Reader John D sends along this interesting bit from the Charlotte Observer: “Elizabeth Edwards afraid of neighbor”:
Elizabeth Edwards says she is scared of the “rabid, rabid Republican” who owns property across the street from her Orange County home—and she doesn’t want her kids going near the gun-toting neighbor.
Edwards, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, particularly recalls the time neighbor Monty Johnson brought out a gun while chasing workers investigating a right of way near his property. The Edwards family has yet to meet Johnson in person.
“I wouldn’t be nice to him, anyway,” Edwards said in an interview. “I don’t want my kids anywhere near some guy who, when he doesn’t like somebody, the first thing he does is pull a gun out. It scares the business out of me.”
But Johnson defended the occasion he brandished a gun, saying those on his land didn’t have the proper approval.
“I use the gun for protection, and I considered that an appropriate time,” Johnson said. “Sometimes you have to take drastic measures.”
Edwards views Johnson as a “rabid, rabid Republican” who refuses to clean up his “slummy” property just to spite her family, whose lavish 28,000-square-foot estate is nearby on 102 wooded acres.
Johnson, 55, acknowledges his Republican roots. But he takes offense to the suggestion he has purposefully left his property, including an old garage he leases for use as a car shop, in dilapidated condition.
Johnson said he has lived his entire life on the property, which he said his family purchased before the Great Depression. He said he’s spent a lot of money to try and fix up the 42-acre tract.
“I have to budget. I have to live within my means,” Johnson said. “I don’t have millions of dollars to fix the place.”
Johnson, who has posted a “Go Rudy Giuliani 2008” sign on a fence just 100 feet from the entrance to the Edwards’ driveway, has criticized Edwards for the scale of their nearby home. The property and home, which includes an indoor basketball court, an indoor handball court and an indoor pool, is valued at $5.3 million.
The Edwardses are still putting the final touches on the property, which they purchased in 2003.
“I thought he was supposed to be for the poor people,” Johnson said. “But does he ever socialize with any poor people? He doesn’t speak to me.”
Well, that’s because you are an actual poor person, Mr Johnson. And as such, you are driving down the Edwards’ property value with your filth and stink.
Had you been a theoretical poor person, however—and a Democrat—you’d be trotted out as an anecdote or an objective correlative for the classist populism Edwards spends so much time peddling. When he’s not playing basketball or handball in one of his indoor courts, that is.
Meanwhile, Mrs Edwards, it seems, is worried about her children being subjected to someone who protects his property (in keeping with his Second Amendment rights)—but was active in bringing into the Edwards hearth and home a rancid vagina warrior with a well-documented bigotry against “Godbags” as deep and seething with hatred as the gargantuan folds beneath Michael Moore’s breasts. And Mrs Edwards didn’t seem to mind how such open hatred might affect the fragile little psyches of her kids.
Because of the “slummy”ness.
Which just goes to show that one person’s vicious, anti-liberal demagogue is another person’s anti-liberal demagogue who happens to believe in all the right things— just as one person’s rich entitled elite is another person’s rich entitled elite under the mistaken impression that having wealth is the equivalent of moral and intellectual superiority.
Nothing like pissing away all that well deserved pity for her cancer with this Marie Antoinette shtick…
Hall. Of. Fame.
Hah. I think the Edwardeses’ position is best summed up by a license plate I saw over the weekend:
G=reed
O=il
P=igs
Get it? Huh? Greed, Oil, Pigs can be shortened to GOP? It’s so natural because the Republicans are Greedy and they went to war for Oil and they are just a bunch of subhuman Pigs who should be made into Spam, which they eat lots of… here, let me explain it so you understand better how I think…
“And he drinks some kind of beer–from a can, no less!!–called ‘Milwaukee’s Best Light.’ What kind of redneck hillbilly is this guy, anyway?”
EE
I am appalled that the Edwards’ neighbor would brandish a firearm and not keep his property up to snuff. I mean, really, some people!!
Let me tell you from experience, you don’t want some really fat woman who lives across the street mad at you.
Oh cripes, you made me choke on my diet iced tea.
LOL
See, that’s why it’s a bad thing for there to be two Americas. One of them is really, really tacky.
Hey, I’m all for guns and protecting private property.
I didn’t read anything that said workers were on Mr. Johnson’s property. It just says “neighbor Monty Johnson brought out a gun while chasing workers investigating a right of way near his property”.
My parents live by the water and my Dad and I have gone into the nearby right of way several times to remove brush, kill poison ivy, etc. etc. We’d gotten stared at out the window of the neighbor whose property abuts the right of way, but that’s about it.
Mightn’t Mr. Johnson have over-reacting just a touch?
Just askin’.
oops.. that’s over-reacted.
Ok, now it’s a double oops….
“But Johnson defended the occasion he brandished a gun, saying those on his land didn’t have the proper approval.”
Please just ignore me. I’ve got tiny-mind this afternoon.
No.
She was always like this. She’s still like this. It changed nothing.
Biblical pity is not Stockholm Syndrome.
No.
Fucking NO.
Sounds like Liz hasn’t gotten her head around what it would be like to have Secret Service living in your house. Bless her heart.
You know what’s really icky about Mr. Johnson in Mrs. Edwards’ mind? He probably shops at WalMart.
Rabid Democrat?
I saw this <a href=”http://www.johnlocke.org/site-docs/images/edwardshouse-low.jpg” target=”_blank”> overhead view of their house and wonder how they can even see neighbors.
Well that url didn’t post like I wanted. Sorry
Vladimir,
Your first reaction was right; brandishing a gun is weird. But saying so lends credence to Mrs. Edwards…and we’ll have none of that. Anyway, conservatism has come a long way in recent years; brandishing a gun is a natural first reaction for conservatives.
Kudos to Alan. The first thing I do whenever I see walking on the street is whip out my shootin’ iron and tell ‘em “Y’all stay off my land!!”. Then, I put up my “Guiliani for President” bumper sticker on the part of 42 acres that directly abuts the Dems next door (mainly, because, as a Rabid Republican, the irony of Guiliani for President while carrying my shootin’ iron just never occurred to me).
I do all that because I’m the nice guy.
Just as the natural first reaction for a liberal running for president is to hire an unhinged, untalented bigot like Marcotte, right, Alan?
If you switched Motcotte’s name for Goldstein and left for right, that post would look great on Daily Kos
Amen, Alan.
You shoulda seen the cap I busted into this guy’s “computer” driving an Accord who cut me off coming out of the Quiznos parking lot. Blood everywhere, but I got my turkey melt back to my office before it got too cold.
My liberal pals’ “natural first reaction” is to form a drum circle. So when we go out to have a few, it can get interesting.
Ummm….
A “rabid, rabid Republican” who supports Guiliani?
I guess she means a sorta-centrist Republican by that, right?
What in the heck will she be calling Fred Thompson supporters?
…instead of sending a campaign flunky to do it for him.
Increasingly, so would you.
timmyb, Are you saying Jeff used to work for the Edwards’?
I thought the key line was this:
How f-ing self centered do you have to be to think that someone would be willing to keep the property on which they live “slummy” just to spite you.
Maybe Bush should admit that their are two Americas, but the “slummy” one is just doing it to “spite” him.
The way you can tell the story was a liberal hatchet piece: They didn’t say what kind of gun Mr. Johnson brandished.
I mean, if it was a a rare government issued 1943 M-1911 .45 with chrome finish, that wasn’t just threatening, it was bragging. Hell, that’s almost a show of respect. Any fool can get shot, but getting shot with a piece of US history? That’s the way to roll.
No way, Rob B. If it was complete liberal hit piece and it was a 1911, the author would have written that “Johnson brandished a high caliber, military issue, semi automatic pistol – notorious for its high capacity as well as the size and weight of the ammunition it fires – a weapon much prized by gun nuts for its man-stopping ability.”
The first thing I do whenever I see walking on the street is whip out my shootin’ iron and tell ‘em “Y’all stay off my land!!â€Â.
Never been mugged on your own property, I take it? Oh. Providing you own any.
Mrs. Edwards says, “It scares the business out of me.â€Â
What kind of business would that be, exactly? Is that why the “slummyness” and gun-toting is bad, because it’s bad for her business? I don’t see her as a Mary Kay type and the reports don’t play up her work, so what options for a business run from one’s home by the wife of a two-time presidential candidate does that leave? Maybe I’m stuck on the Tancredo post.
Basically, this guy—and his family—have lived on their 42 acres for 80+ years. Along come the Edwards to plop down their mansion (not even a McMansion, but the real thing), and they start grousing about the condition of his property.
That’s like buying land next to a pig farm and complaining about the smell. Or buying land next to an airport and complaining about the noise.
And since the lots are apparently quite a bit larger than your typical suburban lot (102 acres is a good-sized family farm; 42 acres is nothing to sneeze at), I imagine having guns at hand is more the style in the neighborhood than not.
Heck, they probably would have just gone for brevity and called it an “assault pistol,” Smoke.
I should be getting my second 1911 clone this week. Stainless, 3.5” barrel, 10 round mag. So that way I’ll have a backup for the full-size 7 round 1911 the next time some meth-head shows up knocking on my front door at 6:00 am.
And waving them at strangers is too?
Maybe he thought they were revenuers
And maybe they were trespassers. Like the meth-head on my porch.
Jim, I’m unpopular here, so I will refrain from saying it’s illegal to shoot your wife.
Since I have no reservoir of goodwill her to make stupid jokes like that, I will just set you up and ask you…politely, mind you….if you can please tell my Mom to come on home
More noisy little progressive tykes with nothing to contribute but piss-stains on the rugs and dented pots and pans.
Well. Timmy. I guess when you don’t own anything, nothing is worth protecting.
Damned pesky second amendment!
ah, the intoxicated ramblings of a mental defect. B Moe, you own a few shootin’ irons. Do you wave them at any person who wanders near the B Moe trailer?
Nah, I live in the city now, it is best to keep them concealed.
As a policy22 is a bit light for full grown men.
Ah, an example of intelligent discourse from the gentle, peace loving, can’t-we-just-be-friends part of America. Amanda Marcotte and Ted R-all, move over!
I wave my guns around…but only at adults who still call themselves “timmy”.
Rusty, one doesn’t have to be a landowner to be in favor of the 2nd Amendment, nor does one need to own property to own a gun, nor does one need to excuse the rude brandishing of firearms around folks checking out right of ways.
But, for your edification, I do own “property” (although legally the mortgage company owns it and someday it will be mine). I do not own a gun, I would not own a gun, I wold not let my 9 year old and 8 year old play at a house where people whip out guns whenever someone comes on their property, if I were Elizabeth Edwards, I would not let my kids anywhere near Monty without a freakin’ invitation, and finally, and most damning of all, the Constitution grants us the right to bear arms, but it is tragic the Second Amendment exists.
It is outdated, silly, and produces a society with more guns than cars, where any criminal can get a stolen one, where Klebold and Harris can obtain them, where Japanese exchange can be shot while asking directions, and where many domestic arguments can be settled by shooting the UPS driver in the back of the head.
Still, it’s the law and if Monty Johnson wants to vaguely wave his gun in the air on his property he can do so. Doesn’t mean I think it’s neighborly.
Doesn’t mean I think Americans don’t have a right to guns (it’s in there), but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.
JeffS, not to be too condescending to your observation, but who insulted whom first? I’ll help you:
More noisy little progressive tykes with nothing to contribute but piss-stains on the rugs and dented pots and pans.
Posted by B Moe | permalink
on 04/09 at 04:08 PM
ah, the intoxicated ramblings of a mental defect. B Moe, you own a few shootin’ irons. Do you wave them at any person who wanders near the B Moe trailer?
Posted by timmyb | permalink
on 04/09 at 04:17 PM
Let me know which one was posted first.
She better keep her kids away from those rabid, rabid Republicans Jim Webb and Paul Hackett.
What’s hilarious is that she is so un self-aware that she feels free to complain about it publicly.
timmy
I’m female and in my opinion my right to bear arms is all the equal rights I need; the right to protect myself and my property.
Guns don’t kill, people do.
If criminals know you’re unprotected they’ll come after you so may I suggest not to advertise your position of weakness, especially with children around.
Oh. My. Gosh.
A Guliani sign a mere 100 feet away from their driveway entrance?
The horror!
Someone said Mr. Johnson thought he was running off revenuers…. and Edwards isn’t?
I thought Edward’s ideas on taxes fit this to a “T”.
Anyway, Ms. Edwards needs to get over herself and the media and the left needs to look no further than their own out in a roadside ditch in Crawford, Texas.
You don’t see Mrs. Bush having the vapors when a bunch of Democrats post a sign or when one of the neighbors has a gun.
Clearly Mrs. Edwards is not First Lady material….
This was:
May I suggest, timmy, that you not indulge in sarcastic half-wittery in support of a half-wit?
I’m not implying that you’re a quarter-wit, but lie down with dogs, etc.
Look at who she married, Steveg. Need I say more?
Even if it did just start on this thread, which it didn’t, you disingenuous little prick. If anybody really gives a shit “who started it” just put timmyb in the search engine and you will find a non-stop series of half-ass snark, insults and lies.
Fuck off, asshole.
If timmy were black and living in the 1920’s south, he’d gladly let that noose drape around his neck, because “it’s lementable that the U.S. Constitution has a 2nd Ammendment”.
If timmy were black and living in the 1960’s Pekin, IL, he’d gladly let be dragged from the back of a pickup truck, because “it’s lementable that the U.S. Constitution has a 2nd Ammendment”.
If timmy were Korean and living in the 1990’s L.A., he’d gladly let his business burn to the ground, because “it’s lementable that the U.S. Constitution has a 2nd Ammendment”.
If timmy were living in the 1980’s Harlem, he’d gladly let 100’s of crack-heads crash at his place, because “it’s lementable that the U.S. Constitution has a 2nd Ammendment”.
Any more?
Well, damn.
Time to rework the math. Either Edwards has the “number of Americas” wrong or people in the other America give Elizabeth Edwards the vapors. That’s one steaming cup of irony there.
And I know how I feel when people cramp my 102-acre style. I mean whatever happened to personal space, people?
What I want to know: How come these motherfuckers got ribbons and pins and bumperstickers about everything they are for or against except guns?
When are you guys going to speak truth to power by starting to wear “I don’t believe in carrying weapons” t-shirts or buttons and shit?
How about a big sign in your front yard: “This is a gun-free home!”
Why do you not proudly proclaim your convictions more visibly on this issue?
In most states brandishing a weapon merely to “scare” people is a criminal offense.
I’d venture to say since it doesn’t appear that Mr. Johnson was ever convicted of anything, or even charged, that his going armed on his own property to investigate trespassing was fully justified.
Ms. Edwards is more used to “law” as a vehicle in which she gets to build a potentate’s compound via her husband channeling dead children, rather than “law” as a code of rights and conduct to protect citizens and their property.
Pity.
B Moe,
Glenn Reynolds had a link to this John Stossel article a couple of days ago.
With anti-gun true believers it is an article of faith.
Because who would want to picket swimming pools?
Especially in the circles Elizabeth Edwards runs in.
Lizzy turned an armed confrontation with trespassers, which she did not witness and neither did we, into “waving a gun at anyone he doesn’t like.”
That is, of course, a lie.
Just like Timmy the Dunce’s turning it into “waving a gun at anyone who comes near your property.”
The fact that these people can’t even come close to describing actual events without grossly distorting them to fit their prejudices means they’re bigots.
And I don’t associate with bigots.
Given that Mrs Edwards is a Democratic Underground poster and Daily Kos diarist, I’m not at all shocked to find her contempt for her fellow Americans, poor people, gun owners, and Republicans all combined in one extremely regretful rant.
Who do you think it was that got that hateful blogger to cover the Edwards for President campaign to begin with? I doubt Senator Edwards has bothered to read a single blog, let alone know of a particularly obscure one. His wife, however…
So what do you suppose the odds are of me meeting men with guns should I go wandering on the Edwards estate? Or is it only bad if the land owner handles that sort of thing himself rather than, you know, hiring people?
Buzz–
Based on my experiences in Bel Air and Beverly Hills, I’d wager there’s more than one firearm and way more then one person hired to use them…
As a registered Democrat, I used to get the fundraising fliers from Handgub Control and the Brady Bunch. It was amazing how many of their celebrity endorsers I knew were armed to the freaking teeth…
I know that it gives the anti-gun crowd fits but it is fair to point out that violence predates guns. And, as England and Australia have proven, when you remove the guns from society the violence doesn’t decrease, just the method and technique change.
As far as the second ammendment goes, though, I rather like it. It reminds our own government that a voter with a gun is a citizen, not a subject.
Armament offsets!
@Darleen…
That’s the most insightful comment I’ve read regarding this one.
Also, I live in Dorchester, MA.
Lots of homicides in the city this year…17 so far, which is 7 more than last year at this time. I’m seriously in the market for moving out of this city and I’ve been talking with two gun owning relatives of mine about the responsibilities that come with owning a weapon, in consideration of becoming a gun owner myself.
Heh. I probably would have laughed, to tell you the truth.
My sister-in-law’s mother is a meth-head, I hear. Want me to tell her to come on over to your house?
John Edwards channels dead children – Elizabeth Edwards channels Rosie O’Donnell.
Leave the room, timmyb, the adults ate going to talk about grownup things.
Jim in KC – Colt? Para Ordnance? Kimber?
This guy sounds like Ernest T. Bass.
I had to google that one. Turns out Ernest is dead now. His given name was Howard, but he conflated the two. You can see his headstone here. It is unusual. But not as unusual as this.
So what do you suppose the odds are of me meeting men with guns should I go wandering on the Edwards estate? Or is it only bad if the land owner handles that sort of thing himself rather than, you know, hiring people?
Incredibly excellent point (and the one after about celebrity bodyguards). It’s ok if the help has guns, but you know handling them yourself is just gauche!
Actually the answer really is this: she presupposes that anyone in the Republican Party is an evil cretin, a barely-sentient monster who hates and kills at every opportunity, so he cannot be safe with a gun. A good Democrat can use a gun to protect and serve, but not a Republican – in her world view.
She is of the kind who, with a few more steps, believes that the enlightened and educated have to reeducate the masses and especially the wealthy (that is, the other wealthy) so that they can learn to fit into society properly. Some, of course, can sadly never be reeducated, and will have to go away. Forever. Does Mrs Edwards think this way? I have no reason to think so.
But the taxi ride from where she is to the Soviet Gulags will cost you less than a night at the movies.
So the offending neighbor puts his Giuliani sign a mere 100 feet from the Edwards’ entrance. In the real world where I live, 100 feet is just about at the lot line on the other side of my property.
But if your mansion occupies a site half as big as the normal county, I guess 100 feet seems pretty close by. It’s all relative.
You sound like Barnie Fife.
I am starting to think her kind loathe Republicans because most of them, like her neighbor, are so coarse as to have actually had to work for their money.
Ernest T. would actually fire on/vandalize other people’s property—which no one has said this guy has done—and was an urban stereotype of a back-woods nutjob.
Curious that you associate a working-class man from the country with that stereotype.
Except Fife meant well.
Nobility needn’t involve itself in anything so crass as a trade. Which Republican was ridiculed for having been an exterminator before going into politics?
Mrs. Edwards has clearly demonstrated the liberal formula:
Man with gun on his own property = crazy yahoo who is a danger to my children so I may not know him or exactly what he did but for a cheap political thrust and to amply demonstrate my overwhelming elitism I will slander him in the media.
Working man with property somewhat rundown = crazy man who delibrately trashes his land just to harsh my mellow. I won’t be nice to him.
Crazy man with gun, delibrately trashed property and Gulianni sign = “rabid, rabid republican” because all Rethugs are “rabid” in their ways, whether as backwoods yahoo peasant types or corporate greed land barons soaking the poor, but only the non gun owning poor.
Ergo, quod erat demonstratum;
All Republicans are repulsive creatures and the world would be a better place without them.
Ladies and Germs, I give you this elections’s Theresa Heinz Kerry. Let the condescending begin…
I think they ought to put out a smug alert for the Edwards’ estate.
They are not man boobs. They are freedom fighters.
Smoke,
Springfield. Rather like a Para P10 or Warthog–short barrel, double-stack mag, thick grip. Not very common, they only made them for a year or so right around 2001. I wish I’d had it for a few of the drills during my combat pistol course last year. A couple of extra 10 round mags would have saved me a bunch of reloading.
I think my next acquisition will be a pocket pistol type, a little .32 ACP Tomcat or Rohrbaugh or something for summer carry.
Jim:
Yer scarin’ me in your rabidness so I won’t be nice to you.
Maria! Bring me my mimosa chop, chop and tell Julio the lawn needs to be exactly 1.25 inches or no lemonade! Now where’s my copy of Slate?
I think that about sums it up nicely. Well done.
How the hell could anyone get elected to the Senate from North Cackalacky if his wife’s afraid of the neighbors owning guns? Sheez. She’s obviously never been to Spring Lake – gun-wavers on shabby property are core constituents, for heaven’s sake.
MJ: Always a pleasure to recieve your accolades.
Nanony:
Only if they are Democrats and express their self loathing at their love of guns.
Did you guys ever check out the pictures of this dude’s house? Boarded up windows, barbed wire, Bush/Cheney bumper sticker for the 2004 election.
This situation is not yesterday’s news. It has been around for three of four years and Mr. Johnson has made it very clear he doesn’t like the Edwards clan. So, it’s okay for the redneck, but not for the yuppie? I was unaware our presidential candidates had to love everyone. In the end, I’ll bet the disgruntled neighbors of Democratic candidates number less than the ex-wives of Republican candidates.
Meanwhile, my favorite take was the genius: guns don’t kill people; people do. I responded by trying to make a shape of a fish with legs while typing the word Darwin and then I remembered arguments generally require more reasoning than a bumper sticker.
I thought you gun lovers, (accessorizing, Jim? If you love the gun so much carry it openly. Don’t be ashamed. It’s your right! Show it off!!) might want to visit downtown Ramadi or Kandahar. Everybody’s got a gun there and there is no crime. Oh, I here Somalia is nice too.
See, reductio adsurdum works both ways.
Just like an idiot progg to confuse war with crime…..
Oh, and B Moe, classy as always. Kiss your mom with that mouth?
Really, it’s your rhetorical flourishes I admire so. the ability to dissect an opposing opinion and with subtle wit and charm lampoon it, all the while avoiding invective and nonsense.
You, sir, are a tribute to mental defectives everywhere. I wonder, though, if the group home staff knows how much time you spend on the computer?
Shhhh, your secret is safe with us. But, do pass on to the Doctor that he/she might bump up the Haldol to 20 m.g. tid
No, he kisses your momma with that mouth….
We can safely reduce you to the absurd, timmy. And the process is drug free, which ought to please your pharmacist, who I imagine is plumb tuckered out from refilling all your prescriptions.
Open carry is illegal in some local jurisdictions around here, whereas concealed carry is legal statewide. But you know, cops carry openly, so I really don’t see a problem with it myself. And my guns are, in general, much prettier than most cop guns.
I want the bumper sticker
“Caution: Rabid Republican, may be armed”
then have a caravan drive by the Edward’s Saddamesque compound.
Might cause Elizbeth Antoinette a few vapors.
Thank you, although I am a bit out of practice dissecting opposing opinions. It has been such a long time since one has shown up around here, just an occasional herd of rampaging invective and rabid rhetoric is all I have seen lately.
It is outdated, silly, and produces a society with more guns than cars, where any criminal can get a stolen one, where Klebold and Harris can obtain them, where Japanese exchange can be shot while asking directions, and where many domestic arguments can be settled by shooting the UPS driver in the back of the head.
And where I’m the last person in the unlit parking lot on an unlit side street in the unicorporated section of town, and a car full of toughs pulls up and wants ‘their’ money. Happened to me twice.
And you call conservatives paranoid.
Wow, Rusty, there was no violence before guns? I guess I have to throw out all my history books, they must be all lies.
You don’t get to choose whether people die.
Sometimes you get to choose who.
You’re choosing the victims of violence, of crime, of violent regimes, of mobs.
You can either accept that or deny it, but ultimately you can’t avoid it. You ARE making the decision.
And that decision has consequences.
I wonder if little Timmy would mock a Muslim symbol.
War never existed before firearms, did it, Timmy?
[…] may question the sincerity of such a plea — particularly coming as it does from a woman who smeared a neighbor in the press, and who was (rumor has it) responsible for the Edwards campaign’s decision to […]