Rielle Hunter with John Edwards' baby, Frances. AP Photo/Jim R. Bounds
Oh my: yes, John Edwards was and is indeed the father of the baby , Frances, born to Rielle Hunter. That, at least, is what the National Enquirer is reporting.
Yes, really, a US Senator was not only cheating upon his cancer stricken wife, he then had a child by his mistress and ran to be US President while covering the matter up. He even got one of his aides to make claim to paternity.
At the moment of course we don't actually know that John Edwards is the father of Reille Hunter's baby: we only have one report of a "secret DNA test" and it's in National Enquirer. Not, we usually assume, the most accurate of media outlets.
However, there's one thing we do need to remember, National Enquirer was the one outlet that did in fact pursue the whole John Edwards and Rielle Hunter story in the first place. Don't you remember what it was like back then? Major, mainstream, outlets simply wouldn't touch the story at all, it was as if someone had burped at the dinner table. Embarassing, something we just don't mention.
This, assuming the story is true, really has to be the end of John Edwards' political career. It's not the sex and certainly not the child, it's the cover up afterwards. Simply inconceivable that he would even attempt to return to politics after he'd got one of his aides to take the fall for this.
Hopefully.
Comments
The person who wrote this must have dashed it together in 2 minutes. At least take the time to read a few clips. Really lame report with no detail.
Not to mention his punctuation is atrocious. There are run-on sentences and sentence fragments. Lame reporting, editing here.
what i think is most surprising about this story is the fact that the national enquirer seems to be the only media outlet interested in this. Sure, most of the media is left leaning and generally take it easy on democrats .. but sheesh!! I have seen the mark sanford affair being scrutinized on a daily basis, and barely a whisper about his story. And, maybe Sarah Palin was in over her head as a VP candidate, i'd take her anyday over the sleazy lawyer that edwards turned out to be. He was, afterall, the VP candidate in 04.
I have to wonder what the impact would have been if Edwards had done the right thing and dropped his bid for President before the Iowa caucus. Would Hillary be president now? McCain maybe?
Why did it take a publication like the National Enquierer to break and follow up on this story? Where was the rest of the media?
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