Kirsten Powers: Edwards "Was Always a Fake"

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Democrat strategerist Kirsten Powers appears regularly to counter Sean Hannity on Hannity & Colmes, and on Hannity's radio show, The Sean Hannity Show. In a column yesterday, she sounded just like him in hurling John Edwards under the bus following Edwards' admission of cheating on his wife in 2006.

He Was Always a Fake

If it looks like a phony, walks like a phony, quacks like a phony, it's a phony.

There's nothing particularly shocking about a politician cheating,and there's even less shock in learning that Edwards has been lying through his teeth about his own affair. In fact, we should assume that his detailed timeline about the affair is likely just another lie.

This is interesting. Edwards has looked like a phony, walked like a phony and received $400 haircuts like a phony for some time now, yet Powers wasn't calling him a phony last week. In fact, I recall her being on Fox News following the news of Edwards' $400 haircuts, and remember thinking that despite her attempts to limit the political damage to him, something seemed wrong. I could almost sense that she knew that he really was a fake. Her arguments seemed extra-weak that day, and she looked ashamed of making them.

If I'm correct, now we know why. If she knew that he was a phony then, as really, any thinking person should have known within minutes of learning about his history, then she has been denying what she knew to be true for years now. That has got to be difficult on one's psyche. It is no shock that she lashed out at him in such an indignant manner yesterday if you recognize that she has allowed herself to be used, knowingly backing up this fraud for years.

But something about Edwards always seemed uniquely phony, even by the standards of politics. Actually, nothing about him seemed authentic.

Who was he? Apparently, whatever he thought people wanted him to be. In 2000, he helped found the "New Democrat Coalition" for the centrist Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) along with Sen. Joe Lieberman and others. Then, for his 2004 presidential run, he staked out the populist "Two Americas" theme. By 2008, he'd completed a total morph into a class warrior who pandered to the farthest reaches of the Democratic Left.

The poor suddenly became a great concern to him after his 2004 loss - yet he saw no disconnect in building a massive mansion as he crusaded for the poverty-stricken. He discovered New Orleans when he wanted to make his 2008 campaign announcement, but was nowhere to be seen back when the tragedy occurred.

In campaign focus groups, people would say something about him was "too perfect," that there must be "something wrong with him." A YouTube clip of him obsessing over his hair captured what so many felt: He was more concerned with appearances than anything else.

In all her self-righteous indignation, where is Powers' criticism of herself for constantly arguing against Hannity when he made the very same points? I have always respected her for being fair-minded, but this is ridiculous. She attempts to excuse herself of culpability by dropping it all at Edwards' doorstep. Edwards never forced her to back him up every time he did something that seemed fake, yet she did. But now "he was always fake."

By the way, Edwards isn't the only one dishonored. The media accepted his denials of any affair - while holding at least one other candidate to a different standard. The New York Times insinuated in a front-page story that McCain had had an affair with a lobbyist - an allegation utterly without evidence. And MSNBC's Keith Ollberman broke into scheduled programming to hawk the story.

Perhaps Powers didn't accept his denials. She certainly wasn't visibly complaining about this fact prior to the admission, however. One can only write a column like this if they've felt that way for a period of time. Yet she never allowed her beliefs about him to prevent her from backing him up on TV or on the radio.

I have lost a great deal of respect for Powers. I never agreed with her, but I used to respect her. If she wants to regain her good name, she might consider sharing with the audience what she thinks of the candidates she discusses, even if they are Democrats. Otherwise, I can only assume Kirsten Powers was always a fake.