Looks like former Sen. John Edwards (D-UNC) is ducking Newt Gingrich’s call for a debate on poverty in America. Gingrich underscored the challenge yesterday during his speech at the Westin:
I think we’d have a lot of fun if Sen. Edwards would be willing to have a dialogue about whether conservative principles applied to saving the poor work better than liberal bureaucracies that clearly today are failing the poor. And that might be a very creative conversation that moves America a little further down the road toward genuinely helping people who currently can’t pursue happiness very well.
Two-Three-Four.
“People worried about feeding their children don’t need politicians shooting their mouths off at partisan political events who didn’t do anything significant about poverty when they had the chance,” came the response from Edwards spokeswoman Kim Rubey.
Someone needs to tell Kim Rubey about the 1996 Welfare Reform that Gingrich’s GOP Congress sent to President Bill Clinton. You know, the one that was supposed to result in millions more Americans living in poverty — if you listened to liberal critics — but instead has resulted in millions fewer Americans actually living in poverty. A little thing, perhaps when compared to jetting around the country stoking class resentments while draining the nation’s stock of hair-care products. What a poser.
And let’s keep this marker in mind for the next time Sen. Haircare comes to Charlotte. Judging from the amount of coverage the very news-worthy Gingrich received from the Uptown paper of record, for a speech literally across the street from the Tyron Street news HQ, a future Edwards fly-by should rate exactly no coverage from our enterprising newsies.
