Make the "News" Go Away, Please

On the tv outside my office MSNBC was blaring all day. I nearly took an axe to it. There was almost no non-tabloid news on all day long. All day long I was hearing about missing kids, dead kids, found kids (okay, a little yay on that one) and affairs. Why whether Jon of Jon and Kate Plus Eight is having an affair is remotely news fodder for a "news" channel is beyond me, but the one that's really getting on my wick is Elizabeth Edwards.

I know I'm probably going to go to hell for this, or at least get hate mail, but she should shut the hell up and go away. I'm fast losing whatever sympathy I had for her. Now, John is a scumbucket sleazeball, and unless his wife had given him a quiet "hey, I'm not going to be good for much, if you know what I mean, and you want to go get some on the side, go ahead", it's all his fault. You're a politician with a future, your wife's got cancer, you just keep it zipped, buddy. But there's no purpose served about going public. You probably stayed for the kids, so don't write books on it and go on tv, where they will see and read it all. And today to go on and on about how it's the other woman's fault, and how women need to support each other and not steal each other's men, you're really getting into bad territory. Because there are women out there who are predators, and there are women who are wowed by powerful dudes. There are two people who just happen to click and find each other, even if one of them is married. But in all situations the answer is the same. It's not an issue if the married person just says one little word "no". Elizabeth, you can't exonerate your husband by calling the other woman names. That may be the way you have to explain it to yourself in order to stay with him, but that's not how this equation works. You know, sometimes the man is staying with you for the sake of the kids. Many of the wives aren't saints and contribute to the problem. I don't know how it is in the Edwards household. I'm still inclined to go with the "John is scum" camp. But he doesn't get a pass, and if you try to give him one and just blame "that shameless hussy" you just strike me as another poser trying to make a buck by playing the victim. Makes me wonder what part of this equation you contributed to, because people who reassign blame in one area usually do it in others.

I'm not saying that the choice to stay was easy -- in her position, dying and all, there really isn't much else she could do. But once you make the choice to stay, you put your game face on and your mouth shut. I think everyone around here knows how I feel about Hillary Clinton, but the one thing I have always felt she did right was when she made the decision to stay with Bill (which was her right), she kept her mouth shut and pretended like nothing happened, at least in public. I have some reliable reports that in private she was an outright rhymes-with-witch, but that's between her and Bill.

I'm not sure what Elizabeth Edwards wants out of this book and press tour -- it's not going to heal her pain, and it serves no one. Certainly not the kids, which are always the primary concern. Everyone else are grownups and made their choices. But shut up and leave or shut up and stay.