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Ear to the Ground

When Politicians Have Way Too Much in Common With Paris Hilton

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Posted on Jan 29, 2010
The Politician
abcnews.go.com

You know the drill: It all starts with the seductive glare of the klieg lights and the flashbulbs, followed by the ever-present entourage—stylists, publicists, various hangers-on—and the next thing you know, there’s a sex tape and someone’s career will never be the same ... as a politician, that is.

That might have been a description of the latest antics of one of any of those celebrities-for-no-good-reason that pepper the pages of your garden-variety supermarket tabloid, but in this case, it’s about former Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards. According to his apparently disillusioned former aide Andrew Young, Edwards and his ex-mistress, Rielle Hunter, made a sex tape together that Young and his wife discovered in a rented North Carolina house where Hunter had stayed for part of 2007. Now, Hunter is trying to block Young from releasing any video clips or stills to the public as she raises her and Edwards’ infant daughter, Frances Quinn.

There are a number of possible take-aways from this sad story, but for starters, the importance of keeping up good relations with those you ask to do your dirty work might be one of them. Young is currently on a media tour promoting his book, “The Politician,” about his years of working with Edwards and his eventual falling out with the titular legislator.  —KA

ABC News:

“There was one tape that was marked ‘special,’ ” Andrew Young told ABC News’ Bob Woodruff in an exclusive interview, describing his discovery of a tape in Hunter’s trash. “It’s a sex tape of Rielle and John Edwards made just a couple of months before the Iowa caucuses.”

Though Young never saw the woman’s face in the tape, he said she was “visibly pregnant” and was “wearing a bracelet” and a “thumb ring” typically worn by Rielle Hunter.

“It’s her jewelry,” Andrew Young’s wife, Cheri, told ABC News. “It could be on another woman with the same jewelry.”

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By Jana Williston, January 30, 2010 at 10:47 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Many a good man has been brought down by his wick. As a woman I find little to compare with this phenomenon. I mean, if you women were a potential presidential nominee would you have uncontrollable urges to take time from your campaign/reputation to get laid by the nearest pretty face? Can’t guys just spend more time in their bathrooms when overcome by their second brain?

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By G.Anderson, January 30, 2010 at 6:04 am Link to this comment

The central problem shared by all of these sexual scandals is that, people are like little children, who experience revulsion when they find out that their parents have sexual intercourse and they are the result. Andrew Young is one of them.

Surprise, sex is one of the main reasons people get married so that they can have ready access to a sex partner. For many if the other partner, can no longer service their needs then that is the end. And if their partner won’t do what they want them to do sexually, they will go outside the relationship.

This country has a thriving prostitution industry. Even at a time when sexual morals are very liberal

Why? Because people have a hard time being celibate. Most people cannot go without sex for any length of time.

I remember reading Lady Chatterley’s Lover in high school, only focusing on the good parts. But now I look back at it, I think to myself what an understanding husband.

Unfortunately, in situations like this, sexual infidelity is often characterized as more of a betrayal, because one person is more vulnerable. However people don’t think that way, when their partner is not able to give them what they need, they begin hurting too and may look for comfort elsewhere. This is how many people are. Ask Newt Gingrich.

People aren’t possessions. Though we’d often like to turn them into just that. Strangers are much easier to get along with, the closer you get to someone the more difficult it can be.

Divorce is never fun, and that’s what going on here, a break up, a divorce, a relationship nightmare.  Yes, their will be blood and pain and anger, and hurt feelings, with lawyer fees to the sky.  It’s extremely hard to be civil under these circumstances.

I feel for both of them. Their lives will be Zombie like for a while. Many millions of us have been there and come back alive.

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By Hammond Eggs, January 29, 2010 at 12:53 pm Link to this comment

Imagine if Edwards had won the Democratic nomination and then the excrement hit the blades.  Or what if he’d won the presidency and then the excrement hit the blades.  Edwards had to know the truth would eventually be exposed.  It was inevitable.  Yet he ran anyway.  The hard bark on the guy is mind boggling. Yet he is fairly typical of the narcissistic sociopaths who dominate politics at all levels.  Obama is no better.

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