Readers vent about John Edwards

Readers had sharp opinions about former U.S. Sen. John Edwards of Chapel Hill, who suspended his campaign the other day in New Orleans, Here’s what they had to say in response to my Sunday column:
(From a reader in Charlotte):
Mr. Betts: I read your “in my opinion” piece about John Edwards today and your belief that the working class of American will lose someone who looks after their interest. In my opinion, good riddance. I do not know why this trial attorney chose to leave the practice of suing doctors and run for a public office.
It did not make sense 12-years ago and one wonders why he bothers to do this especially with his wife being ill. I do not know how John Edwards would help the working class to do better. One of the problems now with these people is that they are looking for government to solve all of their problems.
Governments do not create wealth but only act as a conduit to take from the “achievers” in America and redistribute that wealth to others who cannot take take of themselves in a way that Edwards, Hillary or Obama think that they should. It is for the “common good” but one wonders who gets to decide what that actually is.
Edwards wanted to separate our country into “two America’s” and pit one group against the next. That is a common Democrat concept as there is always some group pitted against another. The Democrats are now using the Hispanics in California against the blacks in South Carolina.The working class should not really miss him as he was only giving them “lip service”. Bill Clinton, the first Black president is a master as this concept and the quote “I feel your pain’ speaks loudly. They feel the pain and do nothing later.
Edwards should retire to his 100 acre estate off NC 54 west of Chapel Hill and think about helping Elizabeth Edwards get through her battle with cancer. He does not need the money and it would be a noble gesture.
(From a reader in Western North Carolina)
Dear Mr. Betts,
There was something, I felt, missing from your column on John Edwards. While you covered his message, his potential, and his most glaring faults; the omission was his honesty.
In Edwards second year of his term, he vanished. My impression on his job performance, based on the only “quantifier”’ I can identify, was abysmal. He deliberately turned his back on the citizens of NC to chase a pipe dream.
My largest opinion of Edwards, based on that job performance, is as a thief. He refused to work ( again that actual vote standard) and yet took every dime of his normal pay. How does one refuse to work and yet get paid ?
Agreed, he’s not the only thief in DC. I saw a news report years ago regarding votes and pay. It seems that the Senate, at least, has rules regarding amount of pay based on votes. It also appears that those rules are never enforced. Can you help me find out why ?
I understand many may feel my use of the word thief to be “too harsh” for an elected official. I’m afraid I can’t call it anything else, regardless of who the offender, regardless of political affiliation, and regardless of gender.
Thank you for reading this venting.

(And this final word from a reader somewhere in the state):
Maybe John Edwards just didn’t have the patience for working in the Senate. As one who worked on the Hill during the Carter years, it is an extremely frustrating experience. While working on the Patient Bill of Rights was important, it never became law. If you buy into the Hillary Clinton dogma that change comes from the elected, what has been significant since the Civil Rights Act of 1964?
John Edwards was also a member of the minority party during his term in the Senate... a party without any backbone... even when in power. He became a shining light almost immediately.
The Bush Administration has been very successful. His administration has made the mince meat of the Constitution, made laws passed by Congress irrelevant with his signing statements, changed the tax structure to further increase wealth, reinvigorated the Christian crusade in the Middle East, made Orwell’s predictions a reality, further consolidated the media under corporate control, re-aligned the Supreme Court, etc. That is a whole lot of stuff for someone portrayed as incompetent.
To believe that Jesse Helms made a difference is a joke. Senator No was constantly voted the most ineffective member of the Senate. While he did make enators vote on controversial issues and even won a few... how many times did the House-Senate Conference Committee restore the House version making it ... an exercise that reduced his influence? When he became chairman of the Agriculture Committee in the 80s, the major authorization bill he offered was defeated in his own Committee. Anyone who understands the Hill realizes that just doesn’t happen. Chairman’s bills don’t get defeated in their own Committee.
Edwards mayhave realized that if one wants to make real change, it comes from the executive branch not by being 1 of 435 in a system ruled by special interests, constant fundraising and a public that cares more about comings and goings of Paris Hilton.
If the media had given him half the coverage and kudos on his leadership on issues like health care reform, global warming and just about every other item being discussed in the Democratic primary that they gave in him in the eulogies this past week, he might still be in the race. I don’t recall in any debate the media indicating that Hillary’s plan was a copy of Edwards’ or that Obama is now talking about homeless vets. Politics is difficult especially when other candidates steal your platform and get all the coverage. The media determines the horse race simply by whose campaigns they cover.
If Edwards ever got media attention, it was always about his ambition or hair cut or house. Give me one example of any person who didn’t want to make change or run for elected office that wasn’t ambitious? It isn’t a bad trait, it is a necessary one. Just like being rich is necessary for running for Congress.
I wouldn’t dismiss Edwards just because he didn’t want to remain an NC Senator because of his “ambition”. He has already played a significant role in shaping the eventual Democratic platform. He has a core following that the Democratic party can’t dismiss, especially among labor. There are lots of way to make an impact without being a US Senator. One could easily argue that Edwards has already made a bigger impact than the combination of Dole and Burr no matter how long they remain in the Senate.

(Late addition at 4:40 p.m. from a Charlotte reader:)
In my opinion, your 'In My Opinion' piece printed in the Charlotte Observer yesterday (Sunday, Feb. 3) was the best analysis of John Edwards' political career to date. My out-of-state friends and fellow Democrats can't understand why I couldn't support Edwards in either of his presidential bids, and it's been impossible to make them understand how shafted many of us felt when he walked away from the NC Senate, tossing that important position away with both hands and leaving Tarheel residents to the likes of Libby Dole, et al.

Back then he asked for our votes, and he won them. He asked for our trust, and he gained that, too. When he announced his first bid for the presidency after a few short (and unremarkable) years in the Senate it was like finding out that a big check you'd received and had taken to the bank had bounced. In this case, however, the repercussions went far beyond the personal, encompassing the lives of tens of thousands of people in this state for the worse. That feeling of being taken for an idiot by someone with far more ambition than good intentions has made a lasting impression on me, and it's an experience I bring to bear in evaluating Obama and Clinton as presidential material. John Edwards taught me an important political lesson, one that can be summed up in Charles deGaulle's famous quote: "Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word." Thank goodness only a small number of Democratic caucus-goers and primary-voters took him at his word in this campaign.

I appreciate your writing and your insights, Jack.

(And this from Concord:)
Your column in Sunday's paper about John Edward's was right on the mark. When he first ran for the senate, most of the unions in NC supported him. He was thought to be pro working people and familys. Something Faircloth was not. However in 6 years in Washington he did very little for the working people of NC. I supported Al Gore but was not happy about who he chose for his running mate. This year when Edwards struck out on his own in a presidential bid I was dismayed. I would not have supported him in a primary run, and would have to think twice about voting for him if he got to run for president.
Edwards reminds me of another politician, Bobby Kennedy. When he left the justice department, he looked around for a way to stay in politics. He 'moved' to NY and ran against a liberal Republican, Kenneth Keating. NY was just a stepping stone for a run for president. I have been a life long liberal Democrat,and the only time in my life I voted Republican was for Keating against the carpetbagger Kennedy. Kennedy was replaced in the senate by a right wing republican and we lost another liberal Republican.
Remember when there were liberal Republicans? Keating, Jacob Javits, Nelson Rockefeller -- when did the party become a right wing only group?