Edwards latest tell-all nothing more than tabloid trash

When former Democratic vice-presidential nominee John Edwards admitted to his having an affair three years ago with his campaign videographer Rielle Hunter, yet denying the child she had was his, I was disgusted at hearing the news as anyone else.

It is one thing to commit adultery. It’s another when the husband commits adultery at the time his wife is battling terminal cancer.

That’s all, however, between John Edwards and God. It’s not my place to point out what he did was morally reprehensible. We all have our flaws. Nor was I, despite my intense dislike for the Democratic Party, going to use Edwards’ downfall to do a little Mexican hat dance on his political tombstone.

That is no doubt something conservative talk show hosts do, and they have been joined in the past two weeks by another Andrew Young with the release of his new book, “The Politician”, which reportedly goes into far greater detail about the Edwards’ affair.

I have heard the hard right citing the usual double standard whenever a Democrat gets caught literally with his pants down, the drive-by media attempt to shovel the scandal under the rug. When a Republican, however, gets caught, the exact opposite happens. Their name and reputation get dragged through the mud and many times they are forced to resign.

This is nothing new.

What bothers me, with the release of Young’s book, is it’s not newsworthy. OK, it’s newsworthy from a trashy standpoint. That’s something the conservative talk show circuit has no problem discussing when a liberal Democrat’s infidelities take center stage.

Edwards’ admittance of the three-year-old affair is not getting to the point of being like the Tiger Woods scandal. If there was anything funny about it about it, David Letterman would have a Top 10 list of reasons why John Edwards cheated on his wife and Saturday Night Live would do a controversial weekend skit.

Like the Tiger Woods scandal, Edwards’ downfall has gotten worse if you believe the allegations written in Young’s book. You, who was Edwards’ former aide during the 2008 presidential campaign, said in an article in People, the reason he authored the book was “so the truth can be told.”

Among the allegations briefly covered in Us Weekly, Edwards supposedly made a sex tape between he and Hunter in 2007. The tape is reportedly in Young’s safety deposit box should it be needed to corroborate his story in future investigations.

There is the story that Hunter told Young how she spent the night at the Edwards’ home while Elizabeth was out promoting her book back in 2006.

“The next morning, Hunter “slept while the senator made breakfast for the kids and then drove to school,” Young was quoted as saying in Us Weekly. That same year, Edwards told his wife that Hunter was a “one-night stand.” Of course, everyone now knows otherwise.

In 2007, when Edwards learned of Hunter’s pregnancy, he asked Young to persuade her to get an abortion, which the author refused.

When Hunter went into labor Feb. 26, 2008, she asked Young to call Edwards, who in turn refused to speak to her. A month later Edwards asked Young to get one of the baby’s dirty diapers so a DNA test could be done to prove whether or not he was the father. Edwards also wanted a fabricated DNA test in case it turned out he was the father.

“I was the guy to put out the fires,” Young said in People of his days working for Edwards’ campaign. “The guy he counted on.”

Elizabeth Edwards, on the other hand, was no angel either according to the Us Weekly article. She reportedly saw cancer diagnosis as a means to boost Edwards’ poll numbers, encouraging him to seek the presidency. This, despite the fact she knew of the affair and chances of the scandal sinking the entire campaign.

New comes the torrid news, from the National Enquirer, that Edwards beat his wife during a marital spat.

There are only two things that are true now. Edwards finally admitted on Jan. 21 that he is the father of 23-month-old Frances Quinn Hunter. “It was wrong for me…to deny she was my daughter,” Edwards said.

The other is that Edwards’ 32-year marriage is now over, with Elizabeth calling it quits.

“She (Elizabeth) said I’ve had it. I can’t do this. I want my life back,” said Elizabeth’s sister Nancy Anania in People. “A long marriage is a tough habit to break, and you throw in incurable cancer and young children, it makes you waiver. But I heard peace in her voice that I haven’t heard in a long time.”

I have seen "The Politician" displayed at bookstores, and I do not intend to waste money on it. I also have no intention of even browsing through it out of sheer curiosity.

Young’s book is tabloid trash. I equate with the that of The Starr Report: The Findings of Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr on President Clinton and the Lewinsky Affair” published back in 1998.

Edwards’ scandal may not be equal to the sperm-stained blue dress that almost sunk a presidency. However, all the tawdry little tidbits we’ve heard about since then are enough to make sleazy comparisons to that huge piece of evidence that plagued President Clinton.

©2/16/10