, his children, his marriage, his mistress, and his new child…for what?? For the chance to spend one more day in the public spotlight, where he was adulated, coddled, treated as a rising star. His ego was being massaged at the expense of wife, children, mistress and child.
And, at the end of the day, perhaps what makes me most angry about his behavior is something almost laughable. Laughable except that it sets a very poor example for young people who badly need role models.
We live in an age where AIDS is perhaps the greatest fear parents have. We encourage, preach, plead, cajole and threaten our teenagers about the need to use condoms.
Did John Edwards ever hear of AIDS? Did he and his mistress ever have an HIV test? Did he ever think about using a condom? Apparently not. It would seem that John Edwards didn't even have the good sense that he would expect of his own children.