Elizabeth Edwards: Not very neighborly

Elizabeth Edwards says that she is afraid of her neighbor because he brandished a gun against those whom he considered trespassers. He defends himself saying that he used his guns for defense.

"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."

But Johnson defended the occasion he brandished a gun, saying those on his land didn't have the proper approval.

"I use the gun for protection, and I considered that an appropriate time," Johnson said. "Sometimes you have to take drastic measures."

But Edwards doesn't want to meet and talk to her neighbor and resolve their disputes. In fact she's ticked off enough to publicly criticize the way he keeps his property and the fact that he is a "rabid, rabid Republican."

Edwards views 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.

"I have to budget. I have to live within my means," Johnson said. "I don't have millions of dollars to fix the place."

Johnson, who has posted a "Go Rudy Giuliani 2008" sign on a fence just 100 feet from the entrance to the Edwards' driveway, has criticized Edwards for the scale of their nearby home. The property and home, which includes an indoor basketball court, an indoor handball court and an indoor pool, is valued at $5.3 million.

The Edwardses are still putting the final touches on the property, which they purchased in 2003.

"I thought he was supposed to be for the poor people," Johnson said. "But does he ever socialize with any poor people? He doesn't speak to me."

Johnson said he has put his property on the market, in part blaming the high property taxes for his decision to leave. He also wants to move for another reason.

"I don't want to live somewhere where someone's always complaining about me," he said.

I thought the Edwards were supposed to be worried about the two Americas. But it seems they don't like that other America when it impinges on their own mansion. Here's this guy whose family has had this property for 80 years or more and now he can't afford the taxes to keep his family property. I'm sure the Edwards will be happy to know that they'll be losing their "slummy" neighbor when some rich guy snaps up the property. Then they won't have to worry about having to look at someone from the "other America" living next door.

UPDATE: I see that Elizabeth Edwards, or someone purporting to be her, has posted a response in the comments section explaining why she doesn't like the guy waving a gun at Duke Power workers and denying that the guy is poor. If this is indeed from the Edwards campaign I suspect that they have realized that her calling a guy next door a "rabid, rabid Republican" and criticizing him for having a "slummy" property didn't play too well next to their "all about the little guy" pose.