[Dean's World] Ron Coleman: "Well, I think we know which America he's living in"

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Posted by Ron Coleman:
"Well, I think we know which America he's living in"
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1170990055.shtml


     Sitting on 102 secluded acres â surrounded by trees and defended by
     no-trespassing signs â the 28,000-square-foot estate that Edwards
     and his family call home has presidential privacy.

     A main home has five bedrooms and six-and-a-half baths. It's
     connected by a covered walkway to a bright red addition known as
     "The Barn," that includes its own living facilities along with a
     handball court, an indoor pool and an indoor basketball court with
     a stage at one end. Nearby, the family has cleared space for a
     soccer field.

     With a current building value of $4.3 million, the unfinished
     Edwards estate is already about $1 million more expensive than any
     other house in the county, according to tax records. It sits on
     land worth about $1.1 million.

     Edwards first purchased the land in 2004, during his failed run as
     vice president. He recently sold his mansion in Washington's tony
     Georgetown neighborhood for $5.2 million.

     Edwards, a former trial lawyer who made millions before winning a
     seat in the Senate representing North Carolina, has faced criticism
     regarding the estate. It also has become the subject of late-night
     jokes.

     "Well, I think we know which America he's living in," Jay Leno
     quipped on NBC's "Tonight Show," a riff of Edwards' frequent
     mention of the "two Americas" â one for the wealthy and one for the
     poor.

   That's the [1]AP. I'm not sure Americans have a huge problem with
   wealthy presidents. They'd better not; there aren't too many other
   kinds of presidential candidates any more.

   But it's something different here, for a few reasons:
     * At $4.3 million in value for the house, it's hard to impress me
       from where I'm sitting right now, on New York's Upper East Side,
       where many apartments cost that much. But in his neighborhood,
       that's a [2]monstrously large and ostentatious house, as you can
       see in the description above. In short: It's in bad taste.
     * Edwards made a fortune practicing as a contingent-fee lawyer,
       mainly specializing in fetal distress malpractice claims against
       obstetricians. It's a line of work that is [3]controversial. ,
       though there's certainly disagreement as to how that would [4]play
       out in a national election. When contrasted with "crime buster"
       Rudy Giuliani, though -- a [5]"public servant" lawyer who didn't
       make serious money in his government law practice or as [6]mayor,
       though he made up for it later (albeit nowhere near the scale of
       Edwards's wealth) -- the contrast would not flatter Edwards,
       despite the left-wing sour grape squeezers that will [7]never
       forgive Giuliani for cleaning up New York.
     * He's not a Kennedy.

   No, I don't like John Edwards, though believe me -- as a lawyer, I
   take my hat off to him. I don't blame lawyers for runaway juries; I
   blame the juries themselves as well as the judges (trial and
   appellate) and legislatures (largely in the pocket of plaintiffs'
   lawyers) that do not reign them in. Their obligation is to advocate
   and, short of [8]cheating at it, which is reprehensible, they should
   and do play to win.

   But I do believe that Edwards is very vulnerable on this score.
   Lawyers are not respected in this country, though the same people who
   scorn us call us the second they think we can help. Still, while eople
   don't like government officials who are lawyers, either, that's a
   different flavor of disdain. It's good to be a good lawyer, and very
   good, even great, is best of all. But Edwards may have been too good
   for his own good, in terms of his political ambitions. The biggest
   jury of all will not be swayed on this one. John Edwards will have to
   settle for his own palace rather than the relatively modest white one
   on Pennsylvania Avenue where he wants to hang his briefcase.

References

   1. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070207/ap_on_el_pr/edwards_house
   2. http://carolinajournal.com/exclusives/display_exclusive.html?id=3848
   3. http://beldar.blogs.com/beldarblog/2006/12/my_blogospheric.html
   4. http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0110.green.html
   5. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101860210-143096,00.html
   6. http://www.time.com/time/poy2001/poyprofile.html
   7. http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/02/06/what-america-needs-to-know-about-rudy-giuliani/
   8. http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1170682664089