John Edwards: Preternaturally Prevaricating Pathological Pol

CNN's Anderson Cooper impressively and impassively nailed Edwards against the wall last night on 360. Great job!

Edwards hypocrisy thus far: 2006: Edwards meets Rielle Hunter (real name Lisa Druck) in NY bar. Edwards hires her at $114,000 a year to produce videos pimping Edwards as a caring human. 2007: Edwards knocks up Miz Hunter who gives birth in Feb. 2008. October 2007: The National Enquirer runs first Edwards affair story. The official spin is that an ex-NC married campaign dude is the baby daddy. June 2008: Enquirer reporters stake out Beverly Hilton and ambush Edwards coming out of Rielle and the baby's hotel room at 2:40 a.m.

"Ken Doll In Lust" Gail Collins NYT: "For a man bent on clearing things up, Edwards seemed strangely incurious during his interview on “Nightline” on ABC. He had no idea why his national finance chairman has been funneling payments to his ex-mistress, and he was apparently never tempted to pick up the phone to ask. His 2 a.m. visit with the woman, Rielle Hunter, at a Beverly Hills hotel last month was a secret mission to keep her from going public about their liaison, the briefness and meaninglessness of which cannot be stressed too often. And he has no idea what baby that was in The National Enquirer picture."

NYDN: There was gloating galore at The National Enquirer when John Edwards finally copped to cheating on his cancer-stricken wife with video vixen Rielle Hunter, as the supermarket tabloid had reported."What was it you said about The Enquirer's journalistic chops when the mainstream media was silent?" the gleeful tab wrote on its Web site.
"Oh, yeah - 'Tabloid Trash.'"

"David Perel, editor of The Enquirer, said on CNN that money was also “being funneled” to a former aide to Mr. Edwards, Andrew Young, who has said that he was the father of the baby. Mr. Perel said that Mr. Young lived in a $5.4 million house, also in Santa Barbara, 'with no visible means of support.'" NYT

"The Late John Edwards" NYDN: Democrats sure must be thanking their lucky stars it is not John Edwards they picked to bear their standard. And, if Edwards ever was on the short list for Barack Obama's veep job, he is there no longer. Confirming the prescience of those who saw Edwards as a man of transparently phony piety - good son of the sawmill, devoted family man, clasping his sick wife's hand as the violins played and the white doves flew - here now is a man forced to admit to a reckless marital infidelity, one he has been denying for weeks. Here now is a man who went happily philandering as he was about to start a run for the White House - and who gave his sexual partner a job and paid her out of campaign funds. And then had the gall to ask Democrats to vote for him on the false pretense that he was an honest man - and despite the fact that his candidacy was doomed.

"What's the level below 'toast'?" NYDN

"A creepy cad who played at being a devoted husband" NYDN "I diddled, but didn't daddy - John Edwards insists" "Edwards Admits Sexual Affair; Lied As Presidential Candidate" ABC News "Edwards: I Started To Believe I Was Special" KNBC TV "Edwards Admits He Had Affair After Heated Denials" AP "John Edwards Admits Having An Affair. But Former Democratic Candidate Denies Fathering A Child With The Woman" CBS News "OK, I did have sex with that woman, admits John Edwards" NYDN

Edwards's wacko "confession" May still go to the Dem convention. Politico [He's delusional]
"Democrats Move Quick to Lessen Damage of John Edwards Affair. Sen. Barack Obama Says Edwards Will Not Have a Convention Role" ABC News

NYP Page Six: We hate to say we told you so, and we normally never reveal the identities in our blind items, but in light of John Edwards' finally admitting he had an extramarital affair, we bring your attention to our "Just asking" item of Aug. 27, 2007: "WHICH political candidate enjoys visiting New York because he has a girlfriend who lives downtown? The pol tells her he'll marry her when his current wife is out of the picture." Top Democrats have been assiduously following the Edwards scandal and don't believe his denial, which was issued last year, before he was caught visiting Rielle Hunter in a Beverly Hills hotel. "Even his friends believe the Enquirer stories," said one source. But Edwards is said to be blind to the damage his reputation has suffered and to still be angling for a big White House job if Barack Obama is elected. "He is such an egomaniac, he thinks he can be attorney general."

"LUSTY LIES OF DON JUAN JOHN 'FESSES TO LOWDOWN AFFAIR" NYP "Other Woman Was Life Of The Party In NY Before She Went BEDWARDS" NYDN: "John Edwards' former babe inspired lusty, party-girl character in novel"

JOHN EDWARDS, SLEAZE: He admitted he hadn't been fully honest when he denied reports of the affair. "When a supermarket tabloid told a version of the story, I used the fact that the story contained many falsities to deny it," Edwards said. "Being 99 percent honest is no longer enough." He had lied, in other words - but only by 1 percent. Which, we suppose, is like being just a little, uh, pregnant. Speaking of pregnant, by the way, Hunter did give birth this year to a baby girl. Edwards denies being the father; it's his business, of course, and maybe he's not. But why should anyone believe anything this guy says? Want hypocrisy? Consider what the two-timing former senator had to say about Bill Clinton's philandering: "I think this president has shown a remarkable disrespect for his office, for the moral dimensions of leadership, for his friends, for his wife, for his precious daughter. It is breathtaking to me the level to which that disrespect has risen."

Wash Post