The Gilded Age was a dark period in American politics, John Edwards recalls. Back before Teddy Roosevelt fought for reforms, he told a Nov. 26 town meeting in Bow, a few families wielded disproportionate power.

"The Rockefellers and the Mellons and the Carnegies, all these people, owned most of America or a big chunk of America and they

used their money and power to dominate what was happening in the government and to dominate what was happening in the economy," he said.

Edwards has often invoked Roosevelt on the stump as a hero and railed against the influence of money in politics. But at the same time, it appears that the pro-Edwards movement has had a huge infusion of cash from the old Mellon fortune.

Turns out, the labor-linked, pro-Edwards 527 that's been running ads in Iowa and spreading pamphlets in New Hampshire has deep-pocketed friends outside of unions.

The single largest donor to the Alliance for a New America, according to new FEC reports, is a mysterious LLC registered to New York City's high-end Essex House hotel. (We called the room listed as the source of the $495,000 check and got an automated voicemail: "The person in this room is not available to take your call. . .")

According to reporting elsewhere, the group, Oak Spring Farms LLC, is linked to New York lawyer and Edwards backer Alexander Forger, who holds power of attorney over 97-year-old Rachel Lambert Mellon, the daughter-in-law of industrialist and banker Andrew Mellon.

Mellon and her deceased husband, Paul, had a farm called Oak Spring; property records in Virginia refer to it as Oak Spring Farms LLC.

In 2006, when the New York Sun reported on a $250,000 contribution from Oak Spring Farms LLC to Edwards's One America Committee, Forger declined to say where the money came from.

"I'm simply acting on behalf of somebody else," he said then.

Edwards has made a campaign issue out of kicking special interests out of politics and often cites his pledge not to take any money from lobbyists. He's said he would outlaw 527s if he's elected.

The Alliance for a New America 527 is advised by Nick Baldick, who managed Edwards's 2004 campaign.

A two-front war

Mitt Romney has had a tough week. First, the Monitor's editorial board (of which we are not members) penned a scathing anti-endorsement of Romney that labeled the candidate a "phony." National headlines ensued.

The editorial, which you've probably read, included this: "If you followed only his campaign for president, you'd swear he was a red-meat conservative, pandering to the religious right, whatever the cost. Pay attention to both, and you're left to wonder if there's anything at all at his core."

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