Finally, WaPo does Haircuts!

This is what I call some much needed investigative journalism. After all, there have been many obvious areas that one could investigate in the last few years, Plamegate, domestic wiretapping, Guantanamo, the missing $10 billion from the Iraq reconstruction budget, you know those pallets of cash they shipped to unknown parties, heck even most people would say the Katrina follow up isn't fully mined for tidbits of interest. But not at the WaPo! There it is all haircuts, all the time. As it should be....

Read it and weep!

Splitting Hairs, Edwards's Stylist Tells His Side of Story
Man Behind Pricey 'Dos Details Long Relationship
By John Solomon
Washington Post Staff Writer

At first, the haircuts were free. But because Torrenueva often had to fly somewhere on the campaign trail to meet his client, he began charging $300 to $500 for each cut, plus the cost of airfare and hotels when he had to travel outside California.

Torrenueva said one haircut during the 2004 presidential race cost $1,250 because he traveled to Atlanta and lost two days of work. ... if $400 seemed a lot for a haircut, how about one for three times that? {That's a good question, Post!}

The stylist said he has a vivid memory of the first time he met Edwards, in 2003.

The Beverly Hills hairstylist, a Democrat, said he hit it off with then-Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina at a meeting in Los Angeles ... Since then, Torrenueva has cut Edwards's hair at least 16 times. {The start of a long beautiful gay relationship perhaps?}

"He has nice hair," the stylist said of Edwards in an interview. "I try to make the man handsome, strong, more mature and these are the things, as an expert, that's what we do."
{It does take an expert to make a democrat seem handsome or strong, doesn't it?}

"I'm disappointed and I do feel bad. If I know someone, I'm not going to say I don't know them," he said. "When he called me 'that guy,' that hit my ears. It hurt." He paused and then added, "I still like him. . . . I don't want to hurt him." {"Oh Jon, how could you do this to me?" wept Torrenueva.}

It is some kind of commentary on the state of American politics that as Edwards has campaigned for president, vice president and now president again, his hair seems to have attracted as much attention as, say, his position on health care. {That's true. I wonder just what kind of commentary it is? Perhaps, a sad commentary.}

But wait, there is more...

Torrenueva agreed to meet Edwards at the Century Plaza hotel in Los Angeles along with several fashion experts.

"There was a woman, an award-winning clothes designer -- I think she works in film and onstage, too. She was there with her swatches with materials for colors of suits, ties and what we were doing there was discussing his look. I was there for hair. {Could that have been Naomi Klein?}

"What I did was, there was too much hair on top, always falling down, and it made him look too youthful. I took the top down and balanced everything out. He couldn't see it. But then we went into the bathroom. He looked in the mirror and said, 'I love this,' and that was it."

{There is then a chronicle of all the many heartbreaking trysts to "cut hair."}

And despite the best efforts of Edwards, his wife and their campaign aides, there's been an obvious political impact. With each punch line on late night TV his image as a self-styled populist making poverty his signature issue was further eroded.
{class traitor, anyone?}

Thank goodness, the Washington Post has the journalistic credibility to finally tackle this important issue.