John Edwards and the Art of Using Other People

by Ron Giusti, Political Writer

The story of Senator John Edwards and Rielle Hunter is about more than just sex. Rather, it is a classic example of how the politically powerful manipulate and use other people. And it illustrates the difference between who John Edwards really is and the image he sought to create of himself for voters.

In 2006 and 2007 at the same time Edwards was “doing” Hunter he was basing his presidential campaign’s “narrative” around the image of a devoted family man, struggling to uplift America’s downtrodden, while at the same time providing comfort and support to a wife diagnosed with inoperable cancer. The message conveyed was that despite all the wealth and power Edwards had acquired, here was a guy who still retained the simple honest straight foreword values of the small town working class America he had grown up in. If the 400 dollar hair cuts (charged to the campaign) and the 28,000 square foot mansion he lived in didn’t convince us it was all a sham, Hunter should. There was after all always something just a little to glib, just a little to cute, just a little to light about John Edwards. When in 2004 Republican operatives tagged him as “The Breck Boy,” they were on to something.

What is fascinating are the efforts Edwards and his supporters have taken to first kill the story and then when that proved impossible to control the leakage. It is all rather like something out of a bad movie.

When just before the Iowa caucus rumors began to circulate about a pregnant Ms. Hunter by John Edwards, Hunter suddenly found herself with a lawyer whose job it was to issue statements denying that the coming child belonged to the former Senator. Instantaneously, another lawyer appeared on the scene to inform everyone that he represented an obscure campaign hanger-on named Andrew Young and that Young was indeed the real father of Hunter’s baby. Then most conveniently Young and Hunter immediately disappeared to resurface some time later in California.

Both Hunter’s lawyer and Young’s lawyer were secured for them by a very wealthy lawyer buddy of John’s named Fred Baron. Fred was the Edward’s campaign’s Finance chair and chief fixer whose responsibility it was to kill any hint of scandal. Both Young and Hunter evidently had their moves to California bankrolled by Mr. Baron. Rielle Hunter was last spotted in California living in a luxurious house in Santa Barbra with a bright new BMW in the garage.

During the August interview in which Edwards admitted the relationship with Hunter (after months of vociferous denials) he was asked if Hunter’s new baby was his. Edwards said no, but stated that he would be “happy to take a paternity test and would love to see it happen.” However, the next day, very conveniently for Edwards, Hunter ruled out such a test for her child.

This is an ageless story of people with money and position using these things to protect a powerful friend from the results of his lies and deceptions. Senator Susan Collins got it about right when asked on a radio talk show to comment on the matter: “I feel sorry for his family, because how horrible. But also, don’t you think he is the father of the child?” Now with the failed battle for the nomination long over, Fred Baron is still doing a great job preventing Edwards from being completely revealed as the sleazy clown he actually is. And after all, won’t people move on to other things once the kids are back in school and the conventions start?

To a small but significant portion of America’s younger people, political Washington and presidential campaigns have the allure and glamour that Hollywood holds for the masses. The dream of many is to play a part in events, to be close to the candidate, to be one of the chosen few who make up “the entourage.” However, like Hollywood, unless a wannabe has family money, serious connections who can make a phone call or a famous name it is hard to get noticed. In a political culture still dominated by men, a pretty face can open doors.

And in a political culture dominated by men the attractive young women who cling to campaigns are openly regarded as playthings by the higher ups, to be used and then discarded at their leisure. Bill Clinton really never did anything that most of the rest haven’t also done. Liberal or conservative it makes no difference, campaign operatives and many politicians take it for granted that sex with good looking young women is one of the main perks that come with the positions they hold.

Ms. Hunter reflected the naivete of these women so easily used, when speaking of Edwards she told Newsweek’s Jonathan Darman:

“Her (Hunter’s) latest project was John Edwards. Edwards she said, was an old soul who had barely tapped into any of his potential. The real John Edwards, she believed was a brilliant, generous, giving man.......If he could only tap into his heart more, and use his head less, he had the power to be a transformational leader on par with Gandhi and Martin Luther King. He has the power to change the world she said.”

Perhaps, Hunter actually believes that at some point in the future John will come and sweep both her and their child away.

However, what Edwards did was more than just ordinary, run of the mill sexual exploitation. He also by his actions, betrayed all those people who believing in his message of social justice rallied to the Edwards campaign and gave of themselves for his effort. Edwards entered the race for the nomination while still involved with Rielle Hunter. What would have happened to the Democratic Party’s chances this year had Edwards become the presumptive nominee before the story broke?

To paraphrase John Edwards there are indeed two Americas. The one he and his wealthy associates inhabit and there is the other America occupied by all the rest of us, who’s role it is to be manipulated, used, played with and lied to by people like him.