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There’s a lot of hype about Elizabeth Edwards, wife of John Kerry running mate and liberal Democrat Presidential hopeful John Edwards, and her book, “Saving Graces,” about going through breast cancer treatment. The book is a best-seller.
And, one can’t help but note, it’s the perfect never-ending campaign commercial for her husband. I’m sure John Edwards’ appearance on Oprah, recently, had nothing to do with his rumored re-run for President in 2008. Nah. He would never use breast cancer to run for office. And his wife would never help him milk the issue with gullible women who watch Oprah all over America. Right?
I’m quoted in Sunday’s (yesterday’s) Buffalo News in a story about the book:

A calculated move?

So why go public with their story now? Edwards said the time was right, and she was finally ready.
But some political observers see the book as a more calculated move.
“She’s playing the game,” said Dr. Gil Troy, an expert on political couples whose books include “Hillary Rodham Clinton: Polarizing First Lady.” “These are the new rules of the game for the political spouse. You can’t be a 1950s housewife anymore. She comes off as someone who’s struggled, who’s suffered.
“She’s a critical part of the Edwards comeback strategy.”
And Debbie Schlussel, an up-and-coming conservative pundit and blogger in the Ann Coulter mold, went even further, calling the book itself “very political.”
“It’s a campaign strategy [by John Edwards],” said Schlussel, an attorney who lives in Detroit. “I think it will boost his standing with women and mothers who have dealt with breast cancer or seen it – everybody knows somebody who has been stricken with breast cancer. It’s also a way to cover up that [John Edwards] – as a trial attorney – has been part of the problem with rising health care costs in this country.
“It’s a very effective campaign strategy,” said Schlussel. “And nobody can attack somebody with breast cancer.”

Breast cancer is a devastating, frequently fatal disease–which also strikes men. But, the fact is that John Edwards’ multi-millions in lawsuit verdicts contributed greatly to the cost of health care for the rest of us in America. The average woman doesn’t have the gazillions Mrs. Edwards does to get every treatment (several NOT covered by HMOs) available that the rest of us can’t afford. Her husbands’ lawsuits didn’t make those treatments more possible for the rest of us. Nope, those lawsuits made effective treatment more expensive and less available.
Don’t be fooled by this smokescreen book and John Edwards’ pronouncements on Oprah about his and his wife’s fight against breast cancer. When it comes to your fight, he made America’s women more vulnerable.
And so do the thousands of other medical malpractice plaintiffs’ lawyers like him around America who voted for him and gave generously to his and Kerry’s campaigns.
Preying on America’s breast cancer victims and those with family histories of the disease is simply shameless.