The John Edwards/Rielle Hunter story continues to, as they say, develop. You might even say it’s gestating. Whether the “legitimate” news likes it or not:
- Lee Stranahan, who posted the first (only?) serious, thoughtful analysis of the whole mess at the Huffington Post, has been banned from the Daily Kos for daring to talk about it there. (Lee has more at his personal blog.)
- Some Wikipedians keep trying to add the forbidden name “Rielle Hunter” to thoroughly relevant entries, and other Wikipedians keep taking it out. In the Wiki entry for the 1988 Jay McInerney novel Story of My Life, one brave soul has added some information that seems pretty well-sourced, considering Hunter herself put it up on her site, Being Is Free: the fact that Hunter directly inspired Alison Poole, the novel’s main character. For some reason, certain people don’t consider this fact relevant to understanding the novel, or to be of any interest to anyone whatsoever. The two sides are now battling it out. (I haven’t been keeping track of Edwards’ Wiki entry, after the same thing happened there last week, but I think they’re finally starting to acknowledge Hunter’s existence.)
- Incidentally, if Google Blog Search is any indication, Deceiver was the first blog to post anything substantial about Being Is Free. Sam Stein at the Huffington Post noted last year that the site had been deleted, but it looks like we were the first ones to note that there’s a mirror site, let alone to look at it in any detail. (And I’m still not done with it.) But of course, Wikipedia can’t cite us because we’re just a silly blog with a hot pink logo.
(Update: Deceiver reader Kris, who originally tipped me off to Being Is Free, has the provenance of that information. The Stranahans are on the case!)
- If I had to sum up my past week of posts (and at this point you probably wish I would), one thread runs through this story: People taking down stuff they had put up on the Internet voluntarily. The Edwards campaign videos that Hunter made: deleted. Hunter’s whole site: deleted. The resume and contact info for Bob McGovern, Hunter’s psychic friend and alleged hotel hookup-enabler: deleted. And that’s just what we know about so far. It sure does look like somebody’s trying to cover their tracks.
To put it into perspective: Last month, word got out that a blogger named Xeni Jardin had gone through the archives of the group blog Boing Boing and deleted — or as she insists, “unpublished” — every single post that so much as mentioned a particular person she didn’t like anymore. Within a week this made national news, all the way up to the hallowed New York Times.
Now we have a past and potentially future candidate for Vice President of the United States apparently scrubbing lots of possibly damaging information from the Internet, and two weeks into the story, only a handful of people are talking about it. Even if you don’t care about the more lurid aspects of this whole debacle, you have to admit that the Edwards camp has a very poor grasp of Netiquette.
- Just to end things on an up note, I’ve got “John & Rielle” running through my head to the tune of “Johnny Ryall” by the Beastie Boys. What, me obsessed?
Fairly Major Update: As of 1:45 PM EST today, that mirror site of Being Is Free is gone. Noticing a pattern here? Luckily, I already saved every single page to my hard drive…
Attention Simon:
This is the Kris that you tipped your hat to for the link to Rielle Hunter’s website back on July 30th. I just wanted to tip my hat to Lee Stranahan, because it was only after reading Lee’s article “Say It Ain’t So, John” article in the Huffington Post that I decided to look at his and his wife’s (”Mrs. Stranahan”) Twitters. It was at Mrs. Stranahan’s Twitter site that I noticed someone had twittered Mrs. Stranahan the following on July 26th at 12:47pm:
i found the website of Rielle Hunter - beingisfree.org - archived here … http://tinyurl.com/6db39x 12:47 PM July 26, 2008 from web
I had been trying to find this site ever since I had read about its disappearance last year, and always to no avail until seeing that twitter.
Thank you! Updated and noted.
It looks like people (and I guess this is obviously myself included, albeit rather embarassingly) are starting to speculate as to when John (alledgedly) impregnated Rielle. See for example, a commenter, “Rielle Hunter” (sic) over at Radar Magazine:
“On June 7, 2007 John Edwards stayed at the Sheraton New York Hotel in Midtown Manhattan.
Elizabeth Edwards stayed 2800 miles away at the Beverly Hills Hotel where she was receiving an award the next day.”
After reading this I (yes, I have no life) , I googled some terms like Edwards, Sheraton, 6/7 etc and noticed this exerpt from a Washigton Times article:
“What, exactly, do Hulk Hogan and John Edwards have in common? The National Father’s Day Committee has chosen its 2007 “Father of the Year” award recipients. This year’s winners are feted for their series of cell phone commercials, wicked fastballs, “22-inch python” biceps and, well, running for president. That’s right, America. Your four greatest fathers, according to the committee, are: NBA star Dwyane Wade, famed New York Mets pitcher Tom Glavine, wrestling legend Hulk Hogan and Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards. According to the group’s Web site, the awards of distinction are given for: “contemporary lifestyle leaders of our culture.”
Pretty ironic, especially when Hulk Hogan was among the honorees.
Oh, and I did mean to clarify in the last posting that the National Father’s Day Committee held their award luncheon at a New York Sheraton on 6/7/07.
I vanpool with a whole load of rabid Dems. Friday on the radio some announcer made a quip about Edward’s love-child. The driver almost went off the road, and eveybody was practically screaming “That can’t be true!” “What a lie!” “RepubliKKKcan dirty trick!” and so on. I was amazed that not a single one of them had heard anything about it before that, and their first reaction was that it was impossible and must be a Republican dirty trick (the source of the rumor was not mentioned). I canot believe the bubble those people must live in.
Well, no one’s ever accused the Daily Kos of being fair, objective or even un-biased. I think that’s because the Daily Kos is just a puppet of George Soreass.
Another interesting thing to consider - when did she go BACK to California to have the baby? Why stay in NC and then go back? What transpired? And don’t you suppose the only reason she is not going public yet is because she holds out hope of being able to marry him or continue the relationship? Otherwise, she has nothing to lose by insisting on a DNA test and demanding support, if the relationship is OVER. I’ll bet it is over for him, but she is being pathetic. These are just thoughts -
Found this youtube footage of John giving his acceptance speech at the “Father of the Year” award luncheon that took place on 6/7/07. This footage was placed onto youtube by the Edwards campaign and places the title “www.JohnEdwards.com” before and after the actual video. I noticed that John remarks at the 5:27 mark that “…your children learn not only from what you say but from what you do”. Unfortunately what John (allegedly) was “doing” at some point around, give or take a week or two if Rielle’s child was in fact born a full term baby, did not involve much concern for his children or, quite frankly, his supporters (which included myself at that time).
Here is the link to the youtube, which the John Edwards campaign itself entitled “John Edwards - Father of the Year Award”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow1pwtFpvq8
It’s as if John Edwards does not realize that the more panicky he acts about deleting any information on Ms. Hunter and himself, the guiltier it makes him look. Him having a baby out of wedlock is between him and his wife but the sloppy attempts to cover his tracks is making him look bad.
Also something in my conspiracy obsessed brain says that there are three people behind this information being exposed now and in this way:
Bill Clinton
Hillary Clinton
Harold Ickes
Cue James Brown
The Big Payback
I feel bad for his wife who is suffering from cancer. Must be hard to deal with this as well as all the cancer treatments.
@tallulah:
“Also something in my conspiracy obsessed brain says that there are three people behind this information being exposed now and in this way:
Bill Clinton
Hillary Clinton
Harold Ickes”
Intriguing theory. Tell more?
Yu vill only sprechen about tings da Fuher vants yu to sprechen aboot!
Since the beginning of the age of digital information, I’ve always wondered if the internet may pave the way for a realisation of 1984’s Ministry of Truth, where history was repeatedly re-written and deleted in order to fit the needs of whatever the powers-that-be deemed suitable.
What with the workings of Mr. Edwards and Ms. Jardin (among others…) I’m beginning to wonder if my predictions might not be coming true. :-/
Let’s see, the Edwards family approach to “the web” was revealed with the adoption of two “award winning journalists” for about two days wasn’t it? (maybe three) With the shenanigans at Wiki plodding along like “business as usual” for ANY criticism, or sunshine, on professional bed wetting I can see why “The Kids” follow in lockstep. These folks proclaim themselves Feminists and/or Democrats.
Any questions?
Watch your back. You may be “deleted” next.
Rielle Hunter is nothing but a [not nice]
Stephen Colbert was right! Reality IS defined by consensus!