Steve, you know better than to traffic in this nonsense. Seriously. Who cares who else posts it? Right now, it exists solely as a right-wing planted story in the National Enquirer. Do you really want to project an image of a more refined Micky Kaus, a man who builds his life around Democratic sex scandals? C'mon...

Steve, you know better than to traffic in this nonsense. Seriously. Who cares who else posts it. Right now, it exists solely as a right-wing planted story in the National Enquirer. Do you really want to project an image of a more refined Micky Kaus, a man who builds his life around Democratic sex scandals? C'mon...

Regarding taking Edwards over Hillary, who killed someone's cat?

clumpy...great idea. Gonna love those RepublKlan answers.

The Coultergesist says "We Christians" want Jews to be perfected??? What's this "We' shit, white man? Perfect like whom, Aryans? What arrogance. She gives new depth to the term WASP. A real stinger. Not all white, Anglo Saxon Protestants are bigots, by any means, but the Coultergeist is definitely the Queen Bee. Incapapble of debating the issues on the merits, she invariably resorts, immediatly, to personal attack. How inscure can she be? Let's see AIPAC go after her now.

Two words: Gary Hart

Two more: Bill Clinton

If this is true, it's too bad. However, it's not like Edwards has destroyed his chance of being President, since he doesn't have one in the first place!

This witch Coulter just proclaimed that Jews are "imperfect Christians" on the Sean Hannity show. It will be interesting to see if the RW takes her to task for her truly anti-semitic comments. Or is the accusation of anti-semitism only used despicably and dishonestly these days?

Edwards has issued a complete denial; however, we all would be very naive to think that swiftboating of candidates will disappear. I haven't decided on which Democrat I prefer, but Gore appears to be the one who would be the most immune to those kinds of attacks.

No Worries Sandy....sorry if the glitch was on my end. I really like your posts, even those that take me on such as the Edwards one. Having a blog that covers so many issues and has its own (subjective) set of criteria as to what to cover and to how is an evolving process. It's good to hear from folks -- even when it's not always pleasant. You are a great part of the life of this blog.

And yes, I still know that you were disappointed in the Edwards comments. ;-)

All the best,

Steve

I apologize for my suspicion, Steve. I thought I was in your original post....and I scanned down and didn't see it there, so I jumped to the conclusion that you'd deleted it. Sorry. Untrue. It's over there....in the original article you posted about this.
And, thanks for responding to me...as you have to the others.

Lisa Druck's new name is Rielle Hunter and I am not buying her story - with no solid denial of an affair with John Edwards, who is using his wife's cancer to troll for votes - this does not pass the smell test. My guess is that she did have an affair with Edwards, and if so, that just sticks a needle in the rapidly deflating balloon of his campaign. Still I would take him over Hillary. Edwards has not killed anyone's cat.

Often when I post on the internet, I am a prime candidate for being deleted or banned. Hell, I am banned over at FreeRepublic for posting some Bob Herbert articles against "extraordinary rendition." But Steve hasn't pulled the trigger on me yet and he has had plenty of opportunities.

He did zap me one time on Bill Clinton's phone sex being tape by the Israeli Mossad, but I think I was probably off topic.

By the way, before I forget, RON PAUL in 2008.

Sandy -- I did not delete a post. It might be in a buffer -- but believe me, I get you don't like the fact that I mentioned this matter. But it's done. I've written what I will -- now we need to see what will unfold. I'll try to check on the posts again tomorrow to see if something is stuck.

best regards,

Steve Clemons

Sandy, try it again. I don't think I have ever seen Steve remove a post, 'cept once when I really seriously pissed him off.

How interesting. You deleted my post. Hmmm. Hit too close to home?

Are they managing to work a blow job into the accusations? I mean golly, lets at least accuse him of something that qualifies as impeachable.

Poor bastard, he shoulda just murdered a million or so Muslims, and they'd leave 'im alone.

Rumors create realities to a certain degree, also politically. But spreading them through TWN before Edwards confirms or deny them, is not exactly my idea of a blog that aspires to be a critical voice in your country.

There are plenty of women magazines where this kind of stuff is suitable (also in my country - Norway, by the way), but I am a bit surprised that you insist on the importance of these rumors, regardless of wether you, as a "Washington insider", have had them confirmed by credible people or not.

Regarding the potential of a non-denial denial: Even if she came out and said "I did not have sex with that man" the story would not stop. This is one of those swiftboat-type memes that could affect the larger horse-race meme, and reporters will therefore be all over it. If the allegations are true, Edwards' campaign is affected. If the allegations are not true, but plausible, his campaign is still affected.

I'm still gritting my teeth because Kerry had no counter to the swiftboat maneuver. Whichever Democrat can come up with an effective solution to this conundrum deserves to win, imho. I'm sure they'll all be faced with it eventually.

Steve, what part of calling the story, "lies" and "not true, completely unfounded and ridiculous," don't you understand? How on earth is this a non-denial? If she had said what you wanted to hear, she would have sounded too much like Bill Clinton, and we don't need to go there.

I call B.S. because you are rightfully embarrassed you even touched the story, because you are usually so much better than this.

"Some on the right", PuhLeeze! After this, anyone still running with it just wants to Coultergeist this more, that's all, and they wouldn't care if there was a denial or not.

I want to *all* MSM reporters and debate mediators ask the following questions of every candidate: Who have you been shagging since you've been married? How many times have you engaged in shagging activity since you've been married? What's your favorite position/activity and why? Remind the electorate why your non-criminal sexual behavior is of monumental importance to your ability to carry out your duties. How did Nine Eleven change your sexuality? Unmarried candidates get a free pass, but can play if they want.

JK's conscience -- I'm not sure why they picked it up other than that the NEnquirer has gotten some stuff right far before others. I don't like sleaze stuff, but the sad fact is that such slime can have political consequences -- particularly if true. Frankly, I don't care that much whether Edwards or anyone has had an affair. I really don't. But I know that there is a political reality here that is hugely consequential and just can't be avoided.

But let me speculate....I think that Sam Stein came by this "disappeared videos" -- costly videos, produced by someone we've never heard of before. They spent more than $100,000 on some pretty poor stuff...maybe that's reason enough to have junked them, though it is a bit damning on how the campaign spends money.

Then others may have tried to connect dots about something seedy.

But then -- as mentioned in the thread above -- EMAILS have appeared. So, they are real or fake.

It doesn't matter. The Edwards campaign has to confront them -- and in my view, the harder the better if not true.

But one can't just run and hide in a presidential campaign. That's why most decent people who ought to run don't.

-- Steve Clemons

So why did the HuffPost and Slate pick it up? The National Enquirer is noted for stupid sensationalistic garbage. Even Tucker Carlson laughed when Coultergeist brought it up yesterday because of where she got it.

The emails, the emails, the emails. The ball is in the Enquirers court to avoid getting their behinds sued. Lets see if they stand firm on this story with whatever factual evidence they can produce. In this business, early denial don't mean a thing.

You are entitled to your views Margaret -- this appeared on Huffington Post and on Slate -- not exactly bastions of conservative conspiracy.

You are entitled to your views....Best,

Steve Clemons

I have searched all the news outlets and nothing on any of them about this, which leads me to believe that you were just too hot to get on this smear, and that by writing about it in your blog without responsible research beforehand, you have lost my respect.