Begala on John Edwards: TMI

John Edwards is another one who tried to make the most of his bad news by timing it with a Friday afternoon/beginning of the Olympics.

Via Dan Kennedy:

Here is the CNN exchange between Paul Begala and Anderson Cooper that I mentioned earlier today. Alex Castellanos gets in on it, too.

COOPER: Yes, but, I mean, Paul, you've gone through this, obviously, with Bill Clinton. What do you make of the statement that John Edwards released just a few hours ago?

BEGALA: I thought it was bizarre. I thought this ...

COOPER: Bizarre?

BEGALA: Bizarre. It was way too detailed. Way too much information. I don't want to hear him talking about what medical tests he's going to take. I thought it was way too ...

COOPER: You're talking about taking a paternity test?

BEGALA: Yes. God, shut up, Senator, with all due respect. He needed to say, I did it, I lied, I hurt my wife and I will — I am going to apologize to my wife publicly because I've humiliated her publicly, and then shut the hell up.

I thought it was way too self-referential. It was really narcissistic, it was really kind of a creepy statement, frankly. He needed to say a lot less, basically, to say I'm sorry and particularly apologize publicly to his wife.

COOPER: Alex, in the statement he says he's had become increasingly narcissistic and egocentric. What did you make of the statement?

CASTELLANOS: And then he goes on to produce a fairly narcissistic statement. I thought — I was confused by it. I thought a lawyer or somebody who'd been on the national scene that long would know better.

But you know there are things in there, like I was 99 percent honest. You're either honest or you're not. There were lines in there that — you know, I've beaten myself up enough. And I've been stripped bare.You get the sense that he still thinks he's the victim here. And I don't think that most folks looking at this situation would agree.

I'm with Begala and Castellanos. Yuck.