Busted: John Edwards, Rielle Hunter, And Bob McGovern (NewAge Reveals All, Truth Seekers)

We predicted it, and - after a new piece by The National Enquirer's David Perel - we're pretty sure we were right:

John Edwards was exposed by Lisa Druck/Rielle Hunter's "astrologer" and confidant (who also "works with energy in the area of emotional fields") the "intuitive" Bob McGovern.

Here's Perel:

When John Edwards showed up at the Beverly Hilton hotel to meet with Rielle on the evening of July 21, 2008, a large team of reporters and photographers were on the grounds for the Enquirer, and he was photographed secretly as he confidently walked into a side door at 9:45 p.m.

The Enquirer knew what room Hunter was in, as well as the room where her male traveling companion was staying. When Edwards came down to the lobby at 2:40 am the Enquirer was waiting for him, famously chasing as he ran into a public bathroom.

Behind the scenes we exerted pressure on Edwards, sending word though mutual contacts that we had photographed him throughout the night. We provided a few details about his movements to prove this was no bluff.

For 18 days we played this game, and as the standoff continued the Enquirer published a photograph of Edwards with the baby inside a room at the Beverly Hilton hotel.

Journalists asked if we had a hidden camera in the room. We never said yes or no. (We still haven't). We sent word to Edwards privately that there were more photos.

He cracked.

First, the Enquirer "knew what room Hunter was in, as well as the room where her male traveling companion was staying." Who else would know that but "her male traveling companion" - who was Bob McGovern?

Second, Bob McGovern is an astrologer. Has anyone ever heard of an astrologer, mixed up in anything, who didn't immediately try to capitalize on their fame? Hunter's friend, Pigeon O'Brian, was on television as often as she could be, but good Ol' Bob was nowhere to be seen.

Third, McGovern is a NewAger. These people, because of their unstable belief system, have no solid morals to lean on. Consider this loopdy-loop:

Bob McGovern was deceiving/exploiting Lisa Druck/Rielle Hunter, who was deceiving/exploiting John Edwards, as they all were deceiving his wife, the cancer-stricken Elizabeth Edwards - and the press was deceiving everyone else.

Even Louise Hay, the so-called "Queen of NewAge" let it be known that Sylvia Browne - her best-selling author - was a fraud, but somehow, utilizing those values, we're supposed to believe Bob McGovern wouldn't sell out Lisa Druck/Rielle Hunter (AKA “Riddleydoo Spacepod Rainbow.”) for a payoff from the Enquirer? Puh-Leaze. As our friends at Death By 1000 Papercuts said at the time, "it’s likely that the Enquirer pays better than his regular day job in the mystic realm."

Forth, there was no one else who could've been in the room with Rielle Hunter and John Edwards, when the photo of Edwards and the baby was taken, but Bob McGovern.

And last but not least, since Bob McGovern was in the room when that photo was taken, Rielle Hunter had to know what was going on - either during Edwards' visit to see the baby or once the photo was publicized - making her an accomplice in a doublecross. Again:

Another NewAge liar engaged in betrayal - probably to end Edwards' marriage, so Hunter could live out her dream of becoming Mrs. John Edwards, or (since "Being" Isn't "Free") to get a settlement for child support.

So there you have it - Bob McGovern, the man who took out John Edwards, as both were sliding around on snake-oil.

And the destruction of everything NewAge touches continues,...

They're White, They're Right, And It's They Who Will Determine What's-What For All Time (Like That Means Anything Has Ever Changed)

Now this is interesting:

Ann Althouse's,...whatever,...Meade, recently accused us of being on a "New Age witchhunt" - which he thought was bad - while, today, his buddy, Glenn Reynolds, is suggesting we should treat any Republican who votes for the Democrat's new spending bill "as a pariah." We agree but, like we said, we also find it interesting. (We also love this photo - Ann looks so damned smug and/or full of herself. Sure, they probably had dinner, but she was feasting on her own ego,...)

Since we're sure Meade (or Ann) will let us know whatever wrongheaded thing is rattling around in that head of his, we'd like to suggest that since Oprah is getting people killed - and she's not (surprise) an unknown politician spending money - the Glenn/Ann/Meade Lawyers That Lead All Online Discourse Posse might want to use their influence to expand their scope a bit and maybe, just maybe, take on some serious crime the average person doesn't know about for a change.

BTW - no, we're not on a Meade/Ann/Glenn jihad, but - since our interaction with all of them started from pointing out the deficiencies in their arguments, starting with their emphasis on race (and since Meade has decided to get personal since Ann's disgusting multi-post display over the death of Elizabeth Edwards) we just wanted to point out nothing's changed.

We're now going back to our usual stuff.

Can Anyone, Please, Make This Thing Shut Up?

Rosie O'Donnell thinks John Edwards has suffered more than Elizabeth Edwards.

We agree.

Because being defended by Rosie O'Donnell has to be a fate worse than death.

We Thought "The Good Witch" Was The Blonde

Ann Althouse doesn't think Elizabeth Edwards may have died right.

Ann's readers (including, or maybe especially, this one) are starting to question whether she's living right.

For Some Deaths There Are No Words

Pure Madness

"As a therapist I have heard versions of this line over and over again, 'the marriage was already over.' But I want to speak up on this one. A marriage isn't over till two people openly decide that it is over. Most long term marriages, truth be told, pass through periods that may well feel close to over. Good marriages may have dysfunctional parts to them, it's inevitable. That's what therapists help couples with, looking at the parts of their relationships that aren't functioning well and helping them to function better.

Hunter goes on to claim that Edwards suffered 'abuse' in his marriage to Elizabeth, saying: 'Most of [John's] mistakes or errors in judgment were because of his fear of the wrath of Elizabeth. ... And you know, the wrath of Elizabeth is a mighty wrath.'

On this one I would like to say that actions speak MUCH louder than words. Edward's wrath towards his wife, perhaps even towards himself, was 'acted out' by his creating a liaison with Rielle Hunter that his wife and children will have to live with for the rest of their lives.

While everyone in John Edward's life has had to deal with dashed dreams of just about every kind, Hunter again draws psychology and even a kind of faux spirituality spin the facts. Not only does Hunter classify Elizabeth as the bad woman, exonerating herself and relinquishing responsibility in the break up of a marriage, she goes even a step further, casting herself as a sort of angel of mercy.



'Everyone talks about how Johnny has fallen from grace,' she tells GQ 'In reality, he's fallen to grace. He is integrated. He is living a life of truth. He has grown in awareness and humility. He had all these things within him, but they weren't the guiding, leading principles of his life. Now they are.'

Using words like 'integrated' to explain an act that was driven, in fact, by a fairly disintegrated part of John Edward's 'self' and implying that he is, through this, 'living his truth' really tears at moral integrity in a way that hurts. Suffering does often lead one to grow and become more aware, humble and truthful. But for Hunter to use these time honored concepts to wrap her own sickening conduct, both in her affair with John Edwards and her use of it for her own 'public advancement', sends a message that should be seen for what it is. Dysfunctional.

One of the most difficult and truly dysfunctional issues to treat is denial. But denial is not only ignoring the pink elephant in the middle of the living room. A more insidious form of denial, is the rewriting of reality to suit one's own self serving agenda. This can be terribly hard, particularly on developing children whose sense of self and moral values are still forming. They not only do not learn to 'live in the truth' they learn to accommodate themselves to 'living in' someone else's self serving version of it. This requires a rewrite of their own reality to suit the needs of another. There is a certain flavor, if you will, to this particular form of denial and that flavor is all over this interview. For those who can see right through it and perceive the self serving motives underneath, it proves to be no more than a couple of uncomfortable moments. But for those who are vulnerable, hurting or young it can have more serious and lasting impact."

-- Dr. Tian Dayton, knocking down Rielle Hunter's self-serving excuses and lies for what will likely be others life-long pain - which this blog has heard repeatedly, from other NewAgers, as a defense of various forms of bad behavior - and revealing the crazy hate and harm at the heart of this "spirituality", in The Huffington Post.

Just Making Sure You've Got The Whole Picture

"She's pretty New Agey


As part of an effort to detox from her drug-fueled party life in New York, ["Rielle Hunter"] visited a spiritual healer. She also compared her paramour John Edwards to Gandhi and said his wife Elizabeth 'does not give off good energy.'"

-- The Week

Life Lessons

"It took John Edwards two years to tell the truth. I was surprised; I thought it would take longer."

-- David Perel, the editor in chief of the National Enquirer from 2006 to January 2009 - and who directed its coverage of the John Edwards affair - displaying an understandable cynicism, in The Wall Street Journal.

"Yes, Edwards cheated on his wife who had cancer at the time. Yes, he lied about it when he was caught. Yes, he lied about it again when she was found to be pregnant and had the child. And yes, he lied one more time after being caught by a tabloid photographer with said woman and the child he sired. And oh, he paid a loyal staffer to pretend that he was the dad, too, thereby ensnaring yet another innocent in his web of lies.

Thing is, if adultery is going to happen, then lying is a given."

-- Eric Alterman, attempting to muster up a bit of sympathy for Edwards - the hard way - which is about the best one can expect, from The Daily Beast.

Metaphysical Pit Stop

Here, let me take a few quotes and break down some of the world you think you know, and show you how NewAge has already warped it beyond recognition:

Presidential ambitions squandered:

"There was nothing legit,...about [Reille] Hunter’s behavior. It was freaky, wildly inappropriate, and all too visible. She flirted outlandishly with every man she met. She spouted New Age babble, rambled on about astrology and reincarnation, and announced to people she had just met, 'I’m a witch.' But mostly, she fixated on [John] Edwards."

Presidential minds warped:

"The president of Slovenia has given up his palace for a mountain hut and habitually decks himself in leaves to celebrate nature.

Adopting a New Age existence after being diagnosed with cancer, Janez Drnovsek, 56, has moved from the presidential palace in Ljubljana to the village of Zaplana, where he lives alone with his dog on a vegan diet of organic fruit and vegetables, while he bakes his own bread.

He has even been known to 'greet the trees' by dressing up in cloaks of leaves."

And, since she's doing such a bang-up job, let's not leave out our current Secretary of State:

"Bernstein's biography reveals a genuinely spiritual woman whose religious convictions often seemed self-righteous and even a bit bizarre: 'She dabbled in New Age spiritualism, almost always carried with her an underlined and dog-eared book of celestial axioms, and welcomed into the White House Solarium a pair of feminist oracles who channeled her into Eleanor Roosevelt’s soul.' (p. 10)"

Or how about our culture itself? This quote from Camille Paglia has been accurately updated with the "NewAge" film Avatar:

"The New Age movement, to which I belong, was a distillation of the 1960s' multicultural attraction to world religions, but it has failed thus far to produce important work in the visual arts. The search for spiritual meaning has been registering in popular culture instead through science fiction, as in George Lucas' six-film Star Wars saga, with its evocative master myth of the 'Force.'"

And, finally, I'll leave you with this for now - not because it's all I've got to make my point, but because I just got home and I'm tired:

"In Reflections of Her Mountain Look, Linda French relates the heroic story of one woman's struggle to expose the evil of a religious cult and a judicial system that failed her."

Yea, tell me about it. By ignoring The NewAge Movement, we're failing our fellow citizens, our country, our world, and ourselves.

Shouldn't NewAge Liberals Be Already Telling Elizabeth "Adultery Is A Private Matter", And "Get Over It", And "Move On" No Matter What?

"Furious at his betrayals, Elizabeth - still battling Stage 4 breast cancer - has vowed to destroy her husband of 32 years by disclosing everything she knows about his political career in divorce court, insiders say."

-- The National Enquirer

And isn't it fun to see all the joy Rielle Hunter - that life-long NewAger - has brought into the world of others? Especially someone dying of cancer? Isn't that just the kind of compassion NewAgers are always claiming (but I can't find any evidence of)? Clearly, all this current Edwards Family happiness must be the result of Rielle being so spiritually connected,...

Tunes That Can Move You To Tears

"I mean, less shocking [than] Edwards was counting on his wife to die so he could marry Hunter is maybe the the revelation that Edwards' true, un-PR driven tastes in music — like his political acumen, platform, and downfall — are about as pedestrian as we all thought. You couldn't just hire a DJ?"

-- Foster Kamer, a little ahead of the curve - but still watching Edwards crash in the rearview - as a direct result of staying as far away from The Dave Matthews Band as possible, over at Gawker.

This type of thing does seem to be a problem in certain circles,...

Oh, Say, CAN'T You See?

"Mr. Young says that he assisted the affair by setting up private meetings between Mr. Edwards and Ms. Hunter. He wrote that Mr. Edwards once calmed an anxious Ms. Hunter by promising her that after his wife died, he would marry her in a rooftop ceremony in New York with an appearance by the Dave Matthews Band."

-- Mickey Kaus, further informing us about A) what an unsurprising sleaze John Edwards is, B) the content of Edwards's assistant, Andrew Young's new book, and C) Rielle Hunter, and what kind of "ghoulish slapstick" makes a NewAger's heart sing - let's see: just add hefty doses of secrecy, sex, delusional thinking, lying, adultery, cancer, and death, along with the wayward warbling and wanking of Dave Matthews - because NewAgers are sure (once everything they desire is attained) it's all supposed to ultimately result in the rest of us admiring them so much that, once all the mayhem they cause for others is over, we'll gladly give them a clean Slate.

C'mon kids: Put this shit with the ACORN scandal, etc., and a pretty accurate picture of this NewAge Democratic Party should be starting to emerge. It's wonderful these things are being exposed because, by having them revealed in this manner, no one can say anyone forced these folks into doing these things - this is just who they are - finally standing naked before us, for all to see.

Now don't touch the naughty bits.

Hat Tip: Althouse

Don't You Just Love When The Truth Shows Up?

"Sources have told WRAL News that they expect former U.S. Sen. John Edwards to admit that he is the father of his former mistress' 18-month-old daughter."

-- WRAL News

Who's Keeping Women Down Again?

"So-called feminists stand on the sidelines like so many Silda Spitzers or Elizabeth Edwardses or Hillary Clintons, standing by their menfolk while the boys treat women like dirt. Heck, Mrs. Edwards even served as her husband’s attack dog against any critic — even as she knew he was sleeping with his mistress of many years.

Consider the lack of any reaction by the left to David Letterman’s crude remark that Gov. Palin is buying make-up for that 'slutty flight attendant look' insulted not just her but every woman. How could any woman respect such a man?

And yet the left said nothing."

-- Don Surber, somehow thinking, after all these years, he's going to get somewhere with this thing he does, just because he's Don Surber.

Point Taken

"CHARLIE ROSE: How would you have lived your life differently based on what you know now?

ELIZABETH EDWARDS: Boy,...I certainly,..would not have voluntarily put myself in a position where,...I would feel so betrayed,...You know, I might have married somebody else,..."

-- Mickey Kaus, making a note that dealing with the whole "my spouse was dumb enough to fall for NewAge and commit adultery" thing still hasn't brought any of the much-promised joy, peace, and/or love to the "mind, body, and spirit" of the Edwards' household - imagine that! - and even after it's been posted on Slate.com.

Social Corrosion: John Edwards' Adultery Has Almost Everyone It Touches Being Eaten Alive

The Boy Wonder

"Perhaps the worst thing about the Oprah interview was that it was happening at all. In no other culture in the world can I imagine the flayed, dishonored husband hanging around in the kitchen to tell the person who has just teased out of his wife a replay of his shame that no, he hadn't asked Elizabeth to change one word of what she had written. If he is not lying (again), it's tragic he did not do so, at least for the sake of their kids."

-- Tina Brown, showing no shame towards the shamefully shameless - in this case, John and Elizabeth Edwards - as The Daily Beast.

That Does Appear To Be The Plan, II

"This may be a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack. John Edwards is a leader in misleading the public."

-- Sheila Krumholz, executive director of Open Secrets, a campaign watchdog group, on news that federal investigators are sifting through John Edwards' presidential campaign records to see if money was used to help keep his affair with Rielle Hunter quiet - from The Charlotte Observer.