"Edwards' Wife Likens Husband to Helms"

AP:

The wife of Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards on Tuesday compared him to another North Carolina politician known for his blunt candor - conservative icon Jesse Helms.

Elizabeth Edwards, speaking to reporters before a giving speech in Savannah, Gal., invoked the name of Republican Helms when asked if her husband could appeal to conservative Southern voters.

"I remember one-time somebody saying, 'That John Edwards reminds me of Jesse Helms,'" she said. "They didn't agree on a single policy, I don't think. But here's what they agreed on - that people should know where they stood."

Elizabeth Edwards said her husband has been honest with Americans in saying he made a mistake by voting in the Senate to authorize the invasion of Iraq. She said John Edwards blames himself, not faulty intelligence that suggested Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

"Certainly every woman loves to hear a man admit, now and again, that they were wrong," she told reporters. "And John's willing to do that."

Elizabeth Edwards was in Georgia to address about 250 people attending a conference of the Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina.

John Edwards served as North Carolina's junior senator under Helms until the Republican retired in 2003 after 30 years in office.

Helms' outspoken opposition to legalized abortion, homosexuality and a national holiday marking Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday elicited the wrath of Democrats and moderates.

His wife's favorable comparison aside, John Edwards has been known to speak critically of the longtime North Carolina lawmaker.

"I'm now the senior senator from North Carolina instead of Jesse Helms, which is a very good thing for this country," John Edwards said during his first presidential campaign in 2004 at a debate in New Hampshire.

Howie P.S.: I would feel better about Edwards' decision-making in the future if he would talk candidly about how he happened to make his "mistake" on Iraq.