Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Nation & World

Washington Whispers by Paul Bedard

Elizabeth Edwards Raps New York Times's Maureen Dowd

June 04, 2009 03:36 PM ET | Paul Bedard, Deborah Kotz | Permanent Link | Print

Reader Comments

Power hungry celebrity seeker

Some people will do anything to hang on to and cash in on their fame no matter what the cost, and the rest of us be damned. She knew about her husbands affair but selfishly kept her mouth shut to keep her chances of being first lady alive. If John Edwards had been nominated didn't she realize that the chances were good that word would get out and McCain would get in? She put all of us at risk for her and her husband's political ambitions and now she is trying to cash in on the remnants of her celebrity. Go ahead madam, sell your books, get on the Larry King show. I am sorry for your illness but your hubris is still astounding.

Elizabeth Edwards new book, Resilience

I don't get the comments that Elizabeth Edwards just wrote Resilience as revenge for her husband's affair. I just finished reading Resilience and found it very insightful, tactful, well written, and inspiring. It makes me want to know Elizabeth Edwards. She truly has had to "adjust her sails," as she wrote in the final paragraph of the book. In my opinion, she has a very admirable, positive outlook on her future even though she has had to deal with the loss of a child she obviously loved very much, a serious prognosis that her cancer is growing, and then the shock of the affair of her hasband. Any one of those challenges should evoke at the very least compassion and yet twin sisters Ann Coulter and Maureen Dowd spew their typical, omnipresent venom at Ms. Edwards. I just don't get it, and frankly, don't care to try to make any sense of their hate---what a waste of time and life.

Elizabeth Edwards new book, Resilience

I don't get the comments that Elizabeth Edwards just wrote Resilience as revenge for her husband's affair. I just finished reading Resilience and found it very insightful, tactful, well written, and inspiring. It makes me want to know Elizabeth Edwards. She truly has had to "adjust her sails," as she wrote in the final paragraph of the book. In my opinion, she has a very admirable, positive outlook on her future even though she has had to deal with the loss of a child she obviously loved very much, a serious prognosis that her cancer is growing, and then the shock of the affair of her hasband. Any one of those challenges should evoke at the very least compassion and yet twin sisters Ann Coulter and Maureen Dowd spew their typical, omnipresent venom at Ms. Edwards. I just don't get it, and frankly, don't care to try to find make any sense of their hate---what a waste of time and life.

Cheaters!

What is it with all these men who are cheating on their wives and families? And what's with these women who put up with it! It just goes to show you my mother was right! She had an old saying, "Women think with their hearts and men think with their parts!" Wow! How true! Come on women! At least teach your daughters how real men are supposed to treat their wives!

Standing by her man - yuck!

Why do women choose to stand by their disrespectful, lying, fornicating husbands? Are you all that desperate to nest? Desperation is pitiful. I understand Elizabeth Edwards' position being ill more than I do the others - all members of The Clinton Club - Sanford's words to the AP about his soul mate and how he will 'try' to fall in love with his wife again are disgusting - a self-centered idiot without any feeling at all for his sons or his wife. He has a sensitivity chip missing - what is his wife supposed to do with that information? Well, I'll tell you what I would do with it - I would get a very good attorney and quietly (if at all possible) divorce him. Poor kids - what he has said is sickening. He needs to resign ASAP. He is a disgrace. Please stop quoting the Bible Mr. Sanford. That makes you an even bigger jerk. If she stays with him, then I question her self-respect as well as what she is teaching her children, even though she sees it differently. Kick him out... permanently!!! Don't be a martyr.

Elizabeth Edwards

I don't think any of the people referenced in the article or with follow-up comments have read "Resilience." It is not about her husband's affair, in fact that is referenced in a very minimal way. This book shares the wisdom and strength of a mother and her love for her children and how she has chosen to personally get through both the loss of a child and cancer.For anyone to suggest it is about "the affair" is both shallow and disrespectful and has obviously not read the book and might consider refraining from participating in a conversation they know nothing about.

Exposure, she wrote.

Elizabeth Edward's book is about exposing her husband for what he is, a liar and a cheat. She had to get it off her chest, and she needed to tell someone. So she wrote a book that would end up on the Best Seller List. Will this make her feel better? I regretfully doubt it.

Claudine

Protecting the kids????

If she were really interested in sharing how she felt with her children, she could have written them a letter to be read when they are older. But the world does not need to know the contents of that letter. She does not need to continue to make money off of her son's death or her husband's infidelity. She does not need money. Yes, the children can learn of events on the internet, but that's why she is fortunate she has time NOW to talk with them, and if she must, leave something for their eyes only to read 10 years from now. The spotlight is very hard to leave, and if you cannot earn it without exploiting your dead son, husband, and living children, their is something corrupt about that... and terribly needy.

Not exempt from criticism

sie, what difference does it make whether Dowd has children?

Are you saying that women who have children should not criticize other mothers for any reason? Are you saying that mothers are immune from any sort of ciriticism? Women are more than their wombs.

I'm not a fan of Dowd, but I agree with her about Elizabeth Edwards. Mrs. Edwards is not being thrust unwillingly into the spotlight. She is a public figure who kept silent about -- and lied about -- her husband's adultery when it was in her own interests to support his political ambitions. And now that her husband's career is in ruins, she is further harming the children she will soon leave motherless by writing a book exposing the family's pain.

One can feel sympathy for Mrs. Edwards because she is a betrayed wife and the victim of cancer. But her unfortunate situation -- or her reproductive status -- does not exempt her from criticism for writing and promoting a book that can only cause her children pain. They've gone through enough already. And if you subscribe to the fashionable view that mothers are saints, you'd think that Mrs. Edwards would have thought about this.

Elizabeth, just shut up

I can't believe that Mrs. Edwards didn't know about her husband's behavior, and for as long as silence helped his career -- and her way of life -- kept silent. Now that her husband's political career is over, she has no problem cashing in on his failings. She disingenuously says that her children aren't shielded from real life -- as if exposing her family's pain for money can't hurt them now. I do not in any was excuse Mr. Edwards' behavior -- it is utterly reprehensible, and I did not support him as a politician. And while I am sorry that Mrs. Edwards is suffering from cancer, her illness does not excuse her years of hypocrisy or the pain she is inevitably inflicting on her children at the end of her life.

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