John Edwards Scandal?

So, we have a story which is slowly seeping into public life - rumours of an affair by Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards. Now, naturally, the National Enquirer isn't, in and of itself, sufficent proof of anything - but there's a little more on this. Just for a start, Mickey Kaus seems to be pretty sure of it .

Most of the speculation swirls around a woman named Rielle Hunter (a forty-four year-old filmmaker, formerly named Lisa Druck). A few weeks ago, Sam Stein over at the Huffington Post began asking questions about the odd disappearance of a series of web videos that she directed for the Edwards Campaign - making $114,461 in the process.

All of this is interesting in that it ties back into a brief item that ran on Page Six in the New York Post about a month and a half ago:

WHICH political candidate enjoys visiting New York because he has a girlfriend who lives downtown? The pol tells her he'll marry her when his current wife is out of the picture.

Leaving aside the grim implications of anticipating a moment when "his current wife is out of the picture" - there's this from an interview posted on Ms. Hunter's recently-deleted website ("RH" is Ms. Hunter):

JM: But I'm saying it's more extreme. I'm just curious why...

RH: ...I'm in New York?

JM: I suppose our reasons could overlap. Let me give you an example. Here in New York, a premium is placed on what I do. It's one of the few places in the country where being a writer is respected and admired.

RH: Oh so you're here for the love�for the recognition and the love?

JM: It's not why I'm here. I'm playing devil's advocate. But I like being here more than in LA, partly because in LA what I do is not terribly highly valued. So you tell me what you're doing, and I would think it's not particularly valued here in New York.

RH: What you were just saying is very human. We're naturally going to be drawn to places where we're loved.

Now, obviously, there are a lot of women in New York - and this is nothing more than circumstantial. But, still, it's interesting.

The Enquirer article, which holds back the name of the woman alleged to be involved, mentions that:

"The affair started about 18 months ago," a friend says the woman confessed to her. "When they met at a bar, sparks flew immediately.

Now, of course, there are a lot of politicians and women that this could apply to. But, what's interesting, is in a Newsweek article from last December:

The Webisodes are the brainchild of Rielle Hunter, a filmmaker who met Edwards at a New York bar where Edwards was having a business meeting.

Actually, in view of what's being discussed now, this (from the same article) is probably even more amusing:

In the midst of a short theme sequence that begins each Webisode, the camera lingers over the former senator's behind as he tucks a starched white shirt into his pants.

So, what we have here is circumstantial - but it strikes me as pretty strong.

1) We have rumours of an affair going back sometime. The first public hints appear as far back as August.

2) What circumstantial details we have - New York, meeting in a bar, wife anticipated to be out of the picture - match up here.

3) We have a strange and rushed effort to cover up these entirely innocuous videos - with the Edwards campaign attempting to control access to them.

4) We have a mystery party archiving these videos and then later anonymously releasing them - indicating that someone knew enough about something to decide to keep a copy of these things lying around just in case.

Now, I'll note, I don't think that this has any real bearing on John Edwards ability to be President. I think that John Edwards should't be President because he's a scum-sucking, ambulance chasing fraud and phony, not because he might be cheating on his cancer-stricken wife