Lloyd Grove
Edwards' drive heads into the stretch run
Just how much does former Sen. John Edwards want to be President?
So much, apparently, that to get a meeting Monday night with hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, a go-to guy for Democratic presidential candidates courting the African-American vote, Edwards let Simmons drag him to his regular 6:15 p.m. class at the Jivamukti Yoga School.
"He had never seen or done it before. He was a yoga virgin," yoga fanatic Simmons told me yesterday. "The entire practice, he was sweating. The guy runs 5 miles a day, but I promise you he is in pain today. At one point, I looked over at him, and he looked like he was going to die."
The 53-year-old Edwards didn't return a phone call seeking verification of his painful condition.
Simmons said the former North Carolina senator (who today runs the One America Committee, an anti-poverty group) had been trying to arrange a get-together for weeks.
But Simmons denied that he made yoga a requirement for an agreement to meet with the 2004 vice presidential nominee.
"It wasn't like that," Simmons said. "Yoga was on my schedule. I go to yoga every day, and I don't like to change that schedule."
Afterward, Edwards accompanied Simmons and his posse — including former NAACP head Ben Chavez and activist Glen Friedman — to dinner at Downtown Cipriani, where they discussed spirituality, how to end poverty, the higher self and other inspirational topics.
"It showed that Edwards is flexible and has an open mind," Simmons pronounced. He added that the evening has sent the would-be White House occupant to the top of his list — and far above Sens. John Kerry and Hillary Clinton. "But I'm happy to go to yoga with anybody who wants to."