ROGER SIMON COLUMN
APRIL 18, 20005
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - - Let me be the first to say that I do not expect gratitude. I have had some extraordinary newsmakers come to speak to my study group at Harvard this semester including John Kerry, Ralph Nader, Ralph Reed, and John Edwards. It is I who am grateful to them.
And let me also be the first to say I am no Leonardo DiCaprio. (I am barely Roger Simon.)
But when I logged onto John Edwards's blog recently (at oneamericacommittee.com) to see what his impressions of his trip to Harvard were, I was a little shocked.
This is Edwards's entire entry for the trip: "On Wednesday, I spent the whole day at Harvard as a visiting fellow at the Institute of Politics. The students there had some great ideas to help get young people involved with the fight on poverty and I'm looking forward to putting some of their ideas to work.
"The whole day was really interesting but my staff perked up the most when we ran into Leonardo DiCaprio at the airport. He did so much for the Democratic Party during the campaign and it was nice to be able to thank him in person for everything he did."
That's its. Finito. The end. Which surprised me. There seemed to be an awful lot missing from the item. Like the line: "While my staff perked up at meeting Leonardo DiCaprio, we all had one question: If you put him in a line-up with Roger Simon, could anybody tell them apart?"
The Edwards-DiCaprio meeting was reported by no fewer than two newspapers. (If one newspaper reports something, it might be made up. If two newspaper report something, it is absolute fact - - whether it happened or not.)
This item appeared in the Boston Herald on April 15: "Yes, that was Hollywood hottie Leonardo DiCaprio dining with Sen. John Edwards at Legal Test Kitchen in the new Terminal A at Logan International Airport the other night.
"Our spies in the sky say the two were headed to NYC on the shuttle together.
"Apres meal, Leo, who is coming back in June to film 'The Departed' with Matt Damon and Martin Scorsese, boarded the plane with the Dems' 2004 vice presidential washout and a servant.
" 'Leo's meathead 'handler boy' walked on the plane with about eight huge bags, bumping into every seat, while Leo carried his ticket with two hands,' said our spy. 'Edwards carried his own luggage.' "
While I am sure that Sen. Edwards was not thrilled at being called the vice presidential "washout" (after all, the Democratic ticket did win 20 states in 2004 and some people are still waiting to vote in Cleveland), he probably liked the Boston Globe account of April 15, a lot more:
"Wednesday was a busy day for the Legal Test Kitchen, the new Legal Sea Foods eatery at the new Terminal A at Logan Airport. Leonardo DiCaprio stopped by the takeout counter for lobster wraps to go….Last but not least, former Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards came in for a glass of wine and some ahi tuna. When he was finished, he went into the kitchen and shook hands with the staff."
Those last two sentences are a very important clue as to John Edwards's future.
Because if you are going to run for national office again, there are two things you really need: The ability to reach out to ordinary people. And a drink.