Edwards Takes Heat Over Quotations About Hillary

Comments attributed last week to the wife of former North Carolina senator John Edwards (D) provided a faint foreshadowing of the intraparty battle that could arise when Democrats choose their presidential nominee in two years.

Elizabeth Edwards said last Thursday that her life has been a happier one than that of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), according to the magazine Ladies' Home Journal. Both Clinton and John Edwards, the Democrats' 2004 vice presidential nominee, are prospective 2008 candidates for the presidency.

Clinton "and I are from the same generation," Elizabeth Edwards said at a luncheon sponsored by the magazine. "We both went to law school and married other lawyers, but after that we made other choices. I think my choices have made me happier. I think I'm more joyful than she is." Ladies' Home Journal provided a transcript of the luncheon comments to the Associated Press.

On Friday, Edwards released a statement accusing the magazine of misquoting and misrepresenting her. "This is particularly true with respect to my comments about Sen. Clinton, who holds a serious and demanding public office while I am largely home, joyfully I must admit, with two lovely children," Edwards said in the statement.

Ladies' Home Journal said the quotes were accurate.

Edwards called the former first lady on Friday to apologize, a Clinton aide told the AP.

"They had a good conversation," Howard Wolfson said. "The senator thanked her for the call and wished her well on her book tour."

Edwards is promoting a memoir, "Saving Graces," that examines her experience with breast cancer.