JRE and the Work for Economic Fairness Goes On

Dear BW readers,

I have not blogged here in a very long time. Part of it had to do with Elizabeth Edwards' passing, and frankly, I was annoyed with JRE because of the affair with his paramour. I understand that he has to have some kind of relationship because of their child, Quinn, but it bugged me when I found out that both Quinn and her mother were invited to Thanksgiving Dinner last year at JRE's house. I can't imagine what that experience was like for Emma Claire and Jack. Cate is a grown up, but must have been awkward.

Then JRE's trial. It was a side show, more about the details of his tawdry affair than about whether or not he used the money for political reasons than hiding his personal indiscretions. He had good attorneys though as they elicited a lot of discrepancies in the Youngs' testimony versus the book The Politician and also what they told the grand jury. It became clear that JRE never saw the money and the Youngs extorted most of it to pay for their million dollar house. The Youngs should have never been given immunity for their law breaking activities, but that was the stupidity of the DOJ. As we all know now, the jury didn't buy it, the trial ended in one acquittal and the other counts resulted in a mistrial. Finally, the DOJ gave up the hunt to try it again.

In admitting his sins, he said he still wanted to do some service for kids in poverty stricken areas. I don't think he intends to run for public office again--I think he knows his career in that area is finished. But I think in working with Cate for the Elizabeth Edwards foundation, he could do some good work and start redeeming himself. I also hope he can do some pro-bono work for those who cannot afford an attorney.

One of the reasons I got involved with the Edwards campaign was JRE's vision of economic fairness. The Republican congress is totally against it, and it shows in Paul Ryan's budget plan to get rid of financial reforms, cut taxes for those who least need it, and cut deeply into social programs who those need them the most. On Sunday evening, a group of nuns are taking a bus across the Midwest to protest the Ryan plan. The name of the campaign is Nuns on the Bus and it is spearheaded by Sister Simone Campbell. I have made some inquiries with some other former Edwards bloggers, especially those in Iowa, to see if they can cover this campaign as citizen journalists. It is a good use of their faith to speak up for the poor. Reverend Al Sharpton and Sojourners are likely to cover this too, and I will follow the newspapers for coverage as they are traveling to towns that are too far for me to travel. On their website, they do have a link to a donation form, and if you have a couple bucks, you can tip their jar. One of their stops will be in front of Paul Ryan's office in Wisconsin.

I thank our Sisters for sticking up for the working poor and our seniors who need to keep their health plan in order to survive. The Nuns on the Bus are the spark plug for me to blog again.