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Former U.S. Sen. John Edwards
Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack says the revelation of two-time Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards’ infidelity has destroyed the North Carolinian’s career.
And it won’t be easily forgiven in a public sense, Vilsack, a Democrat, said in an interview during a fund-raiser for 5th District congressional candidate Rob Hubler at Crossroads Bistro in Carroll.
“It’s extraordinarily disappointing,” Vilsack said. “His public career, I suspect, has been damaged irreparably” as it should.
In an interview with ABC News and in a subsequent statement, Edwards admitted to having an affair with a former New York City socialite who shot videos for his campaign. Allegations that the former U.S. senator is the father of a lovechild remain outstanding, although Edwards has denied the claim.
Vilsack said the affair is freighted with extra baggage because of Elizabeth Edwards’s high profile battle with cancer — and the fact that as a candidate he portrayed him-self as a family man.
“It’s one thing to do this,” Vilsack said. “I think the context and the circumstances and the timing of it and the attitude that he projected during the presidential race, I think, creates some very serious problems for him in terms of being able to redeem himself.”
Former Gov. Tom Vilsack
Vilsack was a strong supporter of U.S Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., in the presidential race. But the governor said he wasn’t angry at Edwards, who finished a strong second in the Democratic Iowa caucuses, as some Clintonites who are speculating that the former First Lady would be the Democratic nominee instead of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., had Edwards been out of the race or outed as a cheating husband earlier.
“I guess I have a different attitude about that,” Vilsack said. “I am constantly thinking about Elizabeth Edwards and his children. This is a woman who is struggling to stay alive and kids who are seeing their mother struggle to stay alive and now they have to deal with this.”
Vilsack said it is not inconsistent to campaign for Hillary Clinton “whose victory would have put her famously philandering husband in the White House in a historic role as First Gentleman” and to judge Edwards’ public life as dead.
“He’s not elected to that position,” Vilsack said of Bill Clinton as a potential first spouse. “That’s a position that he would have assumed simply because his wife was elected president.
Vilsack doesn’t see any cabinet appointments or high-profile roles for Edwards in any Democratic administrations soon.
“I think that that might have been possible before this,” Vilsack said. “I don’t think it’s likely, at least for a while.”
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