I’ve been thinking about John Edwards’ affair with Rielle Hunter.  I see a few sides of this story. 

• First, John Edwards is absolute scum for this.  He has an affair that he had denied.  He goes on ABC Television and says that he came clean to Elizabeth, his wife, and his family in 2006.  Then he says he doesn’t love Hunter and that her child isn’t his.  He knows this because of the timing of the affair.  Yet he won’t take a paternity test.
• I normally don’t care when a politician (or anyone, for that matter) can’t keep his pants zipped.  It’s part of what I expect from politicians anymore.  The list of philandering politicians is long: Bill Clinton, John Edwards (now), Newt Gingrich, John Kennedy, Franklin Roosevelt.  Normally the skirt-chasing doesn’t detract from that person’s duties.  That’s what I care about normally — that the politician is doing his job and I normally don’t care who he sleeps with. 
• Elizabeth Edwards is ill with her second (?) round of an incurable cancer.  I don’t care that her cancer was in remission (as Edwards made a point to say) when he began the affair.  It’s a weak defense.  It’s reprehensible behavior no matter how you slice it.
• Edwards is, as he pointed out, a narcissist.  Any politician, especially someone who has run for president twice, is going to have a healthy ego.  But Edwards is a bit over the top even for that group.

I hope Elizabeth Edwards is doing as well as she can with this.  She really did not need this on top of fighting a horrible disease.