August 12, 2008
The outing of former senator and presidential candidate John Edwards as an adulterer should not bring pleasure to anyone. We see far too many of these cases among Democrats and Republicans. Sin is not the exclusive property of one party, as members of both parties have engaged in sexual indiscretion.
These incidents are starting to have a certain familiarity about them. The person caught – and they are always caught because our sins find us out – goes on TV, not to confess so much as to explain. Edwards mentioned God in passing, but he otherwise made excuses. He’s a narcissist, he says. That may be true, but the proper diagnosis would have been what David said to God when caught in a similar situation: “Against Thee and Thee only have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight.”
Then there’s the cover-up. Read all about that in my column, posted today on various websites, including calthomas.com. It’s always the cover-up that brings everyone down in the end. It’s not impossible to conceive of Edwards making a comeback. Look at Bill Clinton.
Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.
