I was going to write a post about why John Edwards' private life, like John McCain's or Bill Richardson's or Bill Clinton's, have nothing to do with our lives or whether they should be elected officials. Instead, I am going to resist the urge to pontificate and will link to this diary posted today by Elizabeth Edwards on Daily Kos.

Speaking for me only

Scott Muschany, a Republican state legislator from suburban St. Louis, joined other Republican legislators and Gov. Matt Blunt last March in urging the Supreme Court to uphold the death penalty for the sexual assault of children. Muschany was indicted this week for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. Muschany is fortunate that the Supreme Court didn't agree with his position.

Update: John Edwards has just released this statement. It ends with:

In the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic. If you want to beat me up -- feel free. You cannot beat me up more than I have already beaten up myself. I have been stripped bare and will now work with everything I have to help my family and others who need my help.

I don't know anyone who thinks having an affair should disqualify one from public office, even the presidency. Certainly no one in my social circles.

The problem with John Edwards is not that he had an affair in 2006, the year he decided to run for the Presidency a second time, but that in 2007 when confronted with it by the media, he denied it.

By denying it, he ensured that if discovered, he would become cast as untruthful, deceitful and someone who can't be trusted. As Jane Hamsher says, had Edwards won the nomination and then this came out, we'd be looking at a McCain presidency.

Edwards put the Democratic party's chances of taking back the White House at risk. Not because of the affair, but because of his dishonesty. [More...]

In December, 2007, Katie Couric interviewed all of the Democratic and Republican candidates about their views on infidelity and whether they thought it should disqualify a candidate from being President.

Bill Richardson:

I don't think so. I think that, you know, infidelity is ... a serious problem in any marriage. But, you know, everybody sins. And it's whether you're forgiven, whether you forgive yourself, whether you have faith in God. You know, perfection ... is something that politicians, they should not stand themselves for perfection. Nobody's perfect.

Barack Obama: [More....]

Depending on how you feel about using legislation to protect American jobs, you may agree or disagree with John McCain's opposition in 2003 to proposed amendments in a defense spending bill that would have "prohibited any money from being used to pay a foreign express cargo carrier." McCain chaired the Senate Commerce Committee, and was successful in defeating the amendments. That cleared the way for "the sale of Airborne Express cargo service to a German conglomerate that owns DHL."

The sale isn't playing well in southeast Ohio now that "DHL wants to combine operations with rival United Parcel Service and close its huge hub" in Wilmington, a move that would cost 8,000 to 10,000 jobs immediately and as many as 30,000 in the long term. Here's what's even worse for McCain:

[T]he Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, previously worked as a lobbyist for the German group, Deutsche Post World Net, and was paid $185,000 to help engineer the 2003 deal, plus another $405,000 for other work. Davis helped Deutsche Post overcome objections in the Senate when the German company was negotiating the purchase, the paper reported.

Jake Tapper reports that this isn't the only problem with letting lobbyists run a campaign. [more ...]

[Comments now closed, new post here.]

John Edwards has admitted his affair with Rielle Hunter to Charlie Gibson of ABC News but denies he's the father of her child.

In an interview for broadcast tonight on Nightline, Edwards told ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff he did have an affair with 42-year old Rielle Hunter, but said that he did not love her.

Edwards also denied he was the father of Hunter's baby girl, Frances Quinn, although the one-time Democratic Presidential candidate said he has not taken a paternity test.

Edwards said he knew he was not the father based on timing of the baby's birth on February 27, 2008. He said his affair ended too soon for him to have been the father.

Elizabeth has known since 2006. [More...]

Life isn't getting any better for Detroit's Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Yesterday he went to jail for violating his bond conditions. Today he was charged "with two felony counts of assaulting or obstructing a police officer" for an incident that occurred on the day after he violated his bond by traveling to Canada without the court's permission.

Moments before Mr. Cox’s announcement, a circuit court judge, Thomas E. Jackson, allowed the mayor to be released from jail after posting a $50,000 cash bond. He also took away the mayor’s travel privileges and ordered him to wear a global-positioning tether.

But Mr. Kilpatrick, 38, who is in his second term as mayor, could soon be headed back to jail, as assault charges would be another bond violation.

The great thing about Paul Krugman, and something bloggers should learn from, he is not afraid to take on other pundits, even those on his own team. Atrios gets the chance to riff off of the Tom Friedman "Suck on This" video yet again because Krugman calls out Friedman. Here is the video:

Here is what Krugman wrote:

I heard a number of people express privately the argument that some influential commentators made publicly — that the war was a good idea, not because Iraq posed a real threat, but because beating up someone in the Middle East, never mind who, would show Muslims that we mean business. In other words, even alleged wise men bought into the idea of macho posturing as policy.

More . . .

A travesty in Baltimore last month is finally getting the attention it deserves.

Mayor Cheye Calvo got home from work, saw a package addressed to his wife on the front porch and brought it inside, putting it on a table.
Suddenly, police with guns drawn kicked in the door and stormed in, shooting to death the couple's two dogs and seizing the unopened package.

In it were 32 pounds of marijuana. But the drugs evidently didn't belong to the couple. Police say the couple appeared to be innocent victims of a scheme by two men to smuggle millions of dollars worth of marijuana by having it delivered to about a half-dozen unsuspecting recipients.

Whoops, never mind.

President Bush and VP Dick Cheney will both speak at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis opening night.

So earlier reports of Cheney being snubbed were either inaccurate or there was a change of heart.

This will be their last hurrah before fading off into oblivion and historical disgrace as the worst, most abusive, intrusive Administration ever.

Good riddance to them. I hope the American people tuning in to watch them realize that by electing John McCain they will be sentencing us all to another four years of the same.

Update: In case, as someone suggested in comments, there are national block parties during the Bush-Cheney speeches where everyone goes outside their house and dances in the street to music, what would your song picks be? Mine are below.

The Denver Post interviewed Hillary supporters on why they believe it's so important to be able to vote for Hillary at the convention. It's not that they are in denial. It's that they want their voices heard. [More...]

I want to join Matt Stoller and the Better Democrats organization in supporting Glenn Greenwald and Jane Hamsher's project Accountability Now. Glenn writes:

[The] core purpose [of Accountability Now] is to change the political calculation so that there is a real price to pay for continuing to support the prevailing agenda of the rotting Beltway class. The question is not which party will control Congress. It is guaranteed that the Democrats will. The question is what they will do with that control. Accountability Now is designed, first and foremost, to change the way that control is exercised by genuinely harming the interests of those responsible for these destructive trends.

This is an activism I can fully support.

Speaking for me only