This says a lot about our country. Guy is admitting he's totally full of it. But of course it's not against the law to be totally full of it. It may be WRONG to tell the American people that you are a devoted family man while you are banging your mistress, but it's not illegal. Makes Clinton look a little better. At least when he did it, it was on his own dime. If only he had thought of giving Monica a few hundred grand she might have sprung for some dry cleaning and Clinton could still be President today. It makes me wonder, if Edwards really thought this was okay, why did they have to hide the money in boxes of chocolates and whatnot? Look at this dipshit Forrest Gump. You think HIS box of chocolates has $900,000 in it? Probably not. Traditionally, hiding means you're doing something wrong. That's why you hide it. So you would think in some recess of their brains they must've known it wasn't right.
My other question is, was this broad worth $900,000? That's the going rate? I guess if other people are picking up the tab, who cares, but that's a lot of scratch. And it seems like there are people that are pissed off that the government is even attempting to nail this guy. Of course the money was used to help Edwards politically. What would have happened if the guy didn't pay her off and hide her? Wouldn't that have hurt his IMAGE? His ability to really convey the total bullshit he was dishing out? You know what would have been cool? If Edwards came out and said, "hey, I got my mistress pregnant, but I'm supporting her. This shows I have character." And then people could have said, "hey, that's right. He's not some cad who bangs her silly and then ditches her when she gets in trouble. He really SHOULD be President." I wonder if they thought of this and discarded the idea, or if it just didn't occur to them.
On the other hand, maybe I'm nuts but I think it would have been great if the Kerry/Edwards ticket won and all of this played out in an even more public space. The American people may have been okay with it. Maybe Edwards should run again? He can run against Obama with the mistress as his running mate and maybe the Palin/Trump thing will still work out? I can dream, can't I?
In May 2007, as John Edwards endured ridicule for his $400 haircut, a wealthy supporter fired off a note to a campaign aide, vowing to privately pay for his hair care and other expenses important to his candidacy.
"It is a way to help our friend without government restrictions," Bunny Mellon wrote in a letter cited by federal prosecutors.
Investigators believe there should have been restrictions on the $925,000 in under-the-table money that Mellon and another benefactor ended up providing to support Edwards. It's key to the government's contention that the 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee broke the law in hiding his pregnant mistress during the final months of his 2008 campaign for the White House.
Prosecutors contend that plan was an illegal conspiracy to evade campaign finance laws. A federal grand jury agreed, returning a six-count indictment of Edwards on Friday, accusing him of conspiracy, taking illegal campaign contributions and making false statements.
Edwards, 57, pleaded not guilty and was released without bail on the condition he surrender his passport and not leave the continental U.S.
"There's no question that I've done wrong. And I take full responsibility for having done wrong. And I will regret for the rest of my life the pain and the harm that I've caused to others," Edwards said outside the courthouse. "But I did not break the law, and I never, ever thought I was breaking the law."
The charges came after a two-year FBI investigation into the former North Carolina senator. Investigators narrowed the scope of their work to focus on money from two wealthy backers that went to keep Edwards' then-pregnant mistress, Rielle Hunter, in hiding at the height of his 2008 White House campaign.
In an aggressive and apparently novel application of the law, prosecutors said the money constituted campaign contributions because it was intended to protect Edwards' political career from ruin. They said the spending was illegal because Edwards should have reported it on his campaign finance filings and because it exceeded the $2,300-per-person limit on contributions.
Prosecutors said $725,000 from Mellon and $200,000 from Baron was used to pay for Hunter's living and medical expenses and for chartered airfare, luxury hotels and rental of a house in Santa Barbara, Calif., to keep her hidden from the public.
Mellon sent her money through her decorator, sometimes hidden in boxes of chocolates. On the memo lines of her checks, she listed items of furniture such as "chairs," "antique Charleston table" and "book case" to hide the true purpose, according to the indictment.
"A centerpiece of Edwards' candidacy was his public image as a devoted family man," the indictment said. "Edwards knew that public revelation of the affair and the pregnancy would destroy his candidacy by, among other things, undermining Edwards' presentation of himself as a family man and by forcing his campaign to divert personnel and resources away from other campaign activities to respond to criticism and media scrutiny regarding the affair and pregnancy."
[Associated Press]
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