NPR: News Corp. Fires Back at Edwards over Book Money

News Corp. Fires Back at Edwards over Book Money

Lately I've been reading Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin's great book about Lincoln and his Cabinet. One thing that really shines through is Lincoln's genius for not putting his foot in his mouth. It's a book that I would heartily recommend to Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards.

As news of Rupert Murdoch's takeover of The Wall Street Journal circulated, Edwards demanded Thursday that Democratic candidates return all donations from Murdoch and his News Corp., owner of the much-despised-by-Democrats Fox News cable channel. Edwards was particularly aiming his ire at Sen. Hillary Clinton, who has received about $20,000 from News Corp. executives.

Not so fast there, Johnny boy.

Today's Murdoch-owned New York Post brings the news that Edwards received about $800,000 from News Corp.: Its HarperCollins unit published Edwards' 2006 book Home: The Blueprints of Our Lives.

"We assume the senator is going to give back the money from his advance," News Corp. spokesman Brian Lewis said. Howard Kurtz at The Washington Post reports that an Edwards spokesman said "his boss donated the book payments to charity and that the expense money went to staffers and vendors."

Now, the money you earn for writing a book might not be exactly the same as campaign donations, but when Edwards made his comments, he could have brought up the HarperCollins money and explained. But he didn't. As a result, he has opened himself up to charges of being a hypocrite.

When you're running for president, you can't make these kinds of mistakes.

3:01 PM ET | 08- 3-2007 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

Campaign contributions MIGHT NOT be the same as money earned? Ya think???? C'mon, get real!

Sent by Sue | 6:49 PM ET | 08-10-2007

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