I called GUEST,"Truther" for being selective in his excerpting of articles and it looks like pdq is doing the same thing. How about we finish the article from which pdq quotes (but rather than posting it all in red, I'll post it as it appeared on the source web site):

Laurin Easthom, a Democrat and town council member in nearby Chapel Hill, said Edwards has earned the right to build a large home.

"I see somebody who has come from a very humble background and with really hard work has gotten to the point where he is," Easthom said. "He's out there trying to do some good, and he's giving back both financially and by what he plans to do through his campaign."

Jennifer Palmieri, an Edwards adviser, dismissed the brouhaha as of little interest to voters.

But political consultant Bill Miller said the lavish estate could become a sore point for the candidate.

"Anything that appears to be extravagant or over the top is not the best card to play when you're running for president - especially when you're trying to differentiate yourself the way John Edwards is," said Miller, who has worked closely with the Republican Party.

After introducing their new home on her husband's campaign Web site, Elizabeth Edwards explained the couple had taken special precautions to make the house energy efficient - keeping in line with Edwards' environmental platform. But she spent the next week battling blog-based critics who wanted to discuss the building's size - and she suggested that one posting on the campaign's Web site may have come from a Republican or a rival Democrat.

"Did it come from the right? Did it come from another campaign? I have no idea," Elizabeth Edwards wrote. "What I do know is that it is no news bulletin that John and I have money. It is no news bulletin that he earned every cent."

Edwards and his wife live in the house with their two young children, Emma Claire, 7, and Jack, 5. Their older daughter, Cate, is a student at Harvard Law School.

Many of the other 2008 contenders also own expensive homes. New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and husband Bill, the former president, own two homes: a Dutch Colonial house in Chappaqua, N.Y., that they purchased for $1.7 million in 1999, and a Washington home that went for $2.9 million in 2001.

On the GOP side, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the founder of venture capital and investment firm Bain Capital, owns three homes. Arizona Sen. John McCain also owns real estate worth millions of dollars.

In the interest of honesty and full disclosure.

Don Firth