We've enjoyed a bit of sparring in the past regarding the present and future of one John Edwards, multi-millionaire retired tort lawyer, former Breck Shampoo spokesmodel and, if memory serves, maybe once a political figure. Gentle readers might know, if they bother with such arcane details, that Mr. Edwards campaigns actively against the Evil Wal-Mart Corporation, enemy of The People and all-around destroyer of all that is right and good about the Workers' Paradise that was the United States before January 2001. They may know further that one of Mr. Edwards's staffers recently dropped Mr. Edwards's name at a Wal-Mart retail outlet, hoping thereby to score a coveted video-game system for the boss's family.
We delight in the ever-clever James Lileks's take on the whole affair.
We add only that we don't really think that Edwards was entirely hypocritical on this matter. Truth is, his attempt to use political influence, impotent as it was, to manipulate the free market is of a piece with his entire economic view. That is, the smart and rich (i.e. Edwards and associates) should be free to manipulate capitalism (e.g. by raising the "minimum wage") for the benefit of the poor and downtrodden. That one of the poor and downtrodden happens to be one of the Edwards family moppets, so often trotted out on campaign events to spin the image of Edwards as a reliable, white, Southern papa, only complicates matters a little from the Edwards POV.
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