It seems that John’s Wife, Elizabeth has posted a message at Kos.
Today by Elizabeth Edwards (Via DailyKos):
Our family has been through a lot. Some caused by nature, some caused by human weakness, and some – most recently – caused by the desire for sensationalism and profit without any regard for the human consequences. None of these has been easy. But we have stood with one another through them all. Although John believes he should stand alone and take the consequences of his action now, when the door closes behind him, he has his family waiting for him.
John made a terrible mistake in 2006. The fact that it is a mistake that many others have made before him did not make it any easier for me to hear when he told me what he had done. But he did tell me. And we began a long and painful process in 2006, a process oddly made somewhat easier with my diagnosis in March of 2007. This was our private matter, and I frankly wanted it to be private because as painful as it was I did not want to have to play it out on a public stage as well. Because of a recent string of hurtful and absurd lies in a tabloid publication, because of a picture falsely suggesting that John was spending time with a child it wrongly alleged he had fathered outside our marriage, our private matter could no longer be wholly private.
The pain of the long journey since 2006 was about to be renewed.
John has spoken in a long on-camera interview I hope you watch. Admitting one’s mistakes is a hard thing for anyone to do, and I am proud of the courage John showed by his honesty in the face of shame. The toll on our family of news helicopters over our house and reporters in our driveway is yet unknown. But now the truth is out, and the repair work that began in 2006 will continue. I ask that the public, who expressed concern about the harm John’s conduct has done to us, think also about the real harm that the present voyeurism does and give me and my family the privacy we need at this time.
Unlike some, who are berating her for her husband’s action. I will not do this. What people need to understand is this, The Edwards family is more than just a political family; they are southern folk. Now before anyone takes this the wrong way, as my now deceased Grandmother, who was from Dalton, Georgia would say, “Now hold your horses!” So, hold your horses, and hear me out.
It is a commonplace among the women on the south, to be fiercely protective of their husbands. No matter what they have done. Yes, I am sure she is angry with him, who would not be? Nevertheless, she still loves him, and that protective kind of a love, which is very common in the south, is a bizarre thing to behold. Believe me, when I say this, this is not to be taken as an insult. That is the, if you will pardon the illusion to it, the “Stand by your man” kind of love, that Hillary Clinton mocked. If Edwards were from New York, he would be a single man by now.
However, the Edwards are from the south, it is taught or used to be taught, back in the old days, that Women were to stand by their man, and love him, no matter what. Where does this sort of a teaching come from? The Church. From the Bible itself. It is part of our common American value system. There is nothing wrong with it at all.
Does this justify the fact that Mrs. Edwards knowingly lied about her husband’s affair to their followers and staff? No. Does it justify that the Edwards used their supposed “Family Values” as a charade to get Edwards elected? Not one bit. Nevertheless, the fact remains; she was doing what she was trained to do. Protecting the one she loves.
What drives me up the proverbial wall is the media’s insistence that somehow that the Edwards owe them some sort of an apology. I have not in my many years of following Politics, from afar and now close up like I do, seen such utter hypocrisy from the main stream media in my entire life. All during the primary election, the Main Stream Media could have given two plug nickels about the Edwards campaign; they were too busy with their proverbial noses being stuck up the proverbial royal behinds of Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Now that this scandal has broken, they somehow or another have appointed themselves to be the judge, jury and executioners of the Edwards personal lives, future political ambitions and future in the public eye as a whole. This, as far as this political blogger is concerned, speaks to the thuggish mafia mentality of the cooperate controlled Media in this country. It also speaks to the “I got to have the latest greatest news” mentality of the 21-century populous in this Nation and in this God-Forsaken world of ours as a whole.
As I said previously in my last posting on this subject, my prayers will be with the Edwards family. But my prayers will also be that the Blogging world and that the main stream media would finally see this damned story for that it is; a private family matter and will collectively as whole, move on to the next story.
Others Blogging: Marc Ambinder, Macsmind, Buck Naked Politics, The Corner, Power Line and JoeTrippi.com