Un-Liberaled Woman

All this week I’ve been reading on the details of the new book Game Change – which is a look inside the presidential campaigns of 2008.  I’m totally ordering this today from Amazon because it will make an excellent read during my maternity leave. I mean you have to take everything you read with a grain of salt, but man does this book not bode well for Democrats who are facing enough of an uphill battle come the 2010 elections (which I don’t feel sorry about because they are their own worst enemies and not the Republicans or those “nutjob” tea partiers as they would have you believe in the media).

And if you thought the latest Harry Reid fiasco from this book was bad, oh just wait….

I read this latest excerpt on the Metra last night about John “Silky Pony” Edwards and his wife Elizabeth (via NYMag). Man, are these political marriages a bunch of shams. And for what – some lavish parties and access to inner circles. Human nature is so self-centered. Anybody tells you differently, they’re just in denial. Here’s one of my favorite parts where a typical ego-maniac politician blames everyone but himself for his own indiscretions:

A few days later, in October, Brumberger flew from New York to Chicago to join Edwards for a trip to China. “Hey, I need to talk to you,” Edwards said abruptly when they met in the terminal at O’Hare. They walked together to the airline’s premium lounge, where Edwards had reserved a private meeting room for their conversation. “Sit,” Edwards said and then tore into Brumberger.

Stuff from the road is getting back to people, and it’s obviously you who’s doing it, Edwards said angrily. You didn’t recognize who you work for. You don’t work for Nick and Peter. You work for me. I trusted you like a son, but you broke my trust. I can’t have you around me anymore. You’re not coming to China, and you’re never working for me again.

Brumberger’s heart sank. “I’m sorry you feel that way,” he said. “I always thought my goal in all of this was to do everything I could to help you become the next president of the United States.”

“Why didn’t you come to me?” Edwards asked.

“I did come to you! I came to you in Ohio. I called you after Labor Day! I tried!”

“No,” Edwards said. “Why didn’t you come to me like a fucking man and tell me to stop fucking her?”

They were both yelling now at the top of their lungs, red-faced and teary-eyed. (”You’re a 27-year-old kid, and I’m a grown man!” Edwards railed. “Don’t you think I’ve thought about this?”) But when Edwards finally regained his composure, he seemed to recognize the implications of sacking Brumberger. Let’s talk about all this when I get back, he said.

But Brumberger had had enough. Crushed and mortified, he was finished with Edwards.

Brumberger’s firing sent shock waves through the campaign. Baldick, Rubey, and longtime communications adviser David Ginsberg followed him out the door that autumn of 2006. All three gave Edwards pretexts for quitting, but for them there was no escaping the conclusion that the candidate was diddling Hunter and that he was hell-bent on resisting the efforts of the people closest to him to save him from himself.

And to think that Silky Pony could have been president. (Shudders)

Also, I just received a link to another excerpt showing how Game Change doesn’t do Hillary Clinton any favors either.

Exit question: Remember when Obama said on the campaign trail how people would say not to vote for him because he has a funny name, he’s black, and that his face wouldn’t look like the guys on the dollar bill, etc.? He was trying to insinuate that Republicans or those not voting for him were only racially-motivated in not voting for him. Too bad it looks like he was talking mainly about people within his own party. But anyone who’s a former liberal knows that the most racially-insensitive people you’ll meet are liberals themselves.  Game Change is a book really shedding the sunshine on things most of us already know.