O'Reilly Geraldo Edwards: Disingenuous Grandstanders

Geraldo was on O'Reilly tonight and as usual, when Geraldo talks, and you just try to ignore him, he says something really stupid that makes your head snap-to. The conversation was about John Edwards. Here's one more example of the disingenuous grandstander, Geraldo Rivera:

Geraldo Rivera

The discussion started with John Edwards and his mistress and his wife, and whether or not his wife, Elizabeth, knew about Rielle Hunter, his mistress - not only if she knew but when she knew. From there they discussed one of Edwards' campaign workers, Andrew Young, who having sharpened his stupidity in the company of John Edwards, stepped up and fell on "it," when the affair and the baby were made public.

Young said Hunter's child was his. Time passed, book offers flooded in and Andrew Young decided the baby wasn't his after all. That made his wife very happy. Young's memory was refreshing itself, and guess what? He remembered that John Edwards made a sex tape, and he remembered that it was stashed away in his own house or office, and he knew exactly where that tape was stored.

The discussion moved to descriptions of what a miserable sack of something John Edwards is and about the charges he may be facing. Geraldo said something very close to this (paraphrased):

Bill, if this had not gotten out and Edwards had been the Democrat candidate, and if Edwards had won the presidency and moved himself into the Oval Office, what Bill, would we have done if China or someone got hold of that tape...

I think Geraldo might have shuddered at the monstrous thought of a U.S. president being blackmailed. Righteous anger dominated the conversation. I remember that feeling. Blackmail was my real concern about Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. But no one in Washington D.C., on either side of the aisle, seemed concerned about it. I'm not sure about those outside the U.S., but silly girl - of course Monica wasn't blackmailing our President. Geraldo "hit the motherlode" with the Lewinsky-Clinton affair. The New York Observer call him the Master of MonicaGate. Remember when Geraldo suggested 9-11-01 may have never happened had CIA and FBI not been sidetracked by MonicaGate?

O’Reilly told Rivera "there’s a residual anger" against him from FNC viewers over his defense of Bill Clinton. Rivera defended his defense: "It was a huge national distraction, going after a guy who lied about getting oral sex from a woman he wasn’t married to and I think I know a million guys who get sex from a woman they weren’t married to and to impeach the President over that just didn’t see appropriate."

Yes, certainly no big deal to Geraldo when his chum, President Bill Clinton kept Yasser Arafat cooling his heels in the White House Rose Garden until he finished with Monica, or the other way around. Later, after we knew all we would know about MonicaGate, thanks to Ken Starr, Geraldo told FOX News' Shep Smith that he never did get an interview with Bill:

Smith noted: "You were out there for him." Rivera agreed: "I really was. I think if there were one journalist -- you know, and I understand your viewers' wrath if there's one journalist who really helped save Bill Clinton's behind, it was me. I don't regret it. I really, when push comes to shove, he was a liar, a perjurer, but he was basically an adulterer. I think that's, he had a character flaw. He may still. But that's basically what it was about. Had he been guilty of peddling nuclear secrets or doing something more blatant, something more profoundly affecting the well being of the republic, I would have been on the same side as the majority of my colleagues in the fourth estate.

When Clinton was out in 2000 and Bush was in, Geraldo had ideas about how things should have gone:

Geraldo Rivera after humming the theme from Rocky over footage of Clinton’s pre-speech hallway walk at the Democratic convention, August 21, 2000 Rivera Live on CNBC: "You’re going to miss that guy. Don’t tell me you’re not gonna miss that guy. This is a master. He may be a rogue, but he is an artful and pleasant rogue and done a hell of a job as President. I’m gonna miss the guy...He should’ve been the vice presidential candidate."

The quotes in defense of Bill Clinton's liason with Monica go on and on, after all, as Geraldo said so many times, "it's only sex." I don't know how anyone supported John Edwards even before we knew about Ms. Hunter, but I know close friends who did until...and then they supported Barack Obama. I have nothing good to say about Edwards so, I not defending him, I'm bashing Geraldo.

I mentioned that O'Reilly is a disingenuous grandstander too. While I like many things that O'Reilly does, especially when he is after judges givinf leniency to child predators, I appreciate what he does. He is good at it, but I've about had it with his continual comments about the amazing prowess of the Obama campaign. Hey O'Reilly, it's over, and now we've got him in the Oval Office. Keep your eye on O-man.

While you couch everything you say about Obama with generosity and moderation, and then ding his ideas, well...wake up. They ARE his ideas and they are extreme ideas. How can you be so generous and so moderate about a man who hatched these particular plans for America?

You are a disingenuous grandstander sometimes, O'Reilly...either that, or this is your way to get Obama back for an interview. And John Edwards, the disingenuous, lying, cheating scumbag of a grandstander whose ostentatious faux magnanimity gluts his every interview, there is this chat with Katie Couric in December 2007, and she asks how important Edwards believes fidelity is to the character of a president:

COURIC: Harry Truman said, "A man not honorable in his marital relations is not usually honorable in any other." Some people don't feel comfortable supporting a candidate who has not remained faithful to his or her spouse. Can you understand their position?

EDWARDS: Of course. I mean, for a lot of Americans-- including the family that I grew up with, I mean, it's-- it's fundamental to-- how you judge people and human character-- whether you keep your word, whether you keep what is your ultimate word, which is that-- you love-- your spouse, and you'll stay with them.

COURIC: Do you think-- what-- what about people who use that as a way to evaluate a candidate? In other words, there have been a number of fine presidents according to some analysts...who have certainly not been sort of exhibited the greatest moral character when it comes to infidelity...I guess is what I'm getting at.

EDWARDS: Yes.

COURIC: So how important do you think it is in the grand scheme of things?

EDWARDS: I think the most important qualities in a president in today's world are trustworthiness-- sincerity, honesty, strength of leadership. And-- and certainly that goes to a part of that. It's not the whole thing. But it goes to a part of it.

COURIC: So you think it's-- an appropriate way to judge a candidate?

EDWARDS: Yeah. But I don't think it's controlling. I mean, I think that, as you point out, there have been American presidents that at least according to the-- to the stories we've all heard-- that were not faithful, that were in fact good presidents. So I don't think it controls the issue. But I think it's certain-- something reasonable for people to consider.

This is December of 2007. Edwards hired Hunter in 2006 to begin a series of documentary shorts for political purposes. In October 2007, Sam Stein writing for Huffington Post tried to access the "webisodes." Strange thing - they had disappeared. The Edwards camp, now gearing up for campaign mode, said they didn't have them. Rielle Hunter's partner said the Edwards group had them. Stein began wondering who Rielle Hunter was. The hunt for the smoking gun was on. The Couric interview makes one think that perky Katie knew exactly the position in which she was placing this disingenuous grandstander.

Related and Background:
Rielle Hunter and Edwards Sex Tape: Restraining Order - Rielle Admits Sex Tape 

John Edwards and Elizabeth Separated: Edwards Admits Fathering Rielle's Baby

John Edwards Most UnPopular Person Ever!

John Edwards: Andrew Young's Book The Politician

John Edwards Sex Tape: John Edwards, Rielle Hunter Sex Tape?

Elizabeth Edwards is Cherubim? Elizabeth Blogs about Rielle

John Edwards Blames His Own Celebrity

O'Reilly Geraldo Edwards: Disingenuous Grandstander