Move over, Bill Clinton. There's a new kid on the block when it comes to looking into the camera and not telling the truth to the American people . . . and his name is John Edwards. To his credit, George Stephanopoulos caught Edwards out today on a key tenet of Silky's candidacy . . . but then let things slide.
Edwards was a guest on This Week, and it didn't take him long to don his scourge-of-greedy-corporations mantle. Central to Edwards' pitch is the claim that you don't sit down with corporate interests, you fight them.
View video here.
JOHN EDWARDS: I have a very different view from [Obama] about how we bring about change. I think we have an epic fight on our hands against these entrenched, monied interests. And I think we'll never be successful if --
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: He led the fight for lobbying reform in the Senate, he says.
EDWARDS: But he talks about this in a way that suggests that you sit at a table and negotiate with drug-company lobbyists and insurance-company lobbyists and oil-company lobbyists, and you can somehow negotiate; they'll negotiate their power away. That's a fantasy in my judgment; I don't think it will ever happen. I've been fighting these people my entire life; first for 20 years in courtrooms and now in public life.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Yeah, but this is also a change for you. You did an interview with the [left-wing] website MyDD where you were asked specifically about this: do you want to work with the corporations and you said "I want to bring them to the table." Now you've shifted.
EDWARDS: Oh no I haven't.
Really? Here's the excerpt from that myDD interview of Edwards by myDD's Jonathan Singer.
SINGER: [B]ringing in both corporations and labor and healthcare groups and doctors, not getting into the specifics at all, but how do you see bringing in everyone so it's not just an us versus them, because us versus them didn't work in the past?
EDWARDS: I think you try to bring everybody to the table. You want their participation, you want to make the system work for everybody.
How can you describe other than as a prevarication Edwards' claim that his current position of not negotiating with corporate interests is not a change from the position he espoused to myDD of bringing them to the table and making the system work for everybody? Again, credit Steph for exposing Edwards on this. But for whatever reason George let the matter slide, permitting Edwards to continue his populist riff unabated.
It is chilling to compare the myDD transcript with Edwards words today, and consider what kind of man could blithely make such a statement in abject defiance of truth.
Aside: Note how Edwards also misleads about his prior life as a trial lawyer. He says "I've been fighting these people my entire life; first for 20 years in courtrooms." In courtrooms? Oh sure, occasionally his cases got to court, as when he famously channeled for the jury's benefit an unborn child's distress. But surely the great majority of time Edwards settled cases before they saw the inside of a courtroom, and he did so by . . . sitting around a table and negotiating with those greedy corporate interests.
—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.
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Hello? I've come for an argument.
January 6, 2008 - 14:15 ET by c5thenNo you haven't.
Stphanoppolis is a pundit, not a journalist.
The day that "politician" became a career choice is the day we started losing the Republic. Let's get it back! Alan Keyes '08.
Do I have this right?
January 6, 2008 - 14:15 ET by DaBirdDo I have this right? Edwards wants to fight American corporations, but wants to negotiate with America's enemies? Forgive me oh wise liberals, but I don't quite understand this position.
Edwards
January 6, 2008 - 14:21 ET by iveseenitallHow a charlatan like Edwards could have gotten this far brings to mind P.T. Barnums's famous saying, "There's a sucker born every minute". Clinton, Obama, Edwards--- three blind mice who have become pide pipers for so many fools. Any and all of them are leading Americans off the cliff. Sad.
NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"
" P.T. Barnums's famous
January 6, 2008 - 17:26 ET by Lambton80" P.T. Barnums's famous saying, "There's a sucker born every minute"."
P.T. Barnum never said that
Picky, Picky Picky...
January 7, 2008 - 09:20 ET by voodoodaddyMaybe not, but he was "credited" for saying it.
}}---> Pat Paulson
January 7, 2008 - 09:22 ET by Cool ArrowPaulson 's line when he ran for President from the Smothers' Brothers show.
I ♣ My Seal
THE BRECK GIRL...
January 6, 2008 - 16:47 ET by danybhoyDaBird,
It's easy to understand really, The Breck Girl is like most liberals/progressives, they will always fight what can't really do them harm, & are unwilling to fight what will kill them. This is why Bush is more of a threat then BinLaden. Edwards knows Bush won't come after him no matter how much mud he throws at him, but also knows that UBL & his followers would cut his head off & post it online.
It's the same with corproations, they won't do him any harm, now that I think about it, as a lawyer, he's a bigger threat to them then they will ever be to us. The bottom line is, The Breck Girl will not be President, but I could see one of the Dems appointing him to Attn.Gen, that is enough to make me sick.
"Some of us are wise, some of us are otherwise" Mark Levin
Excellent point - they fight what cannot fight back
January 6, 2008 - 23:14 ET by KC MulvilleIt's the same motive behind George McGovern's ridiculous call for Bush's impeachment. He openly admits that his proposal is a gesture that has no chance at reality. That's typical. John Edwards is the same. Like Hillary, he loves to "take on" a bunch of hazy, vague, mysterious villains. He can make his "courageous" challenge only because he doesn't think there're really anyone there to take him up on it.
Yea Edward's, it's nice to
January 6, 2008 - 14:40 ET by BlazerYea Edward's, it's nice to know we have you lookin' out for all us po' folk. Once an ambulance chaser alway's an ambulance chaser.
"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious. "
- Ben Kenobi on Liberals, and the MSM.
" The Cake is a lie."
Blaz
January 6, 2008 - 14:50 ET bydon't forget hedge-fund counsel
GoHunter08
botg, dont'
January 6, 2008 - 15:08 ET by Blazerbotg, dont' forget treasure hunter's on his resume' too.
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2007/5/23/211110.shtml
"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious. "
- Ben Kenobi on Liberals, and the MSM.
" The Cake is a lie."
Stephanopoulos is more STAPHanopoulos as in an infection
January 6, 2008 - 14:50 ET by Lame CherryStephanopoulos is more STAPHanopoulos as in a liberal infection and by his not questioning Edwards, shows Edwards is nothing but the puss from that infection stinking up the wound of ABC.
*HIC IACET ARTORIVS REX QVONDAM REXQVE FVTVRVS
I find your comment over the
January 6, 2008 - 14:59 ET by Mark FinkelsteinI find your comment over the top. True, Steph failed to follow up. But at least George hit him with the quote from the myDD interview. Have you seen anyone else in the MSM do that?
Mark
January 6, 2008 - 15:08 ET byquite true but this is Edwards and Georgie is a Clinton staffer
GoHunter08
I see this as little Georgie
January 6, 2008 - 15:19 ET by DaBirdI see this as little Georgie Clintonopolis trying to help Hillary in his own sneaky way. Bring up the Edwards contradiction for Hillary, but don't press Edwards any further because the liberal in him won't allow it.
botg...Tony Snow, when he
January 6, 2008 - 15:27 ET by Jerbotg...Tony Snow, when he hosted Fox News Sunday, was capable of asking tough questions of Republicans. And Tony had as much or more of a partisan GOP background than just about any other pundit one can name.
Jer
yes Jer
January 6, 2008 - 15:33 ET byi know Tony Snow, i've watched Tony Snow, i've heard Tony Snow and Georgie is no Tony Snow
GoHunter08
Well, botg, I have watched
January 6, 2008 - 19:48 ET by JerWell, botg, I have watched them both for many years. Initially, I was very skeptical of Tony's ability to be objective as moderator on FNS. Occasionally, I would detect what I considered to be a hint of bias, but on the whole I was very pleasantly surprised.
I think George is reasonably balanced, too. Sometimes, if you assume someone is biased, it's hard to be convinced otherwise. But Tony Snow succeeded in changing my mind. Maybe George will eventually change yours.
Jer
Mark...one of the many
January 6, 2008 - 19:58 ET by JerMark...one of the many things I have learned in my 6+ months here is that L C is constitutionally incapable of being "under the top".
But, he's entertaining.
Jer
Little Georgie Staphylococcus
January 6, 2008 - 18:33 ET by stratmanInfecting the minds of Americans with Clinton propaganda for years.
Killing them with kindness isn't working. Time to get scrappy with the Donkeys.
In the famous words of Blonde
January 6, 2008 - 15:42 ET by OldSailor88Edwards is all hair and no....."um, fortitude."
Faciem durum cacantis habes
Oh, I don't know...
January 6, 2008 - 16:23 ET by heldmywI can see Big Corporations and Monied interests wilting in the face of his whirlwind manic slap-fight.
I'm sure they're trembling, even as he squeaks.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury:
January 6, 2008 - 16:33 ET by BarkerJohn Edwards does not lie.......he just sometimes finds it difficult to make you understand the truth. The truth, however, is that John Edwards did not have sex with that oil baron. The truth is that John Edwards cannot even stand the sight of those greedy corporate devils.
And why isn't John Edwards waging a legal battle of epic proportions against the evil print industry for publishing stories about him that would bring down a local dog-catcher, let alone a presidential candidate?
Why you ask? Because John Edwards is not that kind of person.......John Edwards is one of you........John Edwards is looking out for you.........John Edwards loves you.
Just go with the change..............
Rest.
I find it interesting that
January 6, 2008 - 17:24 ET by USA4freedomI find it interesting that while Edwards has problems with the power of the corporations and how much they cost us and how strong they and how much they make. Some how the Silky, forgets how much lawyers cost each and every one of us. Oh.. that’s ok I forgot “they are the good guy lawyers” the ones fighting the corporations on behalf of the little guys. That explains the little home stead. Sitting on 102 secluded acres - surrounded by trees and defended by no-trespassing signs - the 28,000-square-foot estate that Edwards and his family call home has presidential privacy.
Most expensive home incounty. The main home has five bedrooms and six-and-a-half baths. It's connected by a covered walkway to a bright red addition known as "The Barn," that includes its own living facilities along with a handball court, an indoor pool and an indoor basketball court with a stage at one end.Nearby, the family has cleared space for a soccer field.
With a current building value of $4.3 million, the unfinished Edwards estate is already about $1million more expensive than any other house in the county, according to taxrecords. It sits on land worth about $1.1 million.
Edwards first purchased the land in 2004, during his failed run as vice president. He recently sold his mansion in Washington's Georgetown neighborhood for $5.2 million.
I know, his dad, all his family, every one he knew, people he didn’t know and all the people they knew all worked in the “Mill”.
Look silky, A lot of people have their parents work hard all their life. That does not make you special.
You’re a lawyer, special is the last thing you are.
You, as a lawyer looked right at a jury and say: I can feel the dead girl talking to me, telling me that doctor needs to be screwed for MILLIONS of DOLLARS.
Your not special, your just a dam liar. A good one at that.(period)
Maybe your right, there are two Americas, one honest, the other a pack of liers. I wonder what America you are in.
I wonder, if you Dad is still alive, is he as proud of you as much as you seem to be proud that he worked in a mill. I bet when he hung his hat up at night he knew he made an “honest days work for an honest days pay”. I wonder Silky can say the same.
These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. Ronald Reagan- 40th Anniversary of D-Day
USA4F, Edward's lives in
January 6, 2008 - 17:41 ET by BlazerUSA4F, Edward's lives in the America that despises thier working class conservative neighbor's just because they hang up Giuliani sign's and believe in the 2nd amendment.
Edward's is far far away from that "little mill-town" literally and figurativly speaking. He's just a typical Limousine Liberal who didn't get rich from giving his money away to the poor huddled masses he so shamelessly pander's to.
These hypocrites spend thier time admonishing people who aquire personal wealth, but at the same time say "dont' look at me I worked hard for my money, these other guy's stole thier's". They like to saunter off to thier compound's and gated communities and dream up new way's to take my money and your money and give it away to thier victim constituency, while sheltering and sending thier kid's to private school and telling us how we need to be tolerant and multi-cultural.
1k haircut, 1k suit,over-inflated ego, empty head.
"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious. "
- Ben Kenobi on Liberals, and the MSM.
" The Cake is a lie."
As an aside, isn't it
January 6, 2008 - 16:44 ET by kgAs an aside, isn't it refreshing to see Stephanopoulos ask they kind of question he would never dream of asking Hillary?
Steph
January 6, 2008 - 18:16 ET by okiehawk44George just serves up the ball (maybe the ball was even given to him by the HillBillys) -- now Hillary can quote G.S. as the legitimate media source of this obvious flip-flop by Eliza... 'er John Edwards.
How come no one ever
January 6, 2008 - 18:49 ET by ckc1227How come no one ever confronts Edwards about his contribution to the increasing price of health care in this country considering how much he complains about the price of health care in this country?
Yeah, you should take the fight to the evil corporations, Mr. Silky. You already have a problem with jobs going overseas. One can only imagine how many more will leave because you "took the fight" to 'em. You'll show 'em though.
As much as I dislike Hillary(and I do, I really do), I think I dislike this clown even more, and that's saying a lot. I am embarrassed that my state is associated in any way with this man.