Posted on 05/21/2006 4:41:29 PM PDT by CT
Edwards: Bush Worse than Nixon
2004 Vice Presidential Contender Blasts Bush and Readies to Run Again
By ED O'KEEFE
May 21, 2006 — - Former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., says George W. Bush is the "worst president of our lifetime," and "absolutely" worse than Watergate-tainted President Richard M. Nixon.
In an exclusive appearance on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," the former presidential and vice presidential contender said of Bush, "He's done a variety of things -- things which are going to take us forever to recover from.
"You have to give Bush and Cheney and gang credit for being good at politics -- you know, good at political campaigns," Edwards added. "They're very good at dividing the country and taking advantage of it. What they're not good at is governing, and it shows every single day in this administration. And the country is paying a huge price for that."
The former senator, pitching his "college for everyone" program in rural North Carolina, also responded to recent criticism by Mary Cheney, Vice President Cheney's lesbian daughter. In "Now It's My Turn: A Daughter's Chronicle of Political Life", Cheney, the 37-year-old second daughter of the vice president and second lady, labeled Edwards as "complete and total slime" for congratulating Cheney and his wife during their 2004 vice presidential debate for "embrac[ing]" their daughter's sexual orientation.
Edwards did not back down, telling Stephanopoulous, ABC News' chief Washington correspondent, "I think what I said then was appropriate. And I do believe that it was in a very partisan political environment. We were in the middle of a very hot campaign, very close campaign."
Mary Cheney, a close political advisor to her father, told ABC News "Primetime" anchor Diane Sawyer in May that she seriously contemplated quitting the 2004 campaign over the Bush's opposition to gay marriage.
"I struggled with my decision to stay," she said.
Edwards told "This Week": "What happened … is that the vice president had mentioned in several public appearances the fact that he had a gay daughter, had talked about some differences in policy that he had with the president. He was asked a question in the debate where that was referenced by the moderator, Gwen Ifill. He responded. I said that actually the fact that they had a gay daughter and embraced her is something that should be applauded for. He said thank you."
Mary Cheney has claimed in her book that her father was acting.
"He didn't seem like he was acting," Edwards told Stephanopoulos, "although you never know with the vice president."
Mary Cheney has since returned to private life, working at AOL and living with her longtime partner, Heather Poe, in Virginia.
With regard to her father, Edwards continued to level sharp criticism.
"It is not an accident that he's unbelievably poorly thought of," Edwards said. "He is one of -- if not the -- principal architects of this disaster in Iraq. He put us on an energy path that the American people are paying an enormous price for right now. He paid little to no attention to making sure the government was prepared to respond to the kind of disaster that hit our Gulf Coast. We've got a health care crisis going on, he's had no proposal of any kind that I know of. And people don't trust him anymore, which is understandable. I wouldn't trust him."
Edwards made the pitch for a Democratic president in 2008, claiming the Bush has "intentionally ignored" the law and constitution in the NSA wiretapping controversy.
"If I were in the Senate, I would vote for censure," over that controversy, Edwards said. "Again, I don't think this is where I'd spend my energy, but if I had an up-or-down vote, I'd vote for it."
But for the most part, the one-term senator, who retired from the Senate to run for president, seemed relieved to be without a vote in Congress.
"I just think that if you don't live in Washington -- which I don't anymore, thank goodness; I live here in North Carolina -- … for me, it gives me a completely different perspective."
Edwards endorsed the Kennedy-McCain approach to immigration -- "earned citizenship" and increased border protection. He suggested raising the minimum wage, expanding the earned income tax credit, and strengthening organized labor as the keys to a better economy. His main focus these days, however, is education.
In Snow Hill, N.C., to deliver $300,000 in college scholarships to seniors at Greene Central High School, Edwards told Stephanopoulos, "Any kid here who graduates from high school qualified to go to college, willing to work at least 10 hours a week the first year they're in school, we pay for their tuition and books."
Edwards would like to take this plan, which debuted as a campaign proposal during his failed 2004 presidential bid, and his anti-poverty campaign nationwide.
"I think you have to convince the country that it's [the] moral and just thing to do," he said. But he acknowledged, "I don't think [Americans are] completely there. I think that in their conscience inside they're there, but they haven't had any leadership. No one has ever made them think about it."
As to whether he might be the one to press such an agenda in the 2008 presidential campaign, Edwards said, "I'm thinking about it, and I'm very seriously considering it. I just haven't made a final decision.
"[I] don't have a time frame," he added, "but can't wait too long."
Edwards said he might not run if his wife's health problems flared up. Elizabeth Edwards, the former senator's wife of 29 years, was diagnosed with breast cancer on Nov. 3, 2004, the day that Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and his running mate Edwards conceded defeat to the Bush-Cheney team.
"She's doing great," Edwards said. "All the tests are good, and they're very encouraging. But we have young children, Emma Claire and Jack, and the health of Elizabeth and how my family's doing would have to be at the front of anything."
Edwards said his losses as a presidential and vice presidential candidate in 2004 -- his only losses in a short, but meteoric political career -- may have affected his outlook.
"In honesty," Edwards said, "going through a campaign has a natural maturation process. I mean, it changes you. It changes the way you see things. It changes how you feel about your own views and your willingness to stand with them, no matter what kind of opposition or unpopularity they have. I think it just gives you a different perspective."
If he does run, Edwards said the possibility of opposition from Kerry or Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., in a 2008 Democratic primary would not faze him.
Calling Clinton a "formidable candidate", Edwards said, "I just think that anybody who suggests, particularly now … that you can predict what's going to happen is just living in never, never land."
George Stephanopoulos' entire interview with former senator and vice presidential candidate John Edwards can be viewed at "This Week's" Web page at www.abcnews.com.
Copyright © 2006 ABC News Internet Ventures
Bush? Cheney? Rice? Powell? Engghhhhh. Ding. WRONG.
No, it was John 'Breck' Edwards. He did so on CNN. February 24, 2002. CNN Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer.
Here is the exact quote:
KING: Senator Edwards, when discussing the North Korean problem, the president wants to confront the regime, deal with its own missiles program plus its exports. There is not a reasonable military option when it comes to North Korea is there?
EDWARDS: Well, I don't think we're focused on military options right now, John.
I think it was important, in answer to your last question, it was important for the president to go to the region. I think he did help alleviate some of the concerns that people in that area had about this "axis of evil" comment.
But I do think that the more serious question going forward is, what are we going to do? I mean, we have three different countries that, while they all present serious problems for the United States -- they're dictatorships, they're involved in the development and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction -- you know, the most imminent, clear and present threat to our country is not the same from those three countries. I think Iraq is the most serious and imminent threat to our country.
And I think they -- as a result, we have to, as we go forward and as we develop policies about how we're going to deal with each of these countries and what action, if any, we're going to take with respect to them, I think each of them have to be dealt with on their own merits.
And they do, in my judgment, present different threats. And I think Iraq and Saddam Hussein present the most serious and most imminent threat.
So the next time you read some lefty's Letter to The Editor (as I see parroted all the time) claiming Bush lied by calling Iraq an imminent threat (he and others in the admin. said words to the effect that we did not want to wait until Iraq was an imminent threat, because it would then be too late), just tell them to tell that to Pretty Boy Edwards.
who?
Edwards is such a pitiful little man.
Do we care what the Breck Girl thinks?
"My Little Pony" needs to STFU about things he knows nothing about. Edwards is without a doubt one of the most ignorant (and of course arrogant) one-term Senators to ever stroll into office, if he wants the worst president in the 20th century, he needs look no further than the last two 'Rat presidents, the Sinner (Clinton) and the (har-har-laugh-chuckle) "Saint" (Carter).
It's a damn miracle America survived those two SOBs.
Edwards makes Barbara Boxer look like an intellectual.
Do wonder why they keep bringing all the losers out?
This from the imbecile who gave us "Two Americas".
You mean he thinks?
Who cares what this loser thinks?!? Oh, ABC. Never mind.
When he spots an ambulance ...
Sen Edwrds, which candidate beat you and Sen Kerry last time out? Remember, when you point a finger, there are 3 more pointing back at YOU!
If I needed a lawyer to help me make a big score after an accident, I'd call Edwards.
However, the disciples of Mohammed will not be defeated by tort lawyers.
Well, FORMER Senator, why don't you spend a little less time talking about President Bush and a little MORE time wondering if you were the single worst senator in North Carolina's history?
This guy makes me sick. He basically spat on his constituents, in voting with Ted Kennedy for 6 years.
ping
Love the middle one!
I don't think Edwards or sKerry either one will ever realize they lost the election. Talk about keeping in extreme denial.
Its too bad Burr didn't have the pleasure of ousting him from office in 2004.
Once again we hear the tired 'Republicans divide people' to win elections nonsense. Forgetting that elections are inherently about division, it also betrays the elitists mindset of leftwingers like Edwards; when conservatives/Republicans win votes on contentious matters -- like gay marriage for example -- then they are guilty of 'dividing' the nation, but when the Left/Dems has a few judges impose a leftwing outcome then that's somehow unifying!
Well please don't forget FDR who may be the worst or at "best" 2nd worst president in our history.
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