The Edwards campaign's disclosure in today's papers that he held more than $7.5 million in investments in the Fortress Investment Group -- an outfit that owned offshore funds that served as tax havens for investors -- is almost certainly going to stoke keen interest among rivals and reporters in Edwards' past statements about such funds.

And wouldn't you know it, but one such statement has already popped up on YouTube. Here's Edwards, slamming offshore havens in 2004, during his debate with Veep Cheney:

Here's a transcript of Edwards' remarks:

"Offshore loopholes for companies avoiding taxes ought to be closed.? When the vice president was CEO of Halliburton, they took advantage of every offshore loophole available. They had multiple offshore companies that were avoiding taxes. Those are the kind of things that ought to be closed. They ought to be closed. They ought to be closed for anybody. They ought to be closed whether they're personal, and they ought to be closed whether they apply to a corporation.?"

While the current financial disclosures are likely to prompt rivals and reporters to do more digging into past Edwards quotes like these, it should be noted that Edwards spokesperson Kate Bedingfield has defended Edwards' involvement with Fortress by pointing out that the company recently ended the controversial practice when it went public.

"John Edwards believes offshore tax shelters are wrong," Bedingfield told the Washington Post recently. "As president, he will end them. By voluntarily going public, Fortress has ended the practice of using offshore tax shelters for deferred compensation and has committed itself to a whole set of transparency and disclosure obligations that no other hedge fund has committed itself to before."