At a town hall here, Obama directly questioned Edwards' record in the Senate, contrasting his record with Edwards' in regards to taking on the special interests. "The reason now that I raise this issue of the special interests is because everybody now in the campaign talks about how I am going to fight for you. Like Sen. Edwards, who is a good guy -- he's been talking a lot about, 'I am going to fight the lobbyists and the special interests in Washington.' Well the question you have to ask is: Were you fighting for'em when you were in the Senate. What did you do? Because I did something, immediately upon arriving in the Senate, despite the fact that it wasn't a popular position to take."
Obama added, "And that will give you some sense of whether or not folks are real are fighting for when they get into the presidency."
MSNBC
Barack Obama asks, "What did you do?" to John Edwards. Well, one of the first things Edwards did as a new Senator was to defend Bill Clinton from impeachment. The time wasted by the Republicans was an abuse of power and by Edwards being a part of Clinton's defense, he stepped into the Senate and into the history books as well. He immediately put himself in the political spotlight.
A few weeks after Edwards became a senator, he won a key role in President Clinton's impeachment trial. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, wanted Edwards to assist in the deposition of Monica Lewinsky, the intern with whom Clinton had had an affair. "He was just extraordinary," Leahy said.
. . . Edwards did take a leading role in the effort to pass campaign-finance reform and legislation designed to give patients the right to sue managed-care plans.
The so-called patients' bill of rights bill failed, but Edwards won an
important admirer in Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. Kennedy said Tuesday that Edwards managed to leapfrog more experienced politicians to the national ticket because of his gift for giving voice to "the values of middle-class working people, people who have felt left out."
USA Today
Ethics reform doesn't just mean lobbyist money but taking on big interests who employ lobbyists. Edwards has never taken lobbyist money, but he certainly tried to take on their employers, the large corporations that have put their profits before what is best for not just the people that work for them but for the consumers they serve.
John Edwards on The Capital Gang in 2001.
EDWARDS: I think, actually, it's very important. Senator McCain and Feingold and I and a handful of others worked very hard to get this legislation passed. Let me give you an example, Al, of why it's important. First of all, the debate is not about politicians. It's about the American people, restoring integrity and making people feel like again this is their country, their democracy, their government.
But there are some very specific examples. Senator McCain and I have also
worked on an HMO reform bill, a patients' bill of rights. But we haven't
been able to get it passed yet. We've been working on this issue for years now, and the HMOs and health insurance companies gave $13, $14 million dollars in soft money last year in the 2000 election cycle.
If we can take that money out of politics, not only do we help get the people's will done. we also help restore the perception, the public perception, which is important. This doesn't solve all the problems, but it's a huge step in the right direction.
EDWARDS: Well, I'd say two things about that. First of all, the focus of
this debate should not be on the politicians, who's advantaged, who's
disadvantaged. It should be focused on -- the focus should be on the
American people outside the Beltway. That's what this is really about,
ultimately.
And, secondly, with respect to what Bob just said about the patient's bill of rights, in fact, the patient's bill of rights that Senator McCain and I have drafted is supported by every health care group, all the doctors, all the patients, every consumer group in America. The only group that doesn't support it are the HMOs, and I just think that speaks volumes.
CNN
John Edwards says "The debate is not about politicians. It's about the American people..." Crazy idea isn't it? It's about us. Rather than attempting to reform lobbyist influence he refused their money and tried to take them on. He tried. Edwards approach was just different from Obamas, but he most certainly tried.
What if all politicians stopped taking lobbyists money? PAC money? If people only voted for politicians who refused such donations things would change quickly, wouldn't they?
There was another champion for John Edwards and his fight for the people in 2004 and you may find this name familiar. David Axelrod is currently the senior adviser to Obama, but in 2004 he was Edwards' senior adviser.
Obama senior adviser David Axelrod this week on how John Edwards is new to the issue of lobbying reform, as opposed to Obama who worked on the Senate ethics reform bill.
Axelrod: "I can't think of one thing like that, that Senator Edwards did in the Senate."
Then-Edwards senior adviser David Axelrod on CNN, March 2004:
"Washington is run by the special interests today ... John Edwards ran headlong into it when he led the fight for the patients bill of rights against the insurance industry in the Senate. He has never taken a dime from lobbyists or PACs. He said, let's ban lobbyist money, so you can't give people a bill to pass in the day and a check at night. And that's how we're going to start changing the culture in Washington. But you have to be able to do that. That's a fundamental difference between these candidates. Senator (John) Kerry accepts that lobbyist money. And we're trying to change that."
ABC News
And lastly, I want to give you some things he said during his run for Senate in 1998. Edwards refused Lobbyist and PAC money from the beginning. Edwards also ran on a platform based on the idea he was going to take on these big interests in an attempt to speak for those who have no voice.
Edwards has ruled out contributions from lobbyists and political action committees (PACs) and appears to be relying heavily on support from other lawyers. Business interests, especially those he has sued, are lining up largely behind Faircloth.
One of Edwards' biggest issues – a natural outgrowth of his work as a plaintiffs' attorney – arises out of legislation backed by Clinton and congressional Democrats to crack down on restrictions imposed by managed-care insurance plans to control costs, including curbs on patient choice and limitations on treatment choices.
North Carolinians need "a senator who speaks for them and not the health insurance industry and the HMOs [health maintenance organizations]," Edwards said at a news conference here last week, joined by Kerrey and three health care professionals who also supported the legislation.
1998
Washington Post
"If they want somebody who represents the powerful and the powerful interests they've got that in Lauch Faircloth. If they want somebody who speaks for regular people and won't cow-tow to these people who raise large amounts of money and give large amounts of money -- that's me," says Edwards"
CNN
It all sounds familiar to me, but this was back in 1998. John Edwards has consistently been on message for almost ten years and before that for twenty years as a trial lawyer representing everyday people against large corporations. What his record says to me and his current set of policies is that you cannot negotiate with these people. You cannot try to win an HMO over, you have to try to work around them and not with them.
I believe that Edwards has learned from his years in the Senate and from his loss as running for Vice President. And since the powers that he rails against have only become more entrenched and more powerful since 1998 the support in reforming such interests is bigger. I'm so glad that we have Senators likes Obama pushing for reform, but we need fighters like Edwards in the White House helping fight to get such reform through Congress. John Edwards has been talking about such interests since 1998 and has not taken money from Lobbyists since then, can Obama say the same thing?
His decision to refuse PAC and lobbyist money is a departure from his Senate race two years ago. Then, he accepted nearly $130,000 from lobbyists and $1.3 million from PACs, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Soon after arriving in Washington, however, he sought a lead role in advocating ethics reform and reducing the influence of special interests.
To adhere to that, Obama announced the no-federal-lobbyist-money rule. But it seems his fundraisers, under pressure to keep pace with the Clinton camp, have decided to follow the letter of that rule rather than embrace its full spirit. Thus, a current lobbyist can't give, but a former lobbyist -- even a recent one -- can. Of course, there is the spouse exemption, even if the money comes from a joint account.
The policy has rubbed some lobbyists the wrong way. One reports getting a call from an Obama representative that seemed to be a solicitation for a donation. When the lobbyist cut him off and pointed out that he was registered, the fund raiser said he was aware of that but "your spouse can contribute, and we want to reach out to your network," the lobbyist recalled, adding that he was "pretty taken aback."
The fuzzy lines also were evident last week when Obama headlined a fund raiser at Union Station. Invitations were forwarded around town to many lobbying shops, even though most of the folks who work in them are banned from giving. Among the event's chairs and hosts were four former lobbyists, including recent advocates for big oil and power companies.
Bill Burton, an Obama spokesman, acknowledged that the system is imperfect. "It's a symbolic step, but nobody is claiming it solves the problem," he said.
Politico
The reason I'm including this is that I've had people ask me about state lobbyists for Edwards and spouses of lobbyists and never understood why. I get it now. Edwards is not actively looking for money from these sources and he's been the first to say that the system does not work as it is.
So Obama asks, what did you do? I think he did quite a bit and most of all I believe he learned many important lessons in the Senate, most importantly that you cannot invite everyone to the table, sometimes you have to take their power away, they won't just give it away. Here are some excerpts from a speech that Edwards gave yesterday, "Lifting Up the Middle Class"...
Edwards Delivers Major Speech On Lifting Up America's Middle Class
We need a president who will take these powers on and fight to get you your voice back, and your government back. We need a president who is going to fight every day to make sure that all Americans can find good jobs, save for the future, and be guaranteed health care and retirement security. We need a president who is going to lift up the middle class. That is why today, I am proposing my Middle Class Rising agenda, a comprehensive plan to help hardworking families get ahead, and make sure that all Americans have a fair shot at the American Dream.
...
"None of this is going to be easy. I hear all these candidates talking about how we're going to bring about the big, bold change that America needs. And I hear some people saying that they think we can sit at a table with drug companies, oil companies and insurance companies, and they will give their power away. That is a fantasy. We have a fight in front of us. We have a fight for the future of this country. And the change we need will not happen easily. We need someone who is going to step into that arena on your behalf, someone who is ready for that fight.
...
"I take it very personally when I see powerful, well-financed interests taking over this democracy, and taking it away from regular Americans, people like my parents. We have got to reclaim this democracy for them. For you. For your children. For your grandchildren. Because if we don't, we're going to have to look our children in the eye and say, "we're leaving this mess to you." Our parents didn't do that. Our grandparents didn't do it. Twenty generations of Americans who came before us didn't do it. And I'll tell you something: we're not going to do it. We're going to make absolutely certain that America rises again."
I believe with the fact that he's been talking about these issues for so long and that he's put together his booklet, John Edwards' Plan To Build One America to show voters exactly what he plans to do for every single American that John Edwards is the fighter we need. Here is his latest ad...
And for a little humor...