Once upon a time, Edwards' staff thought white wine and sissy sodas were their biggest problems. In anticipation of Andrew Young's 20/20 interview tonight, Gawker asks an Edwards staffer to evaluate the latest rumors—and lob some new ones.
Fred Baron, a Texas trial lawyer, died last Thursday of cancer. Fellow litigators remember him for the "toxic tort" lawsuits he filed; politicos know him as the man who relocated former presidential candidate John Edwards's mistress, Rielle Hunter, to Santa Barbara, in the hopes of keeping her away from the public eye. But the Internet-obsessed crowd will inevitably think of him as the man who inflicted chesty-news videoblog Rocketboom on them; first, by fathering videoblogger Andrew Baron, then giving his son the funding for his project. Oh, and then suing him over it. Despite that, Andrew sought to have his father given an experimental cancer treatment. Blood is thicker than blogs.
Fred Baron, the attorney who rebuilt the Texas Democratic party and became famous, late in life, for his unfortunate help in covering up the extramarital affair of former Senator John Edwards, died Thursday of cancer. He was 61. Baron made a fortune in asbestos litigation, and used the funds to found the Texas Democratic Trust in 2005, among countless other philanthropic causes. In the Edwards affair, Baron was revealed as the source of the supposed "hush money" keeping mistress Rielle Hunter living in relative luxury. Baron fought corporations to the end, demanding that a pharmaceutical company allow him to use an experimental drug in his treatment. He won, but it didn't work. He won, but it didn't work. He is survived by his son Andrew, founder of the dumb internet video program Rocketboom. Andrew organized a movement to get his father the drug, enlisting Bill Clinton, Lance Armstrong, and John Kerry to help. [DallasNews]
Andrew Baron, the founder of videoblog Rocketboom, has reported that his dad, prominent trial lawyer Fred Baron, is dying of cancer. His one chance, an experimental lifesaving drug, was denied by its manufacturer, Biogen Idec. We won't mention how Fred paid to relocate Rielle Hunter, the mistress of former presidential candidate John Edwards, out of hte spotlight. Or how Baron père and fils fought over the funding of Rocketboom, which Fred supplied. No, we'll just point you to this grotesque demand from a commenter on FriendFeed, Peter Huesken:
Remember the Edwards scandal? It seems like it was so many crises ago. To remind you: attorney Fred Baron is the former Edwards campaign financer who saved the failed Presidential candidate by not being able to remember anything about paying for Edwards mistress Rielle Hunter's rent and legal needs. Baron's son—Rocketboom founder Andrew Baron—jumped into the fray with some unadvisable blogging in defense of his dad. The story began as a farce, but now it's veering towards tragedy: last week the elder Baron was diagnosed with multiple myeoma. He could die within the week unless he gets access to a certain miracle drug.Its manufacturer won't let it be used for that specific purpose, so his son is is appealing is appealing to the company to get its use approved. He's somehow gotten Bill Clinton, John Kerry, Lance Armstong and others involved:
Andrew Baron is the founder of "daily Internet culture" website Rocketboom. He's also the son of lawyer and former John Edwards finance Fred Baron — you know, the guy who saved Edwards by not being able to remember anything about paying for Edwards mistress Rielle Hunter's living quarters and lawyer. And it looks like Andrew has been blogging up a storm lately about his dad, according to Deceiver and Valleywag—which may or may not be advisable!Our own Dads would ream our ass if we ever pulled a stunt like that, which makes us wonder: is Baron's Dad OK with this? Is he in fact condoning it, using his son as a mouthpiece to spread his message of ignorant innocence about the whole affair? Blogs Andrew: "Update: I just spoke with my dad. He said that he had no knowledge whatsoever of John Edwards [sic] affair and just learned about it for the first time about 2 weeks ago." Perfect. So, Edwards has already established that he had no idea that Rielle Hunter was being given hush money. And Fred Baron only vaguely recalls giving money to people, sort of. So everyone's safe! This is either a huge lie, or clueless, lawyerly "don't want to know." Probably the latter. Related:
The precious Times has finally condescended to do some original reporting the John Edwards scandal, pulling from the tabloidy muck a scoop establishing that Edwards loyalist Fred Baron, who can't quite recall these things clearly, admits he maybe set Edwards mistress Rielle Hunter and Edwards campaign aide Andrew Young up with two separate lawyer buddies of his, and also maybe paid their legal fees?? All this happened right before one of the lawyers announced that his new client Hunter was not carrying Edwards' love child, and then the other lawyer announced that her new client Young was the father of the love child. And you know, funny thing, both of the lawyers forgot to mention their ties to one another via Baron. Here are some great quotes where swaggering genius lawyer Baron (pictured) pretends he's an Alzheimer's patient, to the Times:
