JOHN EDWARDS knows he'll be blasted for the affair he had with a highly paid, total-hack videographer during his run for the White House.
"Anybody . . . who wants to beat me up for this, they should have at it," he told Nightline Friday, arranging his pretty face in a mask of pain. "The truth is, you can't possibly beat me up more than I've already beaten myself up."
Oh, but let's try. Isn't that the least we can do on behalf of those whom Edwards betrayed?
That would include not just his cancer-stricken wife, Elizabeth, and their humiliated children, but also the legions of jilted supporters who believed in Edwards' dream enough to buttress it with financial contributions and hours stumping for the Ken Doll senator.
I've spent the last few days talking with Philadelphians who fall into the latter category, and "bummed out" doesn't begin to describe how they're feeling about Edwards right now.
Take it away, Bernie Ingster.
"I was taken in by his magnificent rhetoric, and now I think he's treacherous," says Bernie, a Center City human-resources consultant who was so moved by Edwards' mission that he wrote three checks to the man. "It's an insult, greater than I could ever imagine, that he would do this to that magnificent family he has."
Bernie was especially repulsed by Edwards' need to clarify that he bedded campaign concubine Rielle Hunter during a time when Elizabeth Edwards' breast cancer was in remission.
"He was trying to relieve himself of the horror of what he had done, almost saying, 'Had I known that she was in the last stages of her life, I would never have done it,' " says Bernie, whose own wife, Daily News veteran reporter Rose DeWolf, succumbed to cancer four years ago. "What that demonstrates is that he had no love for his wife, because you don't do that to someone you love. He has soiled her!"
What an absolutely perfect choice of words.
Former Edwards fan Eric Cramer had something to say about John 'n' Rielle, but first wanted to make a point about personal comportment.
"I don't think that candidates' private lives are particularly relevant to how they'll perform in office," said Eric, an attorney with Berger & Montague, who donated a lot of cash to Edwards' campaign and hosted a big fundraiser on his behalf. "If we rated our presidents by the quality of their private lives, you'd have to say that Nixon and Bush are two of the best presidents we ever had."
Interesting point, Eric.
