There’s a pretty amazing piece in Time this week about John Edwards. Bob Shrum, former top Kerry campaign advisor, has a new book out. Here’s what he has to say about Kerry’s first meeting with John Edwards when they were considering him as a VP candidate:

Kerry talked with several potential picks, including Gephardt and Edwards. He was comfortable after his conversations with Gephardt, but even queasier about Edwards after they met. Edwards had told Kerry he was going to share a story with him that he’d never told anyone else—that after his son Wade had been killed, he climbed onto the slab at the funeral home, laid there and hugged his body, and promised that he’d do all he could to make life better for people, to live up to Wade’s ideals of service. Kerry was stunned, not moved, because, as he told me later, Edwards had recounted the same exact story to him, almost in the exact same words, a year or two before—and with the same preface, that he’d never shared the memory with anyone else. Kerry said he found it chilling…

and

Kerry also wanted a specific reassurance. He asked Edwards for a commitment that if he was chosen and the ticket lost, Edwards wouldn’t run against him in 2008. Edwards agreed “absolutely,” as Kerry recalled him saying. If Kerry had shared this at the time, I would have told him what I did later: it was naive to think he could rely on a promise like that.

And notably the article also confirms that Edwards wanted to vote against the war but didn’t because essentially he thought it would hurt his career. All of this basically confirms what I’d always thought about Edwards. It was always hard for me to stomach a guy who’s major campaign theme is about the evil of “Two Americas” — one rich, one poor — coming from a former trial lawyer who lives in a 28,000 Sq. Ft. house.

But I guess what’s really interesting is what this says about Kerry. He allegedly knew Edwards was an insincere fraud but he picked him anyway. It makes him look like he has the spine of a banana. Again, not surprised by that revelation either.

Of course, Shrum who’s been largely responsible for 8 losing presidential campaigns, has plenty of reasons to be bitter I imagine. Nonetheless, it’s rare that you see a former confidant of a two major political figures so dramatically throwing them under the bus, particularly with one in the middle of a campaign. Nonetheless, it’s kind of amazing to see such an important confidant of a two major political figures so dramatically throwing them under the bus, particularly with one in the middle of a campaign.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 31st, 2007 at 11:21 am by Mark Hemingway and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.