John Edwards and Rielle Hunter: the long, slow slide into obscurity begins

illustration from Co-Ed Magazine

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

This is our last posting on Ex-Senator John Edwards, in order to let him drift into the obscurity he so richly deserves. . .like the old televisions in the 50's and 60's. . .when you turned them off, the picture collapsed to a small dot in the center of the screen that slowly faded away. John Edwards has hinted that he intends to carve out some sort of public role for himself, but that's the same delusional thinking that led to his current predicament. It's time to air the stench out of All This Is That.

According to today's Daily News, "John Edwards didn't confess his adultery with his flaky videographer, Rielle Hunter, until after he officially announced his presidential run in December 2006."

The National Enquirer reports that "Edwards didn't confess until after an unwitting campaign staffer walked in on him with Hunter and word got back to his wife, who confronted him." They further report: "They broke up a bunch of times, especially when Elizabeth was rediagnosed [with cancer]," a friend of Hunter's, Texas publicist Pigeon O'Brien, told People. "But they got back together."

And a "bombshell" that will surprise no one who has followed the story: "sources close to Hunter say that Edwards and his mistress choreographed their public tango over a DNA test: he offered to take one last week, she declined to allow it. "They worked that out together in advance," a source described only as "an insider" told the Enquirer. "She's still protecting John because she loves him and thinks they may eventually have a future together."
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The Enquirer says that John Edwards is only hinting at the truth

Rielle and John in happier days

"SEX, MORE LIES & VIDEOTAPE

"The ENQUIRER has uncovered bombshell new details about the John Edwards sex scandal after the former presidential candidate finally admitted he'd cheated on his cancer-stricken wife Elizabeth!Edwards' headline-making admission confirmed The ENQUIRER's blockbuster world exclusive reports detailing his affair, in articles Edwards brazenly called "completely untrue" and "tabloid trash" while running for president and afterward."

"John Edwards is still lying!" a close source told The ENQUIRER. "He lied to his wife Elizabeth, he's lying to Rielle
and he lied all the way through his TV interview!"

"And now The ENQUIRER has uncovered that Edwards' political operatives are still paying his mistress Rielle Hunter - and she was whisked away on a private jet two days before he confessed their extramarital affair on national TV! The ENQUIRER has also confirmed that Edwards secretly visited Rielle and their love child three separate times at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles this year - a fact that proves he is still lying to America and his wife."



"ENQUIRER reporters caught Edwards, 55, making a late-night visit to 44-year-old Rielle and their daughter at the hotel on July 21 - which prompted us to release the first-ever photograph of him with his love child last week. " Read the entire story here.
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John Edwards: Meet the Press

The mainstream media hung fire when it was a "National Enquirer story," but now that he's let the cat out of the bag, those very same journalists seem to be rather enjoying the drawing and quartering of John Edwards

click to enlarge

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John Edwards to take DNA Test in hopes of tamping down baby mama story?

John Edwards and his alleged girlfriend/baby mama Rielly Hunter

This John Edwards-Rielle Hunter love child matter keeps simmering, and spattering, on the back burner. There isn't enough evidence for the mainstream media to do much with the story, but the Republican and Neocon and tabloid blogs make up for their caution. Senator, how will you put this to rest without taking a DNA test, and maybe then slapping the National Enquirer with a big defamation suit that you could even prosecute yourself, After all,
win, lose, or draw on the love-child allegations. . .your goose is cooked, politically. . .no matter how it turns out in the end. In short, you have nothing to lose, Senator Edwards.

The evidence is shaky enough that The Wikipedia won't even let people edit a John Edwards article. And it has had some edits these last couple of weeks, you can bet on that.


click to enlarge

I don't see any way around a DNA test. John Edwards already said he didn't do it. Rielle said he didn't do it. Andrew Young said he is the father. And the story keeps circulating. The story seems so improbable, and his early denunciations so vehement that you had to guess that there was nothing there (but then how many politicians--except Elliott Spitzer--'fess up right away? On the other hand, the National Enquirer did find him in a Los Angeles Hotel, skulking around at 2:45 AM, and even hiding in the bathroom...and this is from an impartial, Non-Enquirer worker at the hotel. We have yet to see a photo or video however.

Three weeks ago, he was bandied about in the mainstream media as a strong VP candidate, and if not the VP, then Attorney General. We haven't heard any more about that lately. This has to put Obama in something of a pickle too.

John Edwards, this silence thing is not working very well for you. It's time to go to the mats and fight the story, or to drop your ambitions and walk away from it forever. If the story is true, you are lower than a snake's sphincter, and if it's false then you deserve to make life miserable for your false accusers. It's one or the other now; the story isn't going away.

It just struck me that if Andrew Young is the father, and the child has now been born, wouldn't a photo possibly clear this up (or put the lie to the Young paternity story)? Andrew Young is African-American, after all, and wouldn't that at least give some credence to the story...whichever way you are swinging with it?
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National Enquirer new claim: Rielle Hunter is receiving $15,000 a month hush money/child support from John Edwards' pal

John Edwards with his "other" family?

In an "exclusive," [ed's note: of course anything fictional would be exclusive] the NATIONAL ENQUIRER claims that John Edwards’ purported girfriend and mother of his “love child,” Rielle Hunter, is secretly receiv­ing $15,000 a month "as part of an elaborate cover-up orchestrated by the former presidential contender."



The money is purportedly funneled to Rielle Hunter by a wealthy colleague who was involved in the Edwards’ campaign. "This same man is also shoveling cash to Edwards’ pal and former aide Andrew Young – who tried to take the heat off the ex-Senator by claiming he is the father of Rielle’s baby."
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Does the paternity of Rielle Hunter's baby determine our next Attorney General?

Rielle Hunter

Well, even the National Enquirer is right sometimes, although I hope not in this case. I have been looking forward to John Edwards as Attorney General. If he has been caught with his pants down like this, I suspect we'll know the truth in a couple of days. If this affair and baby are true, how long did he really think he could pull the wool over our eyes? I dunno...he's just seems too smart to be this stupid.
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Attorney General John Edwards

I have never even considered this prospect. . .but it is a tantalizing one. John Edwards would be an incredible ass-kicking attorney general. In my booklet, he'd be way up there. . .with the likes of Ramsey Clark, and Bobby Kennedy. He would be pro-labor, and pro La Raza, and a genuine force to be reckoned with who would not shy away from the tough fights.

According to Robert Novak: "Illinois Democrats close to Sen. Barack Obama are quietly passing the word that John Edwards will be named attorney general in an Obama administration. Installation at the Justice Department of multimillionaire trial lawyer Edwards would please not only the union leaders supporting him for president but organized labor in general. The unions relish the prospect of an unequivocal labor partisan as the nation's top legal officer. In public debates, Obama and Edwards often seem to bond together in alliance against front-running Sen. Hillary Clinton."
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Huckabee & Obama take the Iowa contest

click the winners to enlarge

Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama took the Republican and Democratic caucus votes in Iowa on Wednesday, and in the Democratic race, left Joe Biden and Christopher Dodd on the sidelines, as they dropped out of the race. Mitt Romney is sweating. Hillary Clinton "the electable one" is really sweating. John Edwards feels OK. He survived another day. Rudy? McCain? Richardson? The rest of the pack? Hanging on by their fingernails, or mired in the back where they've always been...

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Obama climbing...with one day to go to the Iowa caususes

click to enlarge Obama, Edwards, and Clinton

Barack Obama pulls in 32 percent of likely Democratic caucusgoers, up from 28 percent in the Des Moines Register's late November poll, while Hillary Clinton, held steady at 25 percent and Ex-Senator John Edwards held at 24 percent. This leaves Hillary with a fair shot at coming in third. The poll reflects continued insanity and volatility in the contest, even now the year of campaigning In Iowa is over. One third of likely caucusgoers say they could be persuaded to choose someone else before Thursday evening!!!
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John Edwards takes a final swipe at Sen. Barack Obama, who he says may be living in never-never land

click to enlarge

Yesterday morning at a forum for undecided voters in Independence, Iowa—and there must be plenty of undecideds, the way the polls swing back and forth—Ex-Senator John Edwards repeated his criticism of Barack Obama, saying that any candidate who thinks he or she can invite corporate America to the table and achieve real results for Americans "is living in never-never land."

In a wide-ranging interview with ABC News Friday afternoon, the former North Carolina senator labeled as "ridiculous" the comments made by the Obama campaign linking Ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination to Sen. Hillary Clinton's vote to authorize the use of force against Iraq. On the other hand, he did embrace Sen. Barack Obama's politics over Clinton's, and said that an anti-Obama flier from a pro-Clinton union was "misleading" and "deceptive."

I like Obama, but I like him best for Vice-President paired with (in descending order) Joe Biden, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, or Bill Richardson. On the other hand, he's not a bad senator, missing plenty of votes this election season notwithstanding...
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John Edwards/Andrew Young: Who's the father of the "love child"?

Obviously this alleged John Edwards scandal is based on some pretty flimsy evidence. . .wouldn't it have erupted in the mainstream press if there was even a whiff of an affair? Even Matt Drudge backed away from the story. The enquirer does lay out a plausible story, wth many notable gaps, including another man, Andrew Young, claiming paternity of the "love child:"

"Presidential candidate John Edwards is caught up in a love child scandal, a blockbuster ENQUIRER investigation has discovered.The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively that Rielle Hunter, a woman linked to Edwards in a cheating scandal earlier this year, is more than six months pregnant — and she's told a close confidante that Edwards is the father of her baby!The ENQUIRER's political bombshell comes just weeks after Edwards emphatically denied having an affair with Rielle, who formerly worked on his campaign and told another close pal that she was romantically involved with the married ex-senator.The ENQUIRER has now confirmed not only that Rielle is expecting, but that she's gone into hiding with the help of a former aide to Edwards. The visibly pregnant blonde has relocated from the New York area to Chapel Hill, N.C., where she is living in an upscale gated community near political operative Andrew Young, who's been extremely close to Edwards for years and was a key official in his presidential campaign.

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The Enquirer John Edwards Affair Story...

A link to the love-child story above...

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John Edwards caught in an affair/"love child" scandal?

This is a mindf**ker of all mindf**kers, to quote John Sebastian at Woodstock. John Edwards, close to the last person of either party I would have pegged, seems to be caught up in a "love child" scandal.

The Drudge Report reported this late Tuesday (but Drudge's developing story has been taken down). In short, The National Enquirer *seems* to be about to break a story on John Edwards having an affair and now, apparently impregnating his paramour, who has either come forth, or whose friends have now leaked (or sold!) the story to the National Enquirer. Sure, it is a P.O.S. periodical, but on the other hand, they have broken a lot of real scandal news (along with Matt Drudge) over the last few years.

The story, as I understand it, will appear in the National Enquirer print edition (and their website) tomorrow. It seems to have appeared earlier today on Drudge, but I can't tell, since their story, too, is now a dead link.

Drudge now has a link that goes to a dead Enquirer page. If Matt Drudge has backed off from the story, he was either hectored with the threat of a King-hell lawsuit, or he had doubts about the story himself. And if Matt Drudge has doubts about the story, it has to be pretty flimsy.



According to ogpaper.com: "The National Enquirer is brewing the latest political scandal, John Edwards accused of having a love child."

"The National Enquirer is like an alligator - once the jaws lock, there is no way out. Earlier this year the NE reported on John Edwards and his affair with an unnamed woman from his campaign (follow the links below to read that story). Now, the latest John Edwards scandal - a love child. According to reports, the John Edwards love child scandal will run as part of the front cover of the National Enquirer on Wednesday, the picture was found on the Drudge Report. According to the cover, a woman is pregnant with John Edwards baby and is hiding. The story has not been confirmed or denied by the National Enquirer yet, watch for the magazine tomorrow and keep an eye on further developments in the John Edwards love child scandal. "

I did snag the bitmap above online, but have no way to determine its veracity in this paucity of information. It may be a spoof, or a mockup, or the real thing, of tomorrow's National Enquirer.

You may remember, I always thought both John Edwards and Mitt Romney would surge ahead from their positions at 3rd place, or further back, in the pack. If these allegations have even a whiff of authenticity, we can expect John Edwards to bail out of this race like he was hopping in the first lifeboat off the Titantic. John may have been able to weather this one had it just been another tawdry affair. But Ex-Senator Edwards happens to be married to probably the best-loved spouse among all the G.O.P. and Democratic candidates (except for maybe Bill Clinton), who also happens to have incurable breast cancer. If he is guilty, he, naturally, deserves every bit of ignominy that has been and will be heaped, upon him. If he is just a victim of rumor mongering (as was his running mate John Kerry...remember the stories of the young woman he had a tempestuous affair with? They all turned out to be false), well, then, long may he run! I did support him for President previously, but not this time around, although I would have supported him had he become viable (which so far in this race, he never really has).

If you did have this affair, well then drop out ASAP John, and give a decent guy like Joe Biden a chance! And if you did have the affair, well, then you are a sub-human piece of dogsh*t, and I am embarrassed that I supported you in 200o and 2004.
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John Edwards rips into Ann Coulter, she-devil

ABC News' Rick Klein Reports: "Former Sen. John Edwards on Friday fired the latest round in his ongoing verbal feud with Ann Coulter, calling her a "she-devil" at a public event before quickly adding that he shouldn't engage in name-calling.

Democratic Presidential Candidate Edwards was 0n a rant against the right-wing media and reminded a crowd in Burlington, Iowa, that his wife called Coulter out earlier this summer.

"We know these people. We know their game plan. They're going to attack us personally," former Senator Edwards said. "They attacked Elizabeth personally, because she stood up to that she-devil Ann Coulter. … I should not have name-called. But the truth is -- forget the names -- people like Ann Coulter, they engage in hateful language."

In June, on ABC's Good Morning America, Coulter said she had learned her lesson after being attacked and villified for suggesting that Edwards was a "faggot." "If I'm gonna say anything about John Edwards in the future, I'll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot," Coulter said.

Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, later called in to call in to Chris Matthew's Hardball and challenged Coulter directly. "I want to use the opportunity … to ask her politely to stop the personal attacks," Mrs. Edwards said. Coulter was flummoxed and did a few Jackie Gleason-style homina hominas before sputtering out altogether. . .

Some recent Ann Coulter posts on All This Is That:"

Caption of the week: "Coulter's Ugly Crack"

Ann Coulter calls Presidential Candidate Edwards A "Faggot" & Howard Dean Fights Back

Ann Coulter: Justice John Paul Stevens Should Be Poisoned

Ann Coulter Says POTUS Picked The Wrong Guy

$25,000 Worth of Ann Coulter

Heroes And Villains No. 49--> Mario Cuomo & Ann Coulter

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Hillary Clinton and John Edwards caught on a live mike scheming how to eliminate some of their opponents from debates

I always love these "hot mike" incidents on the campaign trail! In this case, however, it was probably not a hot mike, but a shotgun mike trained on them from some distance away. . .by our good friends at Fox "News." An A.P. story gives a few more details.

Democrats John Edwards and Hillary Rodham Clinton were caught yesterday by Fox News microphones discussing a plan to limit future joint appearances and cut out some of whom they consider to be lesser rivals and also-rans.

Edwards: "We should try to have a more serious and a smaller group."
Clinton: "We've got to cut the number" and "they're not serious."

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Go Johnnie Go!--> John Edwards Repudiates The War On Terror

Democratic candidate John Edwards yesterday savagely repudiated the "global war on terror," saying it was an ideological doctrine advanced by the Bush administration that has strained American military resources and given heart to the actual terrorists. You can read the full Associated Press story here.

In a defense policy speech at the Council on Foreign Relations, Edwards called the war on terror a "bumper sticker" slogan Bush had used to justify everything from abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison to the invasion of Iraq.

Whew! I always find the new John Edwards intriguing. . .especially when he actually says out loud what a lot of people are thinking.

I am sure former Mayor Giuliani (a/k/a the 9/11 candidate) will have some choice words to say about this prouncement. Because, let's face it, without that war on terror, the Giuliani campaign is dead in the water.

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We're Pulling For You Tony Snow And Elizabeth Edwards!

I have dumped on Tony Snow quite a few times here, both "editorially" and in a couple of parodies. I disagree with probably 89% of everything that comes out of his mouth. When he was on the radio (I caught his show when I could), he was far more rational than he could ever be in his role as President Bush's Number One Defender, flak catcher, and information vector. Frankly, I still don't know why he took on this role, which must be at least a million dollar pay cut. But to his credit, he had done a good job for a bad President. Even before the White House, Tony Snow was one of the good guys. Our hopes are with him as he battles a recurrence, and spread, into his liver, of the cancer he first fought three years ago.



I have been a big fan of Elizabeth Edwards since I saw a speech she gave in the last campaign when John was running as Vice-President. She is probably my second favorite political spouse (just behind Bill Clinton). I believe her husband will emerge from the pack as the democratic front-runner. I don't know how the recurrence of her cancer, that is now "incurable," will affect his standings. It doesn't seem to hurt in the polls so far, but what people say to the pollsters and what they do in the voting booth are two different things. I don't know. People have been blogging, writing and talking about the ethics of the Edwards' decision to go ahead with the presidential race. But isn't really up to them? Reading between the lines, it sounds like it will be an uphill battle. I am pulling for her.
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Barack Obama Calls John Edwards "kind of cute," and "good looking"

Will it come down to a slugfest between the two cuties?

Sen. Barack Obama slipped in a compliment about the compteition during two appearances in Iowa last weekend, according to The Hill.

“I want to wait and hear what John Edwards has to say, he’s kind of good-looking,” Obama pictured the rank and file in this battleground caucus state saying. At another appearance, he said the same thing, more or less, this time calling Edwards “kind of cute.”

Some of us were puzzled by these comments, since Sen. Barack Hussein Obama often says that he is rising above petty politics and has said before—about his own handsome visage—that looks do not matter!

A poll on the issue (holy moly, they poll on this kind of s***?) by Nerve.com, found both Senators Obama and Edwards running behind former President Bill Clinton on the hot-or-not scale.
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Front-runners Clinton and McCain losing ground fast/All This Is That's dark horses are mired in the back of the pack

click to enlarge the front runners, climbers,
fallers, & dark horses.

A Newsweek magazine poll released on Saturday shows Republican presidential hopeful Rudolph Giuliani (more or less tied with John McCain in a January poll) with a 25-point lead over Arizona Senator McCain. Republicans--59 percent--said they backed the former NYC mayor and 34 percent chose McCain. That doesn't leave much for Mitt Romney, who I still feel is a viable dark horse, and who has yet to really emerge from the pack. The magazine notes that ""Most registered Republicans are not familiar with Giuliani's positions on key social issues," mentioning specifically his support for abortion rights and gun control.

Another (Newsweek) poll of registered Democrats shows Sen. Barack Obama chiseling away at fellow Senator Hillary Clinton's lead. In the latest poll, it's 52% Clinton vs. 38% Obama. Again, not much room in there for the dark horse, John Edwards. Or the rest of the vast pack, including Bill Richardson, et al.




Click to enlarge - The real dark horse? Al, if
you do run, bring back the beard. It makes you
look more avuncular, and it's been 91 years
since the last bearded man (Charles Evan
Hughes) ran for President.

Perhaps the real dark horse on the Dem side is the 800 pound gorilla and Oscar winner, Al Gore. He's being coy about a run, but he keeps showing up in all the right places. Is he just laying low, waiting for Obama and Clinton to cut each other to ribbons and/or self-destruct? We may not know for a few months.
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Ann Coulter calls Presidential Candidate Edwards A "Faggot" & Howard Dean Fights Back

Ultra-conservative lawyer and columnist Ann Coulter, the pinup girl for rednecks, called John Edwards a "faggot" yesterday in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference. The audience at CPAC seemed to find her comments hilarious. See a You Tube clip of the speech above. . .





After her "hate-filled and bigoted" speech, Democratic boss Howard Dean issued a press release.

Dean demanded that Republican presidential candidates denounce the conservative columnist after her remarks. “While Democrats and Republicans may disagree on the issues, we should all be able to agree that this kind of vile rhetoric is out of bounds. The American people want a serious, thoughtful debate of the issues,” the press release read.
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