In the two weeks since the National Enquirer allegedly caught John Edwards red-handed, most of the press has treated the Rielle Hunter story like it’s coated with anthrax. The newspapers haven’t touched it, except in opinion columns about why the newspapers haven’t touched it. 24/7 cable news has spent maybe 10 minutes on it, tops. Network news? Shyeah, right.
But the Internet has been all over it. We’ve been filling the role the news used to. (Whether that’s good or not is up to the reader.) Not to get all triumphalist about it, but we’ve kept this legitimate news story in play and uncovered some very interesting facts. And now Edwards has to decide if he’s even going to set foot in the Democratic National Convention, let alone speak there. All because of a story that hasn’t even been alluded to by Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson, or Katie Couric, but that everybody knows about anyway. Unless you’ve only got two sites bookmarked, Wikipedia and Daily Kos, you’re better informed about this story than you’d be if you only consumed “legitimate” news.
All of which makes Adam Nagourney’s August 1, 2007 story for the International Herald Tribune, “Edwards Campaign Becomes Internet-Savvy,” incredibly ironic:
After running a decidedly traditional race for the White House in 2004 and in the early stages of this contest, Edwards has quietly overhauled his campaign with one central goal: to harness the Internet and the political energy that liberal Democrats are sending coursing through it.
In a slow but striking power shift, advisers who champion the political power of the Web have eclipsed the coterie of advisers who long dominated Edwards’s inner circle, both reflecting and intensifying his transformation into a more populist, aggressive candidate…
The populist message that Edwards offered with a sunny face to living rooms of Iowans in 2004 is this time offered with indignation and anger, replete with us-against-them attacks on President George W. Bush, establishment Washington, the wealthy and the media. And his campaign is methodically pitching it directly at the Web audience.
“The Internet is the principal way we are communicating with voters right now,” Elizabeth Edwards said in an interview.
But now, one short year later, the Internet is the principal way they’re trying to impede communication. That is, assuming they have anything to do with the obvious efforts to scrub any trace of Rielle-ity from the Web. (I’ve been talking about this to anybody who’ll listen, here, here, here, and here.)
And consider this quote from Edwards’ senior campaign advisor Joe Trippi:
“The one thing is, in a strange way, Edwards and Elizabeth — Elizabeth in particular, but Edwards, too — get it that the old way doesn’t work, that you need to use the Internet, blogs, technology, YouTube, to reach out to people.”
But apparently they don’t get that once you reach those people, there are no takebacks. No matter how deep the memory hole is, there’s always going to be somebody with a reeeeeally long fishing line.
(Hat tip, once again, to “Fortunate Son”)
In Other Edwards Non-News: Byron York at National Review talks to Enquirer managing editor David Perel, and Aaron Barnhart at the Kansas City Star looks at this “teachable moment” in history. They also give shout-outs to Deceiver’s coverage, which is primarily why I’m linking to them nice. And the National Journal’s Blogometer read yesterday’s 1,200-word Edwards post, or at least the first sentence.
Update: Well, the National Enquirer got me to do something I’ve never done before: purchase a copy of the National Enquirer. It’s the Aug. 11 edition, which doesn’t have THE PHOTOS EVERYONE’S BEEN WAITING FOR!, but it does have a picture of the mysterious Bob McGovern. If you’ve ever wondered what a professional “intuitive” looks like, here he is on p. 27:
All this talk about a coverup got me thinking about how I, as a millionaire with a mistress, would smooth this over if I were John Edwards:
#1. I’d get everyone involved out of town immediately, preferably a non-English speaking country, but if that fails, a big, anonymous city, like LA.
#2. I’d send an unimpeachable source (Cheri Young) over to commiserate and rapport build with my wife, assuring her that Andrew Young was responsible, and thank her for being so upstanding about the issue, but after a few sessions, I’d have the unimpeachable source taper contact with my wife. Why remind her, after all? It was my bumbling aide that made the mistake, betrayed his beautiful, HOT young wife, and ruined his career, after all.
#3. I’d isolate everyone involved, place them in corporate housing, give them cushy jobs where they were overcompensated, and had little contact with the outside world, no contact with the press, and zero opportunity to ever leave these jobs.
#4. I’d get a top notch suit-happy lawyer and channel all contact and payment through that lawyer, making certain that all parties signed bulletproof nondisclosures, were paid with an untraceable source, and had a huge annual financial incentives to never ever spill the beans.
#5. I’d assign a 24 hour minder (Andrew Young) to my hippie yoga guru loving mistress (Rielle) and I’d make sure she didn’t leave the house without calling him.
I wouldn’t let her purchase any devices which could be used to record anything, I’d monitor every email she sent out and phone call made, I’d sweep her house for bugs once a week, copying her hard drive, and I’d arrange for private, secure garbage pickup.
I’d also give the minder more money than the mistress because, trust me, he’d be earning it.
#6. I would never, ever take a DNA test for any reason, as the courts couldn’t compel one if I always denied paternity, and I’d routinely avoid excreting DNA around the mistress, and I’d instruct my kids to do so also, giving them a huge allowance boost.
I’d take used kleenex, dental floss, and half eaten sandwiches with me, flush the toilet four times, and be careful about touching anything printable and insist on washing my own dishes wearing dish gloves. I also might shave my body and head, or use very heavy hairspray to avoid leaving any telltale DNA.
#7. I’d refuse to ever address the issue, neither denying, nor affirming, rather, avoiding. I’d avoid any court appearances that involved discovery, and I would never, ever be pictured in public with the mistress.
#8. Every day I’d bash my head against the wall that I picked such a flaky person to cheat on my wife with. Just one internet search and I would’ve known my mistress was penniless celebrity seeking ex cocaine addict who couldn’t keep her mouth shut.
But it would be too late.
#9: Pick a gal with a common name, so she doesn’t come up as the only links on a Google News search.
This continuing scandal-antiscandal or whatever it is they are calling it makes me think that the press is just evil.
How big is a palace?
Today’s National Enquirer describes the Dallas estate of Edwards’ Money Man as ‘Palatial’.
Edwards’s 2004 Finance Committee Head Fred Baron is allegedly retired lawyer in Dallas.
“Baron declared himself vindicated and moved into his new, 15,000-square-foot Preston Hollow estate.”
http://www.dallasobserver.com/2001-03-29/news/homefryin-with-fred-baron/2
Preston Hollow is in Dallas.
http://www.phpc.org/clientImages/29712/copy_of_phpcmap.gif
Fred Baron’s wife, Lisa Blue, below.
http://www.bluesquicktips.com/lisa.html
(Why is every woman in this story hot except the one John Edwards’ has ALLEGEDLY slept with?)
Is a 15,000 foot home considered ‘Palatial’?
Because Edwards’ 2004 Campaign Finance Chief Fred Baron allegedly has a 15,000 foot home in Preston Hollow, Texas.
http://www.dallasobserver.com/2001-03-29/news/homefryin-with-fred-baron/2
Was that in the article? Did Cheri Young fake Elizabeth out? Because I have thought all along Elizabeth really thought Andrew WAS the father. EEWWWWW! That is just too creepy. The thing that fascinates me is the absolute, flat out arogance. I mean, Edwards must have actually thought he had the situation knocked (no pun intended), he must have thought he was beyond being caught. The Young’s and the girl friend were making more $ than they would have ever made in the real world. But it doesn’t take long for greed to rot your soul. Like a rotten apple filled with worms, they are all wiggling to GET OUT of this mess. Humans just can’t stay quiet for long. John overlooked the human error part of this equation. If they are signatories to air tight non-disclosure contracts, how will they ever be able to talk about it? This is just the most incredible scandal. Really. Eliot Spitzer was nothing compared to this. Obviously, they need McGovern (someone who probably DIDN’T sign anything) to orchestrate the whole unravelling. I have never bought an Enquirer either (although my sister and I did sit on the floor of a 7/11 and read the OJ article with the same lurid fascination I an exibiting in this message). Please tell us more.
Arrogance - I really do know how to spell it.
I just want to commend you all here at Deceiver for staying with this “non-story”. I stumbled onto your site a few months ago and have enjoyed every post with mounting respect for your straight forward, well researched, non-partisan and lmao hilarious stories. The reporting you have done on John Edwards is just icing on the cake and proof of my infallible instincts. I also wanted to say that you deserve a better description than “Los Angeles gossip website”. I like Byron York alot, but I think he got that wrong. Just sayin’.
“The Internet Archive is working to prevent the Internet - a new medium with major historical significance - and other “born-digital” materials from disappearing into the past…we are working to preserve a record for generations to come.”
-From the homepage of the Internet Wayback Machine, which scrubbed both of Rielle Hunter’s cocaine-addled websites from existence in the dead of night.
http://www.archive.org/about/about.php
In a New York Times interview, “Mr. Kahle said the one-liner he finds most compelling is from Raj Reddy, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University: ”Universal access to human knowledge is within our grasp.”
Yet in the case of Rielle Hunter’s cocaine-addled website, Mr. Kahle has curiously intentionally prevented knowledge from being within anyone’s grasp, and has apparently become part of the John Edwards consiracy… though his organization rents space from a taxpayer funded United States Federal Enclave in California.
Time will tell what Mr. Kahle’s true goals for his company are.
I don’t know about the allegations of drug use, but otherwise it certainly is a good question.
And thank you, winewife!
The allegations of drug usage aren’t mine, they were original content on Rielle Hunter’s self-authored website.
From BeingIsFree.com, Second link, entitled “Story of my life” (upper left, in orange).
The drug abuse admission was on: http://www.beingisfree.org/storyofmylife.html
My favorite page, however was titled: “Being is free : tell the truth : intention”.
That’s where I saw the birth of a very familiar theme in the Edwards campaign, and indeed the final word on this webpage. Poverty.
Here’s the text from that page of Rielle Hunter’s now deleted website appended below:
“The other completely absurd thing was: How could I have cost myself so much money? This enlightenment cost me thousands and thousands of dollars. Here I was completely broke, I had just sold my most valuable possession, a rare statue of Baba Muktananda in order to afford yet another spiritual retreat and lo and behold: BEING is FREE. Having to pay money for your Self for Being is not only ridiculous, it’s retarded.
Whether you are rich or poor, it is Being’s birthright to realize itself.
BEING IS FREE is non-profit foundation created so you can wake up to your true nature, find yourself, realize yourself, FOR FREE. My life and this foundation is dedicated to you, BEING realizing ITSELF, FOR FREE.
BEING IS FREE FOUNDATION also provides financial support to beings who have dedicated their entire lives to the raising of awareness, the growing of higher consciousness, so they can offer their services for free without having to live in poverty. “
One of the statements on cocaine usage here:
“The memories of my past, the story of ‘me’, are patchy at best. I used to be able to retain a lot of information. In fact, I used to credit myself with having a memory like a steel trap. That isn’t the case anymore. I can’t retain shit. Which may be due to the shift, perhaps my age, perhaps all the coke I snorted in the eighties. “
Right, the Eighties. The website was created some time after that, presumably.
And yes, I read that. Click here.
Yes, of course, drug usage was past tense.
Is there a plan to recreate BeingIsFree.org?
It was truly a glimpse into the mind of the creator.
A psychologist I sent the site to suggested that she suffered borderline personality disorder, and mania or manic/depressive (manic phase).
It strikes me that the Internet Wayback Machine could potentially be missing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars of free publicity.
If I was an investor in Archive.org, I wouldn’t be happy that politics had been placed above profits.
Oh.My.God.The Polit Bureau has been breached! The pristine LA Times has sullied its hallowed self with mention of (gasp) the possible (pause, look over each shoulder) affair of the now private citizen (never mind he could have been VP or Atty Gen’l) John R. Edwards. Quick, quick, my smelling salts! How can we possibly expect our venerable institutions of news to report such things? Certainly, they did NOT report that Bill Bennett, a private citizen who compiled an anthology about morals, had a penchant for gambling. NO! That would have been WRONG! It would not have served the public interest. Plus, it may have harmed his innocent family, who…what? What is that you say? They did report that? Oh, well I suppose the conservative brother (private citizen though he may have been at the time) of the lawyer to the President who was dallying with an intern wearing a blue dress is certainly fair game! After all, all John Edward’s is doing is jetting about the country giving very visible speeches about the Two America’s and how he will rectify this problem in ten years, probably at the behest of a possible President Obama. But don’t you dare call him a public servant. No siree. He is just a private citizen and is entitled to research illegitimacy any way he chooses, as long as he pays the employees involved (Andrew Young, Rielle Hunter) a decent working wage ($20000, $15000 per month). No, No, No. Do not sully your lily white newsprint with such Tabloid trash. That’s what John Edwards say it is, and if he says so, it must be true. Why waste an reporter’s precious breath on the question “Mr. Edwards, is it true you were at the Beverly Hilton visting Rielle Hunter and your child on the night of July _ ?â€
Anyone else think she is ugly as sin? What is wrong with Democrats today? Can’t they get a good looking mistress like JFK? Monica & now this bimbo?
FS wrote: “A psychologist I sent the site to suggested that she suffered borderline personality disorder, and mania or manic/depressive (manic phase).”
This screams BPD. Just based on BeingIsFree and McInerney’s description of Alison Poole, tick off the the DSM-IV criteria that we know about: 2 (definitely), 3 (apparently), 4 (definitely), 7 (apparently), and who knows about the rest, but Bret Easton Ellis sure adds 8 to Alison Poole in Glamorama. Whether that’s fair to Rielle Hunter is anyone’s guess. Bad enough to get mixed up with a BPD, but to have a child with one while running for President?! John Edwards is a walking condom ad.
DSM-IV criteria for BPD (a simple majority of these diagnosed by a competent professional implies BPD):
1. Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. [Not including suicidal or self-mutilating behavior covered in Criterion 5]
2. A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation.
3. Identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self.
4. Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., promiscuous sex, eating disorders, binge eating, substance abuse, reckless driving). [Again, not including suicidal or self-mutilating behavior covered in Criterion 5]
5. Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, threats, or self-mutilating behavior such as cutting, interfering with the healing of scars, or picking at oneself.
6. Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphoria, irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days).
7. Chronic feelings of emptiness, worthlessness.
8. Inappropriate anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights).
9. Transient, stress-related paranoid ideation, delusions or severe dissociative symptoms
Oh, I just read Simon’s post “A Deeper Look into the Mind of Rielle Hunter“, where we learn from RH herself that:
So add 8 (apparently, perhaps definitely) to the DSM-IV list, without the dependence on Alison Poole’s behavior depicted in Glamorama. All this just screams BPD.
I can be grateful to Edwards for one reason… his mischief brought me to your blog site. How did I ever live without the keen insights and cutting observations of Deceiver!? And I mean that sincerely… I love your blog.
P.S. For some interesting background on how well BPD mixes with political life, see Princess Diana’s biography
Diana in Search of Herself: Portrait of a Troubled Princess, which argues that the evidence that Diana suffered from BPD “is compelling”. This is one book of many that discusses the possibility that Diana was BPD, though it’s vehemently denied by, obviously, the British Court, which has the small detail of the Inherited Monarchy to defend. Anyway, many well-known celebrities, especially women, are believed to have suffered from BPD (and a host of other PDs). Not that we should go off and do armchair diagnoses, but in many cases it’s difficult not to draw your own conclusions.
Thanks for the updates, guys. I don’t know if it’ll be today, but I’ll definitely be following up on the many, many unexplored aspects of this whole thing. Hell, as far as the news is concerned, this whole thing is unexplored!
And Teresa, I thank you and congratulate you on your taste and discernment.
If I type in mimihockman.com (Rielle Hunter’s accredited partner in her Webisodes) there’s a greeting card website.
If I go to Whois.com, and search Mimi Hockman’s business address, I get a business address of:
Mimi Hockman Ink
456 Redmond Road
South Orange, NJ 07079
US
If you Google just the street address “456 Redmond Road”, you get some very specific information on ‘Riell’ Hunter, including social security number, etc.
And if I hit one of the campaign contribution lookup sites, one discovers that the same Mimi Hockman donated $250 to John Kerry in 2004.
Here’s the house Rielle Hunter used to own with ex husband Alexander Hunter
http://lalife.com/address/9788_Oak_Pass_Rd_Los_Angeles_CA_90210
Why is a poodle sitting on Bob McGovern’s head?
Good one Angelique. Technically its more of a Bichon Frise.
I’m surprised Mimi has her listed that address as her business address, because looking at the tax records, I believe it is her and her husband’s home residence. Is it still ok Netiquette to discuss this address? Anyways, when the Enquirer ran its December 2007 piece on Rielle, it stated that:
“Young has been in charge of looking after Hunter, according to sources, and she has been careful to stay out of sight during Edwards’ campaign. A former Director of Operations for Edwards’ campaign, Young’s last official position with the campaign was North Carolina Finance Director.
He left that job about a month ago — nearly the same time Rielle relocated from the New Jersey area to Chapel Hill.”
It says “New Jersey” NOT “New York. In looking at Mimi’s tax records for her residence, it seems that Mimi and her husband Gregory bought the place back in July of 1999 and it is 3,169 in square footage. Seems that there might be plenty of room for Rielle to have been living there or at least staying there in between far-flung guru visiting travels and California jaunts. I wonder if Mimi might care to comment? Seems she hasn’t said anything since she told Sam Stein “sorry can’t help you - not a chance” when he asked her about the Webisodes.
http://midlinegroove.com/
“Midline groove the space right under your nose”
Heh.
I had never heard of the term “midline groove” before all of this Rielle business. Funny that when I google for references to this term, I most often come up with medical and plastic surgery sites. Maybe Rielle needed some nasal surgery after all those coke-addled years and first encountered the term in a doctor’s office?
We won!
Edwards Admits He Slept with Rielle Hunter
Details in a Nightline interview tonight!
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5441195&page=1
You’d think an intuitive would be able to discern that his “hairstyle” was heinous.
Since he’s an “intuitive” maybe he knows that hairstyle is coming into fashion.