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TYPHOID JOHN, WHERE HAVE YOU GONE?

“Mary Mallon aka Typhoid Mary, was the first person in the United States to be identified as healthy carrier of typhoid fever. Over the course of her career as a cook, she infected 47 people, three of whom died from the disease. Her fame is in part due to her vehement denial of her own role in spreading the disease, together with her refusal to cease working as a cook. She was forcibly quarantined twice by public health authorities and died in quarantine.”
–From Wikipedia.

Poor Mary. Her sad, tragic life has been well documented. But typhoid fever isn’t a thing of the past. In some parts of the world, it’s still quite prevalent. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 22 million people come down with this dread disease each year, with more than 200,000 related deaths.

In today’s current political climate, for the MSM and the Democratic Party, John Edwards is the modern-day equivalent of Mary Mallon. No one wants to touch him with a ten-foot fireproof pole, if recent published reports are to be believed. Both Radar Online and the New York Daily News have reported that John Edwards has tried to reach out to former staffers, colleagues and supporters to express his regrets over his tawdry behavior and “beg” their forgiveness.

Unfortunately for Edwards, his “phone home” campaign has only incurred the wrath of his former aides. Some won’t even return his messages. The ones that do have apparently told him in no uncertain terms just how bitter and disillusioned they are over how they were deliberately deceived and manipulated.

From NYDN: “I let you down, and I’m sorry,” is a common refrain of these messages, said another top ex-assistant on the receiving end of one of the calls.

“It was kind of pathetic, to tell you the truth,” said the ex-aide, who said he didn’t return the call and doesn’t expect to speak to his former boss again.”

One source who compared notes with other former colleagues said Edwards makes no attempt to justify or rationalize his behavior in these desperate phone conversations. He simply expresses his regret for deceiving them and asks for their understanding and forgiveness.”

Not that its’ been any better for Elizabeth Edwards. Once a figure of sympathy and considered a victim, whatever goodwill she had in the face of her husband’s perfidy, dissipated like a will o’ wisp, when it was revealed that she was well aware of his infidelity and still, incredibly, encouraged his Presidential run. Her actions—or non-actions—has been the fodder of columnists and bloggers alike. It’s even gotten to the point where some leading Democrats strategists have labeled her “complicit” in this sordid saga.

At the just now concluded Democratic Convention, John Edwards name was never mentioned. He was the Invisible Man. His races, his delegates, were scrubbed from the official record. He was supposed to give a prime time speech; now persona non grata, a man without a party; he wasn’t allowed to deliver so much as a Dairy Queen menu. Think of the ignominy: Edwards was once on the short list to be Obama’s Vice President, and if not that, then a shoo-in for a Cabinet post. Now Democrats wouldn’t be able to pick him out of a police line-up if they had a gun to their heads. His political future in shreds, Edwards would be hard pressed to be elected dog-catcher in Mayberry.

From CQ Politics:

“Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., said he thought it was appropriate that Edwards is staying away.
“What John Edwards did was inexcusable and wrong,” Salazar said. “From my point of view as one of the hosts of this convention, I’m glad he’s not here.”

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., one of the relative handful of congressional members who endorsed Edwards’ 2008 presidential candidacy, said he was “shocked, appalled, upset and disgraced” over Edwards’ conduct, then said he didn’t want to talk about the subject any further.

When a reporter asked House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., as he was racing to an event, why Edwards is never being mentioned at the convention, Hoyer stopped in his tracks, and said, “You know why.”

And now not only is Edwards without a party, it now seems he’s without a home. It’s been reported that Elizabeth Edwards has effectively banished Edwards from the family home. He’s allegedly cooling his heels on an “extended vacation” at their summer home on the Figure 8 Island on the Outer Banks (both literally and metaphysically).

Well, at least Edwards has a waterfront view in which to ponder his future, unlike the pitiable Typhoid Mary, who died alone and penniless.

by CB
images: Wikipedia; dpkp file

* CB writes for PJ McIlvaine at www.pjmcilvaine.blogspot.com