Edwards' hypocrisy on the poor

From a June 22, 2006, speech by Sen. John Edwards delivered at the National Press Club:

It's wrong we have 37 million Americans living in poverty — separated from the opportunities of this country by their income, their housing, their access to education and jobs and health care — just as it was wrong we once lived in a country legally segregated by race. Too many places today are segregated by class.

The Edwards apparently do not apply the concern about the poor being "separated" from the rich to their own neighborhood. As the AP reports:

[Mrs.] Edwards views [neighbor Monty] Johnson as a "rabid, rabid Republican" who refuses to clean up his "slummy" property just to spite her family, whose lavish 28,000-square-foot estate is nearby on 102 wooded acres.

Johnson, 55, acknowledges his Republican roots. But he takes offense to the suggestion he has purposefully left his property, including an old garage he leases for use as a car shop, in dilapidated condition.

Johnson said he has lived his entire life on the property, which he said his family purchased before the Great Depression. He said he's spent a lot of money to try and fix up the 42-acre tract.

So, Mrs. Edwards believes that Monty Johnson is poor just to "spite" her?

Mrs. Edwards also objects Mr. Edwards ordinary American means of self-protection. While the Edwards are likely used to having armed guards protect them, such as during the 2004 campaign when the Secret Service was at their beck and call, such as reported in this 2004 Knight-Ridder story:

Monday marked Edwards' first day with Secret Service protection. Agents were visible throughout the union hall and stopped traffic on 19th Street when he left the building.

Mr. Johnson has no such resources so, that once ,when he found trespassers on his property, he chased them off with a gun. Mrs. Edwards warps this story into:

The Edwards family has yet to meet Johnson in person. "I wouldn't be nice to him, anyway," Edwards said in an interview. "I don't want my kids anywhere near some guy who, when he doesn't like somebody, the first thing he does is pull a gun out. It scares the business out of me."