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No, it's not a storyline on "Guiding Light" (RIP) -- but rather the latest chapter in the John Edwards mistress scandal. The guy who once claimed he was the father of the child born to Edwards' mistress, Rielle Hunter, is now claiming Edwards is the real daddy (duh!) and that Edwards once promised Hunter he would marry her after his wife died (she's sick with cancer) -- this according to a book proposal obtained by the NY Times. Andrew Young, Edwards' former aide, claims Edwards told Hunter it would be a rooftop wedding and the Dave Matthews Band would make...

NYDN: Former presidential candidate John Edwards is out of luck if he hoped that the extramarital affairs of Gov. Mark Sanford and Sen. John Ensign would take people's minds off his own cheating scandal.

The man who once claimed to be the father of Rielle Hunter's baby, Andrew Young, is shopping an explosive tell-all which will rock John Edwards' cover-up, confirming previous ENQUIRER investigations, according to reports.

John Edwards' marriage is over, The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively. His cancer-stricken wife Elizabeth kicked him out of their bedroom more than two years ago when he confessed to cheating on her, and the two are now living apart, sources say.

The news that federal prosecutors are investigating John Edwards' presidential campaign payments to his mistress brings a sense of satisfaction. The phoniest man in American politics is finally getting the comeuppance he so richly deserves. With his $400 haircuts and investments in predatory lenders, all while saying ending poverty was a "moral issue" and the "cause of my life," Edwards set new standards for hypocrisy as he sought the Democratic nomination. His contrived compassion was a joke among rivals. And that was before we learned he had an affair with a campaign aide. Yet any sense of justice served is...

Asked if she is still in love with her husband, Elizabeth Edwards told Oprah Winfrey “that's a complicated question.” And when Winfrey asked about marriage, Edwards said, “Neither one of us is out the door so I guess it's day by day, but maybe it's month-by-month.” Edwards' appearance on Oprah Thursday marks her most extensive public comments since former Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. John Edwards acknowledged an affair last summer. Winfrey interviewed both Edwards at their sprawling, 28,000-foot Chapel Hill home. Her publicists released a partial transcript Tuesday of what they called “a no-holds-barred conversation, where no topic...

RALEIGH Federal investigators are sifting through the records of money that helped John Edwards' presidential campaign to determine if any was used to keep quiet his affair with Rielle Hunter. Edwards, a Democrat and former U.S. senator, acknowledged the investigation to The News & Observer. “I am confident that no funds from my campaign were used improperly,” Edwards said in a statement. “However, I know that it is the role of government to ensure that this is true. We have made available to the United States both the people and the information necessary to help them get the issue resolved...

In her new memoir, Resilience, John Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, said she was sick to her stomach when her husband confessed his affair with videographer Rielle Hunter. She writes, "I cried and screamed, I went to the bathroom and threw up." Which is probably the same way her husband reacted when the National Enquirer broke the story of his affair and chased him through a parking garage at the Beverly Hilton. Elizabeth, who has an incurable cancer, said Hunter seduced her husband by telling him he was "so hot" and that though John confessed the affair to her in 2006, he...

John Edwards Affair/Scandal: Rielle Hunter Back in New Jersey It's the East Coast for Frances Quinn The National Enquirer's reporting that Rielle Hunter has left her fancy digs in Santa Barbara for something a little more plebian: New Jersey The Enquirer had previously broke the story about how Hunter, John Edwards' mistress, and love child/daughter, Frances Quinn, were receiving hush money payments of $15,000 a month from Fred Baron--who was Edwards' campaign finance chairman. When Baron suddenly passed away from a lethal cancer on October 30, the $15K payments to the Hunters stopped. After her $15,000 monthly payments stopped with...

Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards will make his first public appearance since admitting in August that he had an extramarital affair while pursuing his party’s nomination. The Associated Press reported that Edwards will appear tonight at Indiana University to discuss the 2008 election and participate in a question and answer session. “Edwards will dissect the general election results and forecast how they will affect the state of political discourse, the American economy and the plight of working families,” a release from the university states, “He will also weave stories from his experience running for president into his analysis, describing...

IS it over between John Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth? "The wedding band is missing," the Washington Post reported yesterday after covering a speech the cancer-stricken mother of two gave in DC on Monday night. Edwards, the former North Carolina senator who ran for president twice, finally acknowledged three months ago that he had an affair with campaign videographer Rielle Hunter. He denies he's the father of Hunter's baby girl, although he has been spotted visiting mother and child. A source said Edwards is no longer living with Elizabeth and that the couple have separated. But reps for Elizabeth Edwards...

Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said Thursday he will not speak at any public engagements until after the November election, extending an exile that began last month after he admitted to an extramarital affair. "Nothing is more important than electing Barack Obama and Joe Biden," Edwards said in a statement released by his speaking agency. "I don't want my appearance at these events to be a distraction from the important issues of the election, or from the important purpose of these meetings." Edwards had been scheduled to speak next week at Hofstra University in New York. That speech was...

How much did Elizabeth Edwards, John Edwards’ wife, know about his affair with Rielle Hunter and when did she know it? Edwards has said that he told his wife about the affair “at the end of 2006” and that everything ended after that. Indeed, within days of the end of 2006, Web videos produced by Hunter about Edwards disappeared from his campaign Web site and from YouTube. Sources tell me that it was indeed Elizabeth Edwards who had the videos pulled down when she saw them. The theory among Edwards campaign insiders is that she finally put two and two...

SALEM - Less than a month after a sex scandal sent former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards in to political exile, the ex-North Carolina senator and his wife, Elizabeth, have pulled out of a speaking engagement at Salem State College. The couple had been scheduled to appear as part of the college’s popular Speaker Series on Sept. 23 to discuss the upcoming presidential election and Elizabeth Edwards’ battle with cancer.

John Edwards, the Democrats’ 2004 vice presidential nominee who unsuccessfully sought the top spot on the party’s ticket this year, is like the man who never was among party leaders gathered in Denver. Edwards, the one-term North Carolina senator whose 2008 candidacy ended in January, admitted in early August, after a lot of tabloid disclosures, that he had been carrying on an extramarital affair with a campaign aide even as his wife, Elizabeth, was battling cancer. He also admitted that he had repeatedly lied about it. It still isn’t clear if he fathered an out of wedlock child during the...

DENVER - Texas Rep. Chet Edwards, who was on the four-person short list of potential Barack Obama running mates, said Sunday the front-page scandal involving former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards hurt his chances of getting on the ticket. “I would have to think that a bumper sticker that said 'Obama/The Other Edwards' might have been a bit difficult,” Edwards said Sunday after visiting a Veterans Administration hospital upon arrival in Denver for the Democratic National Convention. Chet Edwards (not related to the former North Carolina senator) said he was notified Aug. 10 that he was on Obama's short list...

ExclusiveJohn Edwards calling former staffers asking for forgiveness By THOMAS M. DeFRANK DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF Updated Tuesday, August 26th 2008, 12:07 AM   DENVER - John Edwards is burning up the phone lines, begging former aides and backers to forgive him for lying about his affair - but hearing their rage instead.As Democrats kick off their convention Monday, the onetime presidential contender is a man without a party - or a political future - trying to rebuild bridges through dozens of remorseful phone calls.It's proving a hard sell with onetime true believers. CLICK TO SEE A PHOTO...

DENVER - John Edwards is burning up the phone lines, begging former aides and backers to forgive him for lying about his affair - but hearing their rage instead. As Democrats kick off their convention Monday, the onetime presidential contender is a man without a party - or a political future - trying to rebuild bridges through dozens of remorseful phone calls. It's proving a hard sell with onetime true believers. Many are bitter and disillusioned after swallowing his lies about his affair with a campaign staffer and vouching for his credibility with friends and journalists. Some ignore his plaintive...

One-time Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards promised his mistress they would reunited once his cancer-stricken wife died, the National Enquirer reported. The Enquirer - which first broke word of the Edwards scandal - also reported that mistress Rielle Hunter refuses to make Edwards take a paternity test because she fears it will jeopardize their future. Edwards, who admitted the affair earlier this month after repeated denials, remains in contact with Hunter even now, according to the Enquirer. The North Carolina politician called her after his Aug. 8 confession on national television, reportedly telling her: "We'll be together when Elizabeth is...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I want to spend a little time here, just a brief moment, on the Breck Girl. This is a story, ladies and gentlemen, not going away. People ask me, "Rush, it's over. What's the big deal? Why stick with Edwards?" This is a multilayered story, and to illustrate this, I am holding in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers (shuffling paper) a printed copy of an article by the illustrious Walter Shapiro writing at Salon.com. Walter Shapiro is a Drive-Byer, and he used to write for USA Today. "After covering John Edwards -- and liking him -- for years,...

Another issue of the National Enquirer, another round of sordid allegations about the extent to which John Edwards is lying about his affair with Rielle Hunter. The four new pieces: • Edwards didn't confess until after a campaign staffer walked in on him and Hunter having an "intimate moment" in hotel room. Word eventually got to Elizabeth Edwards, who then confronted John, who then admitted the whole thing. But this all happened after he'd already declared his candidacy for the presidency. • The whole public tango over the DNA test, with Edwards saying he wants one and Hunter saying she...

An anguished Elizabeth Edwards decided to stay with her cheating husband because she is dying and worried about their two young children, her closest friend says. "It's just tragic. That's all I can say about it," Hargrave McElroy, Elizabeth's best friend, told the Daily News. In a longer interview with People magazine, McElroy, a North Carolina teacher, said John Edwards didn't confess his adultery with his flaky videographer, Rielle Hunter, until after he officially announced his presidential run in December 2006. Then Elizabeth had a terrible choice to make. "There was anguish - excruciating anguish - for her in dealing...

A Texas publicist who says she was Rielle Hunter's confidant when her secret affair began with John Edwards is convinced the ex-senator fathered her friend's baby. "She would not have a child with someone that she didn't love - and she loves him," said Pigeon O'Brien, who says she was pals with Hunter for 20 years until they lost touch a year ago. As "who's the daddy" speculation persisted, the National Enquirer reported last night that Edwards lied when he told the nation - and his sick wife - that he ended the "short" affair in 2006. Edwards renewed the...

Former presidential hopeful John Edwards' mistress grew up in Florida with a dad who once found himself in the FBI's sights. Born Lisa Druck in Fort Lauderdale, Rielle Hunter didn't leave much of a footprint there. Or on the Central Florida community of Ocala, where she went to high school. Or Tampa, where she went to college. Correction: A previous version of this story said James Druck died in 1992. Her father, however, did leave a legacy in this state. An ugly one. Quoting an FBI informant shortly after James Druck's death in 1990, Sports Illustrated named him a figure...

John Edwards is done. The pretty-boy candidate always was the biggest phony at any Democratic debate. He was the $400-haircut poster boy for poverty. The 28,000-square-foot mansion owner, who preached about global warming. The candidate who demanded that other Democrats swear off accepting contributions from Fox News baron Rupert Murdoch, after he pocketed a $500,000 advance - with an extra $300,000 for expenses - from Murdoch's Harper Collins. The man who ran as the doting husband of the cancer-battling Elizabeth Edwards while he was boffing an overpaid campaign aide. If I were a Democrat, I would be spittin' mad. If...

The woman John Edwards admitted to having an affair with made disparaging comments about Edwards' wife Elizabeth in an interview two years ago, says the New York Post. Talking to Newsweek reporter Jonathan Darman in late 2006, Rielle Hunter reportedly said, "[Elizabeth] does not give off good energy," and accused: "She didn't make eye contact with me." Hunter, a filmmaker, was documenting Edwards' presidential campaign at the time. She spoke with Newsweek's Darman after getting fired, reportedly telling him of Elizabeth: "Someday, the truth about her is going to come out." When Darman spoke again with Hunter last summer, she...

RALEIGH, N.C. - There were few people closer to John Edwards during his presidential campaigns than Fred Baron, a renowned Texas trial lawyer who evolved into one of the Democratic Party’s key fund-raisers. Baron, who made his fortune as a celebrated litigator on asbestos-injury cases before turning his attention to Democratic presidential tickets, was part of Edwards’ inner circle of advisers. But when it came to one key financial decision, Baron said he chose to keep the former senator out of the loop. On Friday, after Edwards confessed to having an affair with Rielle Hunter, a video producer with whom...

His $400 haircut was the first clue that this guy was a first-class narcissist Just around the time the above photo was taken, during the hotly contested primaries, John's ex-girlfriend was giving birth to a baby girl who, he claims, is not his even though he paid the mother hush money to keep it all quiet. After denying any shenanigans and bad-mouthing the media for perpetuating hurtful rumors, the dummy went on the tube and admitted that he had had an affair after all. This proves, by the way, that the National Enquirer now can boast that it employs one...

It was the encounter that would unceremoniously hoist former Sen. John Edwards' extramarital affair into full public view: a visit last month with the woman and her baby at her room at a hotel in Beverly Hills where Edwards was confronted by reporters for the National Enquirer as he tried to leave the building. At the center of that now fateful episode at the Beverly Hilton was Robert McGovern, a California resident described as a spiritual healer of 20 years and a friend and former associate of the woman with whom Edwards has admitted having the affair, Rielle Hunter. In...

The confession of John Edwards was, to me, worthy of attention for a few reasons, but not worthy of endless analysis. The guy's chances at being Obama's running mate or attorney general are shot to hell. Having said that... there are at least two glaring questions that suggest Edwards' explanation consists of additional lies. (Besides his claim that the affair started after she was hired by his PAC, and not before, which appears to be contradicted by the PAC billing records.) If the affair ended in 2006, why were Edwards and Hunter meeting in the Beverly Hills Hilton from 10...

Saturday, Hunter's lawyer, Robert Gordon, issued a statement saying, “Rielle will not participate in DNA testing or any other invasion of her or her daughter's privacy now or in the future." JohnedwardssonSo I guess Edwards is pretty much off the hook on that offer to take a paternity test. Is that why he so freely offered to take one? But Edwards better not make her angry... oh, maybe by not giving her what she wants, forgetting her birthday, not paying enough attention to her, or by not marrying her in a few years... She could so change her mind. Talk...

John Edwards lied when he denied his affair. Now he’s asking the nation to take his word that he’s revealed everything. But the strange behavior of Edwards and those around him, coupled with the backlog of other tabloid allegations, raise many unanswered questions. Three weeks ago, for instance, the National Enquirer confronted John Edwards at 2:40 a.m. leaving his mistress' hotel room in Beverly Hills, allegedly after visiting their so-called love child. Shortly afterward, FOXNews.com confirmed Edwards indeed had been escorted from a hotel bathroom by security guards who witnessed his sprint from reporters. In the days that followed, Edwards...

John Edwards, the Democrats' 2004 vice-presidential candidate and a potential Cabinet member for Barack Obama, tonight admitted that he had consistently lied about having an affair. Mr Edwards had been dogged by internet gossip, fuelled by anonymously sourced stories in the supermarket tabloid The National Enquirer, that he had an affair last year with Rielle Hunter, a film-maker, while running for president. It was also rumoured that he had fathered an illegitimate child in the relationship, an allegation he continued to deny in an interview with ABC News. In the interview Edwards confesses that he did have an affair with...

ABC Radio news just announced Sen. John Edwards will admit to the affair with Rielle Hunter in an interview with the network, but insists the child is not his. We return you to your regularly-scheduled FReeping.

Big-name Democrats don't know if John Edwards really has a love child - but some think he's definitely got a problem. For two weeks since renewed but unproven reports that he fathered an illegitimate daughter appeared in the National Enquirer, Edwards has kept silent other than to denounce "tabloid trash." Bad move, party pros say: His role at the Democratic convention, just 17 days away - and his political future - are now in peril. "The political consequences of leaving something like this unattended are fairly severe," said ex-Democratic National Committee Chairman Don Fowler. "If no response is made, it...

<p>Commentary: Is it any wonder that nobody buys newspapers any more?</p> <p>LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The scandal over former Sen. John Edwards' alleged fathering of a love child is rapidly being surpassed by a greater travesty -- not one single major media organization in the U.S is covering the story.</p>

‘We’re working off our timetable, not yours,” says David Perel, editor of The National Enquirer. “I’m not letting other media drive the story for us.” Perel is talking about the issue of whether the Enquirer should have published, by now, photos of a July 22 confrontation in a Los Angeles hotel between its reporters and former Sen. John Edwards. Edwards had, the Enquirer reported, come to the Beverly Hilton to see a woman named Rielle Hunter, with whom he has had an affair and a baby. In an almost surreal scene described on the Enquirer’s website, Edwards was said to...

Clark Stooksbury thinks I have gone around the bend by endorsing media coverage of the John Edwards love child scandal. Excerpt: So presumably, Kaus/Dreher wants the media to shove camera and microphone into the face of a mother and infant and demand to know who the little girl's father is. It occurs to me that they both are employed by organizations with the resources to pursue such a story, so I don't see why they are waiting around for other media outlets to do what they could be doing. Now, now, I don't direct the newsgathering of the Dallas Morning...

RALEIGH, N.C. — Former Sen. John Edwards has a deadline to save his spot on the national stage. With two weeks to go before their national convention, a number of Democrats are saying that Edwards needs to publicly address National Enquirer stories that have alleged he had an affair with a campaign worker and fathered her baby. If Edwards fails to clear up the story in short order, he risks party officials deciding not to have him speak or, if they do, creating a distraction from a week focused on Barack Obama accepting the nomination. "If there is not an...

ONLY HIS HAIR DRESSER KNOWS FOR SURE!August 6, 2008 The mainstream media's reaction to the National Enquirer's reports on John Edwards' "love child" scandal has been reminiscent of the Soviet press. Edwards' name has simply been completely whitewashed out of the news. Say, why isn't anyone talking about John Edwards for vice president anymore? No, seriously –- hey! Why are we going to a commercial break? I suspect that if I tried to look up coverage of the Democratic primaries in Nexis news archives, Edwards' name will have disappeared from the debates. By next week, Edwards won't have been John...

Too hilarious — here's John Edwards accepting an award for Father of the Year. Edwards accepted this award a little less than 9 months before his mistress Rielle Hunter gave birth the Breck Girl's apparent love child, Frances Quinn Hunter. Too bad they don't give awards for the Cheesy Philandering Phony of the Year. On a tip from Simon.

Why should the mainstream media get off its butt and cover the Silky Pony's love child scandal? Mickey Kaus makes a persuasive case. Excerpt: Edwards was certainly a contender for VP, or a big cabinet post like Attorney General, or even the Supreme Court, before the scandal first erupted in the "undernews" in late 2007. Some reporters say he was still on Obama's VP list until quite recently. If he's now finished as far as those big jobs are concerned, it's in large part because of this scandal, which Obama might never have learned about if everyone had followed the...

The MSM are still getting killed on the story of John Edwards and his relationship to racy blonde Rielle Hunter - or should I say his relationship to Hunter's love child? Check out this comprehensive piece by mondoreb from the Blogger News Network. There are a few interesting wrinkles. The first concerns pack journalism. Mondoreb reports: "Because of those 'vigorous denials from campaign staffers,' not one reporter posed the question to Edwards that DBKP kept repeating, 'Do you deny that you've been in telephone contact with Rielle Hunter since she found out she was pregnant?' Did the reporters on the...

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine: Slip Sliding Away Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards slipped out the back door of yet another hotel on Wednesday. The Raleigh News and Observer reports that Edwards was in Washington for an AARP Foundation symposium at Hotel Monaco and avoided reporters for the second time in as many weeks. He escaped through a fourth-floor side area used by kitchen staff, and then through a handicap ramp at the rear of the hotel. Edwards refused to answer reporters' questions about a story in the National Enquirer that says he visited a woman...

WASHINGTON -- Only three weeks ago, John Edwards fielded media questions on his chances of filling the vice-presidential slot on Democrat Barack Obama's ticket or a Cabinet position in his administration. On Wednesday, the former U.S. senator, presidential candidate and 2004 vice-presidential nominee refused to answer questions that took a tabloid turn. About a dozen reporters and photojournalists attended a speech Edwards gave to an AARP Foundation symposium on poverty and aging in Washington. Afterward, he avoided a crowd of waiting reporters, at least some of whom wanted to question him about recent reports in the National Enquirer that alleged...

Is University of North Carolina alum and former professional basketball player Eric Montross the rich pal of onetime presidential hopeful John Edwards who is (allegedly) paying off both his (alleged) mistress Rielle Hunter and the guy who is taking responsibility for her bastard baby? This certainly falls under the umbrella of "Wildly Speculative," but let's look at the facts: Yesterday, the Enquirer reported that a "wealthy colleague who was closely tied to the Edwards campaign" has been funneling $15,000 dollars a month to Hunter in hush money, as well as an undisclosed sum to Andrew Young, the former Edwards aide...

Refusing to call it quits despite being dissed by mainstream media, The National Enquirer has released more scandalous John Edwards allegations! The celebrity gossip tabloid reports that Edwards’ alleged mistress / baby-mama, Rielle Hunter (also known as Lisa Druck), will not say a word about their affair and love child because she’s being paid to zip it - $15,000 a month! The money is reportedly being funneled to Hunter by a colleague of John Edwards, the former U.S. Senator from North Carolina, 2004 Democratic Vice Presidential nominee (running with John Kerry) and 2008 presidential candidate. This same man is also...

Elsewhere on the Internet you can find postings about a story in the National Enquirer about former Sen. John Edwards, alleging unpleasantness about his personal life. You can also find a story by FOX News that purports to confirm a small portion of that National Enquirer story. The allegations concern the kinds of moral and ethical issues I frequently blog about, but I haven't written about these and I'm not going to do so here. Why? It's not because I'm an Edwards fan. It's because I still think that standards still matter in journalism. My screed is at the jump....