The Phony And His Groupie
By John Hood
Carolina Journal Online
RALEIGH – In recent decades, North Carolina has produced more than its share of national political standouts. Some didn’t just make the news headlines. They attracted groupies.
Sen. Sam Ervin’s chairmanship of the committee investigated the Watergate break-ins earned him a tremendous public following. Button, t-shirts, and even an album followed (I own a copy). Just after that, Sen. Jesse Helms gained both a national political base and national opprobrium. Gov. Jim Hunt played a big role in national associations and education groups during the 1970s and 80s, then became one of the most famous losers in congressional politics. North Carolina government and business are chock-full of Hunt acolytes. Elizabeth Dole became one of the country’s most-admired women as a cabinet secretary, Red Cross president, and wife of the leader of the Senate before running for president and then winning Helms’ Senate seat.
John Edwards had groupies, too. One was named Rielle Hunter.
Carolina Journal Online
RALEIGH – In recent decades, North Carolina has produced more than its share of national political standouts. Some didn’t just make the news headlines. They attracted groupies.
Sen. Sam Ervin’s chairmanship of the committee investigated the Watergate break-ins earned him a tremendous public following. Button, t-shirts, and even an album followed (I own a copy). Just after that, Sen. Jesse Helms gained both a national political base and national opprobrium. Gov. Jim Hunt played a big role in national associations and education groups during the 1970s and 80s, then became one of the most famous losers in congressional politics. North Carolina government and business are chock-full of Hunt acolytes. Elizabeth Dole became one of the country’s most-admired women as a cabinet secretary, Red Cross president, and wife of the leader of the Senate before running for president and then winning Helms’ Senate seat.
John Edwards had groupies, too. One was named Rielle Hunter.
posted by Andy W. Rogers | 6:32 PM
3 Comments:
In 1999, John Edwards was the keynote speaker at the closing banquet of the NC Association of County Commissioners. During his speech, he recounted an exchange in a Senate Committee hearing with Alan Greenspan. His entire telling of the event was a lie from beginning to end. I had just watched it on CSPAN the day before. As I looked around the room it was obvious that many other people had seen it as well. Even among the liberals in the room there was quite a bit of uncomfortable shifting around in chairs. When the end of the speech came, the applause was lukewarm at best.
Edwards is probably a pathological liar, much like Bill Clinton. The American press is hugely irresponsible when it covers for someone like Edwards simply because he chirps the right platitudes that seem to satisfy their agenda. There should be a consequence to that irresponsibility. Maybe it is that the American press has almost no credibility with the people. Maybe it is that the old media is dying a protracted and painful death. If so, it is no less than they deserve.
Edwards probably thought, "Who watches CSPAN?"
Sins of the flesh and sins of the spirit. We do react to one and let the other go.
Our site takes a somewhat unbalanced view of Senator Helms. Thanks for adding your comment to the blogging universe.
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