All This Is That National Affairs Editor
You'd think the recent disgrace of Governor Mark Sanford and Senator John Ensign's sex scandals might take some of the heat off John Edwards. At the moment, it seems to have ratcheted up the scrutiny, since the Edwards case goes much deeper--involving paternity, a dying wife, and possible payoffs.
Andrew Young, one of ex-Senator John Edwards's closest aides, is writing a book in which he says Edwards told him he “would be taken care of for life” if he would say that he fathered the baby of Edwards’s girlfriend, Rielle Hunter. The aide (who is not the former ambassador), sold the book to St. Martin’s Press last week. In his proposal, Young says Edwards begged him to confess to fathering the baby.
Hunter and Edwards on the campaign trail
“You know how much I love you," Edwards told Young. "You know I’d walk off a cliff for you, and I know you’d walk off a cliff for me. ” Parts of this story were leaked by someone at the publisher to both the NY Times and the NY Daily News last weekend.
Rielle and baby
In the meantime, feds are looking at whether to prosecute John Edwards if it turns out campaign funds were funneled as hush money to Rielle Hunter or Andrew Young. In 2007, you may recall, Young's attorney said his client was the father just before the Iowa caucus season.
The biggest bombshell appeared in a New York Times article today: Young’s proposal states he was writing the book because he had become disillusioned with the Senator's recklessness after finding a sex tape starring John Edwards and Rielle Hunter. It should be a good one--how many sex tapes are actually filmed by a cinematographer?! How long can it be before the tape appears on the Internet, if it's not out there already? As for Edwards's relationship with his wife--as she said, "it's complicated."
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