Elizabeth Edwards’ “rabid, rabid Republican” neighbor
Mary Katharine Ham has the 411 on some recent comments Senator John Edwads wife Elizabeth made about a neighbor to their 28,000 sq. foot estate. The Associated Press headline read “Elizabeth Edwards afraid of neighbor – She has never met `rabid Republican,’ but wouldn’t be nice” and here’s why:
RALEIGH –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.”
Ok, her concern about her gun-wielding neighbor is understandable, but this is what got me:
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 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.
[…]
“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.”
Johnson said he has put his property on the market, in part blaming the high property taxes for his decision to leave. He also wants to move for another reason.
“I don’t want to live somewhere where someone’s always complaining about me,” he said.
Oh the irony. John Edwards’ always talks about how there are “Two Americas” and says there needs to be only one – little did we know that the “other America” he was talking about was right across the street from him, in the form of a 42 acre “slummy” tract that they don’t seem too fond of.