Like everyone else in America, I was grief-stricken for Elizabeth Edwards when the National Enquirer outed her husband’s extra-marital affair right after he kicked off his presidential campaign in the fall of 2007:
The reason this was so shocking is that Edwards had endeared himself to millions of voters by presenting himself as a faithful and loving husband who was supporting his wife Elizabeth in her heroic battle against cancer.
Never mind that he cravenly used his wife’s illness as a campaign tool to win sympathy and shield himself from any further media scrutiny into his private life. (This SOB even had her all over TV attacking his opponents, knowing full well that none of them would fight back against a woman stricken with cancer.)
[…John Edwards caught cheating on his wife, TIJ, July 23, 2008]
My sympathy for her turned into dismay, however, when the Enquirer reported that, despite knowing all about the affair, she went on to become his most ardent and passionate campaigner. Now that dismay is turning into contempt as I watch her trying to cast herself as a profile in courage in new memoir entitled Resilience.
After all, that title is plainly misleading. Not least because the only thing resilient about Elizabeth seems to be her determination to serve as an enabler not only of her husband’s venal and narcissistic ambition but also of his unconscionable ploy to disown his bastard child.
I gave up some time ago trying to reason why purportedly liberated women, like Camille Cosby and Hillary Clinton, stand by men who humiliate them.
[The hypocrisy of Gov. Spitzer’s assignations with prostitutes, TIJ, March 11, 2008]
But, she is terminally ill. And since I still have a little residue of sympathy left for her, I shall merely pose a few questions that I hope interviewers on her book tour have the balls to ask:
Why Elizabeth, did you defend your husband’s candidacy like a lioness defending her baby cub even after you knew that his affair could ruin the chance for Democrats to win the White House if he became the nominee? Particularly since even his senior staff members had enough self-respect and regard for the party to quit instead of participating in such a reckless and fatally compromised campaign.
Why Elizabeth, are you absolving your husband of blame for betraying you by calling the other woman a “pathetic” person who brazenly seduced him? Do you not see how pathetic that makes you look?
Why Elizabeth, as a mother, are you participating in another public farce by helping your husband disown his child? Do you see that it makes you look like a delusional, doormat of a wife when your only answer to the critical question about his paternity of this love child is:
I’ve seen a picture of the baby. I have no idea. It doesn’t look like my children, but I don’t have any idea?
“It”?!!!! Indeed, what does it say about your character that you have not insisted that he get a paternity test to either put this behind you or suffer the truth and consequences of his infidelity?
Why Elizabeth, after all the suffering he’s inflicted upon you, are you still standing by your man; especially given that when Oprah asked the simple question:
Are you still in love with him?
You could only reply:
You know, that’s a complicated question.
Talk about pathetic….
But if this is your only way of coping Elizabeth, then God Bless you.
Related commentaries:
…John Edwards caught cheating on his wife
Hypocrisy of Gov. Spitzer’s assignation with prostitutes
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