John Edwards: In His Own Words

New York Times

In an address yesterday in Hanover, N.H., John Edwards issued a thinly veiled criticism of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, an opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, without mentioning her by name. Mr. Edwards has recently been challenging Mrs. Clinton to stop taking campaign donations from lobbyists, a challenge she has rebuffed, saying she will not be influenced by lobbyists or special interest groups. The following is an excerpt of Mr. Edwards’s remarks, a full text of which is available on nytimes.com/politics: Full Text of Speech (johnedwards.com)


“The choice for our party could not be more clear. We cannot replace a group of corporate Republicans with a group of corporate Democrats, just swapping the Washington insiders of one party for the Washington insiders of the other.


The American people deserve to know that their presidency is not for sale, the Lincoln Bedroom is not for rent and lobbyist money can no longer influence policy in the House or the Senate.


It’s time to end the game. It’s time to tell the big corporations and the lobbyists who have been running things for too long that their time is over. It’s time to challenge politicians to put the American people’s interests ahead of their own calculated political interests, to look the lobbyists in the eye and just say no.


And it’s time for the American people to take responsibility for our government, for in our democracy it is truly ours. If we have come to mistrust and question it, it is because we were not vigilant against the forces that have taken it from us. That their game has played on for so long is the fault of each of us. Ending the game and returning government of the people to the people is the responsibility of all of us.”