Elizabeth Edwards has a neighbor "problem".

Monty Johnson, who lives on family property acquired before the great depression, is getting the cold shoulder from the Edwardses, recently moved into their palatial 28,000 square foot home on 102 wooded acres.

Apparently Monty's place isn't quite up to snuff and he has greeted trespassers gun-in-hand. Worst of all, Monty's a Republican and features a sign supporting Rudy Giuliani on a fence near the Edward's gated driveway.

Johnson, 55, acknowledges his Republican roots. But he takes offense to the suggestion he has purposefully left his property, including an old garage he leases for use as a car shop, in dilapidated condition.

Johnson said he has lived his entire life on the property, which he said his family purchased before the Great Depression. He said he's spent a lot of money to try and fix up the 42-acre tract.

"I have to budget. I have to live within my means," Johnson said. "I don't have millions of dollars to fix the place."

Elizabeth Edwards, whose cancer relapse has been a fund-raising bonanza for the Edward's campaign, doesn't expect she'll be too civil to Monty, whom she hasn't yet encountered in person.

"I wouldn't be nice to him, anyway," Edwards said in an interview. "I don't want my kids anywhere near some guy who, when he doesn't like somebody, the first thing he does is pull a gun out. It scares the business out of me."

During a recent unannounced visit to the Edwards estate, Mrs. Edwards greeted me somewhat differently:

Thank you, come again. Smithers, release the hounds.

As I was running for my life, I overheard her commenting:

What good is money if it can't inspire terror in your fellow man?

Wait a minute, that was Monty Burns, not Elizabeth Edwards. Nevertheless, the Edwards estate is posted with "no trespassing" signs. What do you think the chances of a little sight-seeing trip onto the Edwards' estate would generate an armed response? A "hound" response?

Ironically, Edwards announced his campaign in the backyard of a woman who lost her home in the Katrina hurricane. Poor people aren't so scary when they have a political advantage associated with them--sort of like cancer.

The problem will likely resolve itself though as Johnson is being forced by high taxes, to sell his property, probably to another rich Democrat.

"I thought he was supposed to be for the poor people," Johnson said. "But does he ever socialize with any poor people? He doesn't speak to me."

Johnson said he has put his property on the market, in part blaming the high property taxes for his decision to leave. He also wants to move for another reason.

"I don't want to live somewhere where someone's always complaining about me," he said.

Two Americas indeed.