John Edwards and his bundlers of joy

On Dec. 30, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards stood up at a “town hall” meeting in Boone, Iowa, and said: “To get real change, we need a president who will stand up against the big corporations and powerful interests who control Washington.”

That’s a bold claim. And his campaign Web site proclaims: “John Edwards is the ONLY candidate who has never taken a dime from PACs or Washington lobbyists ever.” In October, Sen. Edwards, labeling fellow candidate Hillary Clinton “the poster child for what’s wrong in American politics today,” began positioning himself as the candidate who could and would clean up campaign finance. He said he would expand public campaign financing and prohibit lobbyists from being campaign “bundlers.” But voters should measure actions against words.

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