Has anyone seen this? First I heard about it. Edwards departure.

[Dr.Phool]

It's hard for me to wrap my head around this one. I was an Edwards supporter, and would still like to see him in a powerful position, such as Attorney General.

As far as sources, if it weren't the Nation, I wouldn't pay any attention to it. I know, it's Alexander Cockburn, who is reporting on the National Enquirer story, but even then, The Nation has a lot of credibility with me. I've subscribed for about 20 years.

Edwards dropped out of the race, right before Super Tuesday, and since he sank a lot of money into those states, and campaigned there, it just didn't make sense. And he didn't explain it either.

Could this be why? It's in this weeks edition of The Nation. I would have posted yesterday, but it was "sub only" then. Not now.


http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080818/cockburn

(snip)

On October 10, 2007, the online edition of National Enquirer ran an exposé under the headline "Presidential Cheating Scandal! Alleged Affair Could Wreck John Edwards's Campaign Bid." The story began, "Sources have come forward to charge that the 'other woman' previously worked on Edwards' campaign.... A source close to the woman, whose name is being withheld by The National Enquirer, says that she confessed to having an affair in phone calls and emails, saying that her work with Edwards soon exploded into romance."

Edwards promptly issued a denial. Though she wasn't named in the Enquirer's story, so did Rielle Hunter, on a website. Not a breath of an alleged adultery by a presidential contender ruffled the pages of the nation's mainstream papers, despite the fact that the Enquirer has many proven scoops under its belt, including Rush Limbaugh's love affair with Oxycontin and Jesse Jackson's love child. Though down in numbers from its glory days, the Enquirer still has a circulation of 2,760,000.

On December 19, with the early Democratic primaries looming, the Enquirer struck again. It said Rielle Hunter was in an advanced stage of pregnancy with Edwards's child and--after the Enquirer's October story--had been whisked out of New York City and lodged in an upscale gated community in Chapel Hill. Edwards, flanked by Elizabeth, issued further passionate denials. The New York Times, nine weeks away from running a long, highly speculative story about John McCain's possible relationship with the much younger Vicki Iseman, kept its mouth shut, as did the rest of the mainstream press. Edwards was able to fight his way through the first primaries without having to battle charges from the national press that he was cheating on a sick wife and had a pregnant mistress stowed back in North Carolina.

On July 22 the Enquirer lowered the boom on Edwards. The weekly reported that it had nailed him visiting Hunter and child in the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles. The Enquirer's reporters staked out Edwards and Hunter, ambushed the former as he stepped out of the elevator and pursued the white-faced Edwards till he took refuge in one of the hotel's lavatories, at which time he seems to have called hotel security on his cellphone and was escorted to safety. A hotel doorman confirmed the story later to Fox News.

(snip)