John Edwards Admits Affair to ABC

He's still not coming completely clean in my opinion and he takes an oily tack:

According to friends of Hunter, Edwards met her at a New York city bar in 2006. His political action committee later paid her $114,000 to produce campaign website documentaries despite her lack of experience.

Edwards said the affair began during the campaign after she was hired. Hunter traveled with Edwards around the country and to Africa.

Edwards made a point of telling (Bob) Woodruff that his wife's cancer was in remission when he began the affair with Hunter. Elizabeth Edwards has since been diagnosed with an incurable form of the disease.

And because his wifes cancer was in remission it made it better because why? He broke a sacred pact with your wife who had suffered through cancer and the death of a child because he couldn't keep it in his pants, plain and simple. That is unforgivable in any circumstance.

The fact that Rielle Hunter is an absolute flake is also disconcerting as it appears the man who was a few percentage points from being VP is too mentally weak to control himself and also has questionable taste in women he chooses to fool around with. Yeah, I think a guy who meets his mistress in a bar is an excellent candidate for President or VP.

Edwards said he told his wife, Elizabeth, and others in his family about the affair in 2006.

...Edwards today admitted the National Enquirer was correct when it reported he had visited Hunter at the Beverly Hills Hilton last month.

The former Senator said his wife had not known about the meeting.

Which of course brings up the question: If the affair is over and he isn't the father of the baby, why the hell was he sneaking into and out of Rielle Hunter's hotel room in the early morning hours?

He also says he told his wife about the affair in 2006 but still forced her--while suffering from cancer--to go on the campaign trail with him and then lied to her about visiting the woman he cheated on her with. He needs to get spiritual guidance from Jesse Jackson, and soon, so the media can say he atoned for his sins. Old Jesse may even give you few tips on the love child thing.

He's pulling a classic Bill Clinton here. Deny, deny, deny and then admit what little you have to when caught. This guy is mining new depths of scumbaggery heretofore never seen.

I imagine the media will have no choice but to cover the story now, don't ya think? Boy did they come out of this whole sordid affair looking like exactly what Conservatives have been accusing them of being all these years: biased beyond all hope.

Update: As expected, the spin begins. The Carpetbagger Report rips Micky Kaus (who has been shown to be right--yet doesn't gloat). This idiot blames Edwards not for the affair or the immorality but for believing he could get away with it. This guy, who evidently isn't a MENSA member, calls McCain a "serial adulterer" and mourns for the loss of this passionate voice. Yeah dude, he was evidently quite passionate.

The interesting--but not unexpected thread--that runs through all the lib responses is that they take him to task for putting himself in position to get caught yet none even condemn him for cheating or his sick wife. Politics trumps morality for the libs. Priorities folks, priorities.

Update 2: Allah has much, much more including my personal favorite where David Shuster portrays the media as victim.

News & Notes--8/8/8 Edition

The Olympics start today and China gets her time on the world stage. Here's to hoping it has the same effect as the Seoul Olympics did.

Anyway, here's the latest happenings throughout the Internets:

The Russian bear is getting froggy in South Ossetia. Putin (and don't kid yourself, he's still calling the shots through his proxy) is still a Soviet to the bone and will always be. Could Cold War II be on the horizon?

The new Obama salute:













As soon as I saw it it brought to mind this image from Pink Floyd's epic The Wall:









I was beaten to the punch, however. Via Glenn who notes a Star Trek angle. Update: Too damn funny!

The Edwards/Rielle Hunter story is still in first gear but the clutch is being depressed.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio Vs. the ACLU. I take Arpaio in that one.

Blogging will be light as I'm taking a few well-deserved days off.

National Enquirer Releases Edwards Photos

They are fuzzy and as Ed notes, there are some issue with them but the NE released the picture below of what is allegedly John Edwards holding his alleged baby in the Beverly Hills hotel room of Rielle Hunter:

It's not quite the slam-dunk evidence the NE had us believe they had and it is presented with typical tabloid splash but it is pretty convincing that it is indeed Edwards.

That said, why has he not addressed this issue in a forthright manner? There's only two possible reasons; a) he innocent and believes he is above this and doesn't have to explain himself to anyone, or b) he's guilty as hell and knows it will come out in due time and to claim innocence when he's not would make things infinitely worse. Think Bill Clinton's infamous "I did not have sex with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky" lie.

I'm guessing it's the latter.

This story is going to break and Sen. Obama best hope it's after the Denver convention. That doesn't seem to be a great strategy as the story is breaking through the media collusion to contain it:

“He absolutely does have to (resolve it). If it’s not true, he has to issue a stronger denial,” said Gary Pearce, the Democratic strategist who ran Edwards’ 1998 Senate race. “It’s a very damaging thing. ...

“The big media has tried to be responsible and handle this with kid gloves, but it’s clearly getting ready to bust out. If it’s not true, he’s got to stand up and say, ’This is not true. That is not my child and I’m going to take legal action against the people who are spreading these lies.’ It’s not enough to say, ’That’s tabloid trash,’“ Pearce said.

Again, the fact he has not even partially confronted this says more than any words.

This is too juicy for the media to ignore for much longer: a former VP candidate and two-time presidential candidate who received glowing media coverage has a child with a woman who is not his wife while his wife suffers from cancer. The wife also was trotted out to defend the candidate and a portion of his campaign was centered around the tribulations of his ailing wife. Americans can understand this a hell of a lot easier than his "two Americas" rhetoric and will want to read every salacious detail because we love scandal in the US.

Instead of "two Americas," it appears we have the two lives of John Edwards and they're about to collide in stunning fashion.

Update: Read Ann for more.

Sunday News & Notes

Interesting stories from around the Net:

A lonely voice tries to tell the MSM that they are spiting themselves by not covering the John Edwards/Rielle Hunter story.

The Democrats have handed the GOP a winner of an issue if they would grab it. Florida is a battlground state and McCain could sew it up if he hammered this issue repeatedly and daily.

Al-Qaeda confirms we did indeed put a Hellfire missile up their chemical and bio weapons experts ass. Sweet. Too bad the rumors of Zawahiri's liquidation appear to be false.

US out of the UN and the UN out of the US? I've been saying that for five and a half years at this site.

Still No US Media Reports About Edwards' Affair

The Sunday Times of London takes up the John Edwards/Rielle Hunter affair story:

The National Enquirer may publish photographs corroborating Edwards’s presence at the hotel this weekend. A reporter for The Washington Post said yesterday: “To be quite honest, we’re waiting to see the pictures. That said, Edwards is no longer an elected official and he is not running for office now. Don’t expect wall-to-wall coverage.”

No, why would we expect "wall-to-wall" coverage of a former Senator and two-time presidential candidate caught in an affair while his cancer-stricken wife stays at home and suffers? The media ran with a story about John McCain's supposed indiscretions with no sources but this story with witnesses and numerous sources gets no play at all.

We've come to expect this from the American media and they could get away with it until the last few years but no more. How incredibly sad that the National Enquirer is now a more credible news source than the NY Times and Washington Post? Read the blockquote above: The WaPo admits that even if they see pictures of Silky with his hand the cookie jar, they aren't going to run it on the front page regardless of the news worthiness.

This is pure and simple collusion by the media that would ignite a fire storm and congressional hearings were it to happen in, say, the oil or tobacco industries. The political left screams for the return of the Fairness Doctrine yet when they have the opportunity--and I would say duty--to report a hard news story about a liberal, they balk.

The slow decline of American media continues apace with steady and precipitous declines in ad revenue. They blame the Internet, Craig's List, etc, but all they have to do is look over the pond to Britain and see that newspapers can thrive if they choose to either play fair or at least admit their collective bias and write from that angle.

Lastly, this is the type of story that Americans can't get enough of. It has all the components that draw readers as I can attest by the hits I've received from people Googling "Edwards Affair" or some other search terms akin to that. It has a high-profile politico, an ill, loyal wife, a pretty mistress, a love child, late-night rendevous' and a presidential race. You couldn't make it up.

If I were a shareholder of the NY Times or WaPo, I'd be screaming for them to start covering this story and do it "wall-to-wall" because it would bring in much-needed revenue. Instead, ideology once again trumps profits and that my friends is the left-wing media in a microcosm.