John Edwards Vows to Sell His Foreclosure Fund Assets

The New York Post has a nice article on the biggest fraud to run for President since.....John Kerrey! Instead of three fake Purple Hearts, this "populist" makes money on kicking poor flood victims of Katrina out of their homes.

The populist candidate - who has denounced such lenders - invested $16 million of his $30 million in assets in Fortress Investment Group. The Wall Street Journal reported that 34 New Orleans homeowners struggling to overcome Katrina's aftermath faced foreclosure suits from subprime-lending units of Fortress.

Yesterday, the red-faced Democratic candidate vowed to remove from his portfolio any Fortress funds that have a stake in those lender units.

"I will not have my family's money involved in these firms that are foreclosing on people in New Orleans," he said while on the campaign trial in Des Moines, Iowa.

When Fortress' connections to subprime lenders were reported in May, Edwards said he was unaware of it and would ask the company to help Katrina victims faced with losing their homes.

Let's see, we're supposed to entrust the presidency to a fellow who claims he was UNAWARE of Fortress' subprime policies, after the same fellow

worked for the firm as a senior adviser after his losing 2004 race as Sen. John Kerry's vice-presidential running mate. He was paid $479,512 for part-time work last year, records show.

Uh, huh. Maybe he was "kept out of the loop" and invested $16 million in ignorance, in the which case, should he be running for anything other than dunce of the year? How do you get paid half-a-mil for "part-time work" and not know anything about the predatory loans the company made? And there's this tiny asterisk:

Fortress executives also have donated more than $150,000 to Edwards' campaign during the first six months of the year.

To help him study poverty, fo'sho'. John just has no shame, perhaps.
Asked yesterday if his investments damaged his image as a poverty fighter, Edward's said: "No. Everyone knows I am completely committed to eliminating poverty in this country." [Especially his own, Ed. note]

The mortgage flap was the second embarrassing disclosure this month involving Edwards and his finances.

Edwards demanded that his Democratic rivals give back any money they received from Rupert Murdoch and boycott Murdoch's Fox News.

But two weeks ago it was disclosed that Edwards had been paid $800,000 for a book published by a subsidiary of Murdoch's News Corp., which also owns The Post. In response, Edwards said he gave $500,000 to charity and used the rest for researchers and other expenses, although he did not provide records.

Or perhaps, could John Edwards be overseeing the death throes of a campaign conceived in hypocrisy, suckled by hedge funds soaking the poor, and fueled by populist rhetoric repeatedly contradicted by his own sharp practices and misleading disingenuous statements? Does anyone believe anything he says anymore?

My guess is yes and no.