John Edwards and his affair

[Kwing42]

Gosh....you have to feel for his wife who is dealing with a very deadly cancer.

Wow...what goes through the minds of some people

httpWASHINGTON - Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards on Friday admitted to an extramarital affair while his wife was battling cancer. He denied fathering the woman's daughter.

Edwards told ABC News that he lied repeatedly about the affair with 42-year-old Rielle Hunter but said that he didn't love her. He said he has not taken a paternity test but knows he isn't the father because of the timing of the affair and the birth.

A former Edwards campaign staffer claims he is the father, not Edwards.

Hunter's daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter, was born on Feb. 27, 2008, and no father's name is given on the birth certificate filed in California.

The National Enquirer first reported on the affair in October 2007, and Edwards denied it.

"The story is false," he told reporters. "It's completely untrue, ridiculous." He professed his love for his wife, Elizabeth, who had an incurable form of cancer, saying, "I've been in love with the same woman for 30-plus years and as anybody who's been around us knows, she's an extraordinary human being, warm, loving, beautiful, sexy and as good a person as I have ever known. So the story's just false."

Last month, the Enquirer carried another story stating that its reporters had accosted Edwards in a Los Angeles hotel where he had met with Hunter after her child's birth. Edwards called it "tabloid trash," but he generally avoided reporters' inquiries, as did his former top aides.

In the interview, scheduled to air on ABC News' "Nightline," Edwards said the tabloid was correct when it reported on his meeting with Hunter at the Beverly Hills Hotel last month.

Most mainstream news organizations refrained from reporting the story, but newspapers in Charlotte and Raleigh, N.C., recounted the Enquirer's allegations in prominent articles on Thursday. Edwards acknowledged the affair on Friday afternoon, traditionally a slow-news period even when the Olympic Games' opening ceremonies are not preoccupying millions of Americans.

Edwards was a top contender for the Democratic nomination for president, pursuing his party's nod even after announcing that his wife's cancer had returned.

He placed second in the Iowa caucuses last January but dropped out of the race a few weeks later. He has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential choice for Barack Obama. The former North Carolina senator was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004.

The Edwardses have three children — Cate, Jack and Emma Claire. Another son, Wade, died at age 16 in a 1996 car accident.

David Bonior, Edwards' campaign manager for his 2008 presidential bid, said Friday he was disappointed and angry after hearing about Edwards' confession.

"Thousands of friends of the senators and his supporters have put their faith and confidence in him and he's let them down," said Bonior, a former congressman from Michigan. "They've been betrayed by his action."

Asked whether the affair would damage Edwards' future aspirations in public service, Bonior replied: "You can't lie in politics and expect to have people's confidence."

In 2006, Edwards' political action committee paid $100,000 in a four-month span to a newly formed firm run by Hunter, who directed the production of just four Web videos, one a mere 2 1/2 minutes long.

The payments from Edwards' One America Committee to Midline Groove Productions LLC started on July 5, 2006, five days after Hunter incorporated the firm in Delaware.

Midline provided "Website/Internet services," according to reports that Edwards' PAC filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Midline's work product consists of four YouTube videos showing Edwards in informal settings as he prepares to make speeches in Storm Lake, Iowa, and Pittsburgh, as he prepares for an appearance on "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" and travels in Uganda in 2006.

Edwards' PAC followed the six-figure payment with two smaller payments totaling $14,461, the last on April 1, 2007.

At the time Hunter was compiling the videos in 2006, Edwards was preparing a run for president.

Episode One of the four videos captures a conversation between Edwards and an unseen woman as the two chat aboard a plane about an upcoming speech in Storm Lake, Iowa.

Cutting between clips of the speech and the conversation with the woman, Edwards touches on his standard political themes, declaring that government must do a better job of addressing the great issues of the day, from poverty and education to jobs and the war in Iraq.

"I want to see our party lead on the great moral issues — yes, me a Democrat using that word — the great moral issues that face our country," Edwards tells the crowd. "If we want to live in a moral, honest just America and if we want to live in a moral and just world, we can't wait for somebody else to do it. We have to do it."

The sound track for the six-minute video is the song "True Reflections" which begins with these words: "When you look into a mirror, do you like what's looking at you? Now that you've seen your true reflections, what on earth are you gonna do?"

The video entitled "Plane Truths," opens with Edwards relaxing in his seat on the plane, telling the unseen woman that "I actually walked the country to see who I am, who I really am, but I don't know what the result of that will be.

Edwards adds: "But for me personally, I'd rather be successful or unsuccessful based on who I really am, not based on some plastic Ken doll that you put up in front of audiences, that's not me, you know?"

://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080808/ap_on_el_pr/edwards_affair

[Roman]

And coming up next......

Why John McCain left his wife after she was disfigured in a car accident and married a beauty queen.

It would nice to see that crap posted no matter who the political figure was.

[Southofnowhere]

So much 4 Mr.Edwards being AG and the poor has lost an amazing fighter on their behalf.

At Least this all come out before Denver. I'm sure team Obama already had it checked out when they were thinking of making VP.

His public life is over but he can always go back to the Law and the board of hedge funds and make even more Millions. I feel bad for his sick wife and young Family but not him.

John Kerry is now my pick for AG. He's also high on my VP pick list. If he had the backbone he has now he would have beaten Bush!

[Ryan]

I think it's disgusting he would cheat on his wife while she was sick...

[Tishy]

He's not the first man to have an affair and he won't be the last. It's not like having an affair has anything to do with how well he can do his job. If he is on the cabinet (which I think Obama has an engraved seat for him already) how does the fact that he had some quickies with someone going to make him suddenly incompetent? Sure its shitty that he cheated on his wife and she is sick but everyone has done shitty things.

In my opinion, Bill Clinton was the second best president in the last hundred years. "I did not have sex with that woman" His affair with Monica didn't make him a bad president. Hell not only did FDR have an affair, so did Elenanor and her lover lived in the White House too.

[George008]

Its just disgusting

[Jess]

First of all Edwards' affair was in 2006 before his wife was re-diagnosed with cancer. At the time, she was in remission.

That being said, I think these affairs are disgusting. I think McCain dumping his wife when she was in bad shape and marrying a wealthy woman is disgusting. However, in my opinion, their personal lives are nobody's business. I think the public had a pretty strong reaction to Republicans and their excess in going after Clinton and the Lewinski affair. Clinton's approval ratings topped 80 percent after he stood up to Newt and the Boys.

It is disgusting, but I think people also want politicians and the media to mind their own business.

[Kwing42]

LOL It is laughable at how fast the Libbys are to point out every bad things a Republican does, but the minute one of their own does something so disturbing and wrong, it is still a Republicans fault.'

Wow...how jaded we have become.

Oh its ok to have affairs now, everyone is doing it.

LOL, I am sure Mrs. Edwards said that when her scumbag husband was FORCED to confess.

WOW....I am never shocked anymore when I read the crap the libby's spew.

Blame others...that is the name of the game...oh wait...it is not a big deal if a Libby does it LOL

Let's see...McCain was married, divorced...remarried and still remained good friends with his ex.

The accident happened 10 years before they divorced....yea, I see so many similarities with that one.

Good job!

[Roman]

I see.

You once said you were trying to keep things fair, Kwing.

Now it's......."The Libbys".

Sounds like the name of a gang in the movie The Warriors.

[Cheap21]

Who cares? Thats my response when I heard this

[Jess]

Soooo, who blamed someone else? And, I believe people said John Edwards was disgusting. Last time I checked, John Edwards was not the Democratic nominee for president, and, if I remember correctly, he has been out of the race for months. So, what is your point about why anyone should care if John Edwards had an affair? And perhaps you can explain how it effects anyone's life that is not a member of his family or the woman involved in the affair. I'm just curious why anyone should give a [!@#$%^&*] since all he is is a former senator.

[Tishy]

Um, what does Scooter Libby have to do with this? The Libby's. Give me a break. Where do you see anyone placing blame on anyone? I don't see it. I could care less if this was John Edwards, John McCan, Mitt Romney, or Barack Obama. Who they sleep with has no bearing to me on my decision on how well they can run a country.

[Roman]

Tishy, some feel this is more important to people who should hold public office. You know......like that BS about people not wearing flag pins or what book they were sworn into office on.

These are the same people who listen to Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage and all those assholes at Fixed News.

Because, you see........they need these people to think for them and to make decisions for them, because it is plain that they can't make decisions for themselves.

Hope that clears this up.

[Southofnowhere]

Not near as digusting as what John McCain did to his first Wife!

[soapluva]

Me too, there's much more important things going on in the world!!!! Move on