UPDATE, August 13, 2008: "SEX, MORE LIES & VIDEOTAPE"
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.
...After Edwards confessed the affair to his wife, he restarted it, and was sexually involved with Rielle when she became pregnant.
Despite his denials, Edwards WAS aware that his former finance committee chairman, Fred Baron, was funneling money to Rielle.
Experts are now calling for a federal investigation into Edwards' use of campaign funds.
...In denying he fathered Rielle's baby, Edwards told ABC that he would "be happy" to take a paternity test to prove he's telling the truth. (He has refused numerous previous requests by The ENQUIRER to take a paternity test.)
Edwards claimed he ended the affair in 2006, but sources say he restarted the illicit romance after confessing to his wife.
Rielle soon became pregnant after the affair was rekindled, say sources.
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UPDATE, August 8, 2008: Edwards admits affair.
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UPDATE, July 25, 2008: FOX News reports that a hotel security guard confirms some of the National Enquirer's story.
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Breitbart.tv has posted an "Intimate John Edwards Video Shot by Woman Caught-Up in Campaign Scandal."
That woman is Rielle Hunter, formerly known as Lisa Druck.
From the related link in the National Enquirer: "The woman linked to Presidential candidate John Edwards in a cheating scandal is more than six months pregnant and telling a close confidante that Edwards is the father of her unborn child, The NATIONAL ENQUIRER has learned exclusively." This behind-the-scenes campaign video, the only one yet available, lists Rielle Hunter as the director.
I really don't know why Breitbart posted this video.
Hunter directed it. So what?
It doesn't prove anything as far as an intimate relationship between Hunter and Edwards goes.
Remember that a Clinton ally is closely connected to The Enquirer.
From Politico:
What the tabloid's readers, in politics and out, may not know is that a key owner of the Enquirer is a prominent New York investment banker and one of Hillary Clinton's key backers, Roger Altman. Altman was an official in the first Clinton administration, and his name is often mentioned as a possible Clinton Treasury Secretary.
The investment boutique which Altman founded and chairs, Evercore Partners, bought a controlling stake in American Media, which publishes the Enquirer, in 1999, which it still holds with a partner. Evercore's president, Austin Beutner, sits on American Media's Board of Directors, according to Evercore's website.
A spokesman for American Media, Richard Valvo, said in an email that Altman has "no involvement in editorial, ever." He said that Evercore owns 20 percent of the company through an investment fund. Altman didn't respond to an email seeking comment or to a message left with his secretary.
American Media has also published lurid and negative stories about the Clintons since its acquisition.
I don't think this proves that the Clintons are behind the Edwards story.
Yes, there's a connection. It's because the connection is so clear that it would be risky for Clinton to exploit it. But desperate times call for desperate measures. The sagging Hillary is certainly desperate.
The Nation weighs in on "Edwards and the Enquirer."
If the story is true, John Edwards is finished as a contender for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
The story is the National Enquirer top-of-the-page cover article -- which is set to go on sale at the checkout counters of the supermarkets and drug stores of Iowa, New Hampshire and the other 48 states Wednesday morning -- that claims the former senator from North Carolina is the father of a soon-to-be-born "love child."
...Edwards and the staffer are reportedly denying the story -- with the campaign issuing an absolute and unequivocal dismissal of its validity. The Enquirer counters with a claim that it has obtained confirmations from friends of the woman who say she shared the details of the affair and the pregnancy with them. Reporters for the weekly newspaper also claims to have seen emails that were purportedly sent by the woman regarding an affair.
The Enquirer and other tabloids, it should be remembered, broke stories of Bill Clinton's affairs in 1992. But Clinton had a reputation as a rogue. Edwards has always presented himself as a dedicated husband to Elizabeth, who is currently fighting cancer, and as the doting father of young children.
Under the circumstances, it is difficult to see how the Edwards campaign could survive a legitimate sex scandal.
It may not even be able to survive an illegitimate sex scandal.
Edwards has been surging in Iowa -- a new Insider Advantage poll of likely Democratic caucus-goers has him ahead of New York Senator Hillary Clinton and just one point behind Illinois Senator Barack Obama. But he cannot afford to lose the critical days leading up to the January 3 caucuses that will make or break his campaign responding to questions -- fair or not -- about whether he got a staffer pregnant.
I think it's far more likely that the alleged scandal is illegitimate.
That makes the whole thing even more troubling. If a candidate is going to implode, it shouldn't be because of a concocted story in a tabloid.
Unfortunately, the politics of personal destruction doesn't need facts to be effective. The mere suggestion of scandal is enough.
Obama was a cokehead.
Edwards has a love child.
And Hillary?
She's telling people to look in her mouth.
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