But to the "masses" — that vast swath of people across America who don't think "Hitler" when someone says "Bush" — it looks cowardly.

Meanwhile, Edwards' wife is publicly attacking the nearest neighbor to their 100-plus-acre property, Monty Johnson, whom she's never met. Mike Baker with the Associated Press reported this weekend that "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 … who refuses to clean up his 'slummy' property just to spite her family."

In 2004, Johnson kept Bush/Cheney signs in his yard, like many of Edwards' neighbors in Raleigh. Unlike them, however, he can't look forward to Edward moving. For now, he has a "Go Rudy Giuliani 2008" sign facing Edwards' property, but he told the AP he plans to move. It's partly because of higher taxes, he said, but also, "I don't want to live somewhere where someone's always complaining about me."

Regardless, such a cavalcade of craven nonsense from his wife ought to embarrass Edwards. Not only is Elizabeth Edwards using her access to media to carry out a personal vendetta against a private citizen, but also she is admitting to some rather paranoid and elitist notions. Rabid, gun-toting, and slummy? Where is her husband while she's saying such things?

Oh, right, ducking debates and spouting paranoid notions about Fox News.