Let's Get Rielle

Most people on the web know me through my screenwriting, but there's a reason why I have "proud bleeding heart liberal" as my "tagline". In addition to writing scripts and novels, I used to be heavily involved in several prominent left wing blogsites back in the late 90's-2001. I wrote essays and humour pieces, mostly. After the 2001 election debacle, I had to pull back to maintain my sanity. Still, I frequent them, and put in my two cents, sometimes three, when I feel the urge and need to. And I certainly do feel the need to in the wake of the John Edwards mess. Probably what I write won't matter to anyone but me, it's a blogsumi, it's like spitting in the eye of a hurricane.

As a former JE supporter, I'm totally and completely disgusted with him. I don't think there are enough adjectives in the dictionary to describe how incredibly stupid, irresponsible and despicable his conduct has been, and continues to be. Unfortunately, my gut tells me that there's more to this story to come, but that's for another day.

Moreover, I'm also disgusted at how the MSM and many left wing bloggers refused to investigate this story (or even report on it) until it was in their collective faces. Since when has the National Enquirer become the de facto investigative newspaper of record?

Worse, when some tried to write about the subject on some sites, they were derided, castigated, vilified and even banned outright. I know, because when I wrote on one site to defend a member who had been banned, I was called every vicious name in the book: troll, right wing sock puppet, etc.

This disturbed me no end, this indignant hypocrisy. Let's face it: if this had been Mitt Romney or any other prominent Repub who had run for President, these sites would have been all over it like Krazy Glue. But because it was John Edwards, because of his terminally ill wife, because the details, if true, was just so sad and sordid, they wanted to ignore it, much like the Emperor With No Clothes.

Now that they can't, these so-called MSM journalists are tripping over themselves in as they try to explain why they didn't cover the story. It's now become clear that papers like the New York Times did the most perfunctory of investigations, which meant just relying on Edwards. For crying out loud, it's not like there wasn't anything to investigate, all this stuff has been out there since 2006. They simply chose not to dig deeper. They abdicated their responsibility big time. All of them, even Newsday, my old employer, now a sad shell of its former shelf and just another sales tool for the almighty Cablevision empire.

It's a cliche, but it's usually true: where there's smoke, there's fire. And it took the dogged efforts of the Enquirer and sites like Huffington Post, Stranahan, Deceiver, Radar Online, Gawker, Wonkette and others to keep the pressure on. Do you think Edwards would have owned up to his adultery if the Enquirer hadn't snookered him at the Beverly Hilton? Think about it. Jay Leno was making jokes about it for two weeks. Where the hell was Wolf Blitzer and Jack McCaffrey?

And don't give me that crap about Edwards being a "private citizen". He's an ex-Senator. He was running for President. Obama was considering him for Veep, if not that, certainly a cabinet post. Edwards was fair game. He made himself so. His hubris and arrogance, and yes, his dick, overtook his common sense. In my book, Edwards isn't the only one who should be hanging his head in shame.

Yes, I'm still a bleeding heart liberal, but at this moment, not a proud one.