E. Edwards sparks a discussion

Should Elizabeth Edwards bear some responsibility for the marital infidelities of her husband, former senator and presidential candidate John Edwards?

Two high profile women, Sally Quinn and Lee Woodruff, have been debating the question in the blogosphere, Rob Christensen reports.

Quinn, an author and former Washington Post columnist, wrote in the Huffington Post that Elizabeth Edwards may have been an enabler.

Quinn said Edwards' infidelities were not different from those of former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer or former President Bill Clinton. She called them "enabling wives."

"Nobody has more respect for Elizabeth Edwards than I do," Quinn writes. "First of all, any woman who has lost a child gets a pass for life from me. Nothing could be more horrible. Not only that, she is brilliant, clever, capable, decent and courageous."

But the problem, Quinn writes, is "she let him do it."

More after the jump.

—————

"She not only agreed to his run for the presidency, she encouraged him to do it, knowing the toll it would take on the family given her health problems," Quinn writes. "But, worse, she let him do it knowing that he had had an affair. What on earth was she thinking?"

But Lee Woodruff, wife of ABC correspondent Bob Woodruff, writes that the press should "leave Elizabeth alone."

"Whether John Edwards was carrying on the affair in 2006 may very well be our business. Whether or not his wife knew in 2006 is firmly HER business," writes Woodruff on wowOwow.com.

"That belongs in the category marked 'inner workings of a marriage.' She was not the one running for public office, she was doing what strong women like Silda Wall Spitzer, Cynthia McCain and countless other accomplished, well educated, dedicated mothers have done throughout history — trusted their man, believed in him and supported his ambitions in numerous ways."