Elizabeth Edwards knocks McCain on health care

WASHINGTON -- Former Sen. John Edwards may be out of the limelight, but his wife forged headlong into the health care debate this morning, slamming Republican presidential nominee John McCain and arguing with a GOP congressman about the cost of universal health care.

Elizabeth Edwards showed hints of the feisty image she has cultivated over the years during an appearance on Capitol Hill today as she testified before a subcommittee about health care reform. She wasn't even the star witness - that was New Jersey Gov. John Corzine - and she was just one of nine panelists in a hearing that dragged on more than three hours.

But in her most public appearance since her husband admitted his infidelity on national television, Edwards kept her focus on political matters, even managing to rankle Republicans.

"Let's consider Sen. John McCain's approach [to health care] as the ideal conservative approach," Edwards began.

She went on to slam McCain's ideas on tax credits and the fact that his plan wouldn't cover all Americans.

"If you're 55 with cancer, like Senator McCain and I, good luck to you," Edwards said.

Her printed testimony, submitted a day ahead to the committee, never mentioned McCain, and it is unusual to hear such political talk during a policy hearing.

Republicans on the committee appeared frustrated as Edwards went on eight minutes beyond her allotted five-minute slot.

Edwards avoided reporters, though, ducking into a back room, shielded by staff members, during a break in the hearing and again after it adjourned.

Her reticence came the same day as an interview appeared in the Detroit Free Press in which she described how she has tried to cope with her husband's 2006 affair and the recent press attention.

"The best thing for my children has been to lay low and to see public interest in this becomes less so it doesn't become a badge they have to wear," Edwards told the newspaper's medical writer. "As a mother I worry about that."

She is visiting Detroit next month as part of an ongoing effort to focus on health care reform.

This morning, Edwards also argued with U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, a Pennsylvania Republican, when he asked panelists about the costs of universal health care and how best to pay for it.

She suggested - as had her husband in his presidential campaign - rolling back President Bush's tax cut on wealthy taxpayers.

Murphy responded that the country's wealthy already pay most of the nation's taxes.

"That's an ideological argument," Edwards shot back.