How ironic the headlines this morning, the tale of two women in the Democrat party being played out in the press: Hillary Clinton, lauded by Democrats, the “gracious” loser of the primary election “imploring” supporters to “rally behind her rival” Barack Obama, juxtaposed against the “complicity” and “recklessness” of the party’s newest outcast, the now “shunned” Elizabeth Edwards.

From Patrick Healy of the New York Times:

With her husband looking on tenderly and her supporters watching with tears in their eyes, Sen. Hillary Clinton deferred her own dreams Tuesday night and delivered an emphatic plea at the Democratic National Convention to unite behind her rival, Sen. Barack Obama, no matter what ill will lingered.

Indeed.

Then there’s the Associated Press about Elizabeth Edwards conspicuous absence from the Dem’s national convention in Denver:

RALEIGH – Two weeks after a devastating revelation sent her husband into political exile, Elizabeth Edwards isn’t getting the steady sympathy usually afforded to a woman scorned.

Instead, she has faced criticism from dedicated Democrats who say they think that she was too willing to keep the affair a secret to help John Edwards’ political ambitions, as well as her own.

And yet we couldn’t help but wonder why some seem to forget that Hillary was far more “complicit” in regards to covering up her husband’s numerous peccadillos, both before, during, and after his two terms in the Whitehouse. We weren’t the only ones as the Daily Mail in the UK published this article in January by Sally Bedel Smith: Hillary’s Humiliation: How She Swept Bill Clinton’s affairs under the carpet. [link]

Hillary most certainly knew of the 12-year affair between her husband, the then Governor of Arkansas, and Gennifer Flowers, as Hillary and Bill pitched their platform for voters to elect him to his first turn in the White House. According to the Daily Mail, when Bill’s former bodyguards, Arkansas state troopers, alleged during the first go round in the White House Bill was a serial cheater while on their watch, Hillary attacked the men and their stories:

At the First Lady’s urging, White House aides did not directly confront the latest sexual allegations about Bill, but instead portrayed the troopers’ stories as partisan attacks timed to coincide with his rise in the polls.

Next, Hillary gave interviews to reporters, condemning the “outrageous, terrible stories” and suggesting the Clintons were the victims of a political conspiracy.

When another woman, Paula Jones, surfaced with allegations during the Clinton’s first year in the Oval Office, Bedell Smith wrote that it was “business as usual” for Hillary defending her husband, Bill, against a “a well-organised and well-financed attempt to undermine my husband and by extension myself, by people who have a different political agenda or have another personal and financial reason for attacking us.”

Notice how Hillary, in her statement, saw the news of Bill’s affairs, as “attacks” against her too.

Hillary not only turned a blind eye and was extremely complicit in her husband’s affairs but made an utter fool of herself, puffy-eyed and weeping on a morning show after news of the Lewinsky scandal had begun to break, claiming it was a “vast rightwing Republican conspiracy” that somehow led to her husband “playing” with a young intern in the Oval office with a Cuban cigar. And yet, last night, Hillary had become a saint, the wise woman who urged her supporters to cast off their anger and unite behind Obama while Elizabeth Edwards was now an outcast because she didn’t do the “right thing”.

According to some Democrats, Elizabeth Edwards’ role in the John Edwards affair was one of “complicity”. When her husband purportedly admitted he had engaged in an affair back in 2006 Elizabeth should have “stopped” him from running for President, otherwise she was guilty of “perpetrating” a hoax on the American public.

Even if we were to buy into this view of Elizabeth we still see this as extremely ironic, especially in regards to Bill and Hillary’s role and their reception at the Democratic convention. Why are Bill and Hill being held in such high regards while Elizabeth and John have been shunned over behavior that’s pale in comparison to the Clintons?

Even worse is that fact that there seems to be little in the way of compassion towards Elizabeth, who has been battling terminal cancer, and how this may have played a role in how she viewed husband’s admission that he had an affair.

Elizabeth, who has been nothing but upbeat about her illness, said she had made the decision back in 2006 to keep her husband’s affair “private”. Rather than taking a page out of Hillary’s playbook, Elizabeth perferred to try to explain how she felt about her husband’s affair:

“An imperfect man with a truly progressive vision who spoke to and for those whom others ignored? Yes, that is who I supported,” she wrote. “An imperfect man who had come to face his own imperfections and was seeking to redeem himself to those closest to him? Yes, that is who I supported.”

Elizabeth admitted her husband was “imperfect” and that he was trying to “redeem himself”. Elizabeth claimed she kept her husband’s affair private because she saw him as someone who still had something valuable to offer and that he had a chance to redeem himself. Hillary would have chosen to deny the affair, claim it was a political conspiracy, and played the prosecutor, poking holes in the story.

Despite the fact that the public was aware of the Gennifer Flowers affair, Paula Jones, and the Arkansas state trooper bodyguards’ allegations of Bill’s penchant for quickie “affairs”, Hillary stood by Bill in his second run for President. Hillary, reminscent of the reality show, Survivor, “outwitted, outlasted” and “outplayed” the press and public in regards to her husband’s affairs. She never admitted she knew about them, even to this day. Yet the public remembers, how could we forget?

It’s not only Hillary but the Democrats who have selective memory in regards to numerous times Hillary has been complicit in covering up her husbands’ numerous liasons with women other than his wife.

John Edwards admitted to the affair after the National Enquirer caught him sneaking out of his ex-mistress, Reille Hunter’s Beverly Hilton Hotel room in July. Bill Clinton swore under oath he didn’t have sex with Monica Lewinsky despite a blue polka semen stained dress presented by a plump young intern, Monica Lewinsky.

Behind a backdrop unique in historical terms, on Saturday 19 December 1998, President William Jefferson Clinton was impeached by the United States House of Representatives, becoming only the second President in U.S. History, and the only man popularly elected as President to have been so charged.
The House voted 228 to 206 to approve proposed Article I of Impeachment (Perjury before a Federal Grand Jury), and voted 221 to 212 to approve proposed Article III of Impeachment (Obstruction of Justice).

Although the impeachment process succeeded at the level of the House of Representatives, without the Senate’s confirming action in this matter, no further action was taken.
–Our Timelines.com

Democrats regard Hillary as a “uniter” and yet shun Elizabeth as “complicit” in her husband’s affair, that Elizabeth “kept” quiet because of her own political asperations.

“Some responded to the affair with words of kindness, while others angrily suggested that keeping the secret was no less a sin that the one committed by her philandering husband.”

Elizabeth’s “sins” are far less than Hillary’s in regards to “complicity”. Hillary is celebrated by the Democrat party, Elizabeth is shunned. The Democrat party needs to “get over” itself and quit holding Elizabeth Edwards to a different set of standards than Hillary Clinton. Stop punishing one woman for being honest, while handing laurels to another who continues to pretend her husband’s affairs were a product of political conspiracies.

By LBG

Image – The Awful Truth