For Now, Edwards 'Working Quietly' Against Poverty

John Edwards is spending a lot of time out of the spotlight these days, but that doesn’t mean he’s given up his trademark fight against poverty, he tells the Washington Post. “If I can help the most by working quietly, that’s what I’ll do,” the disgraced former presidential candidate said. “If as time goes by I can be more helpful with a public role, that’s what I will do.”

In his first extended interview since confirming the affair that damaged his marriage, Edwards is mum about relations with wife Elizabeth, but eager to reclaim his central issue. He says critics who doubt his motives are engaging in “complete foolishness. It was real, 100% real.” His supporters feel the same. “People say in effect, ‘Well, John Edwards fell off a cliff so poverty obviously isn’t a question for American politics,’” a friend said. “How that can be, I don’t understand.” (More John Edwards stories.)