The Enquirer Story Crumbles

So far, still no pictures from the National Enquirer reporters who claim that John Edwards was caught visiting his supposed mistress and her child. And, oh by the way, their story keeps crumbling.

The birth certificate of a child whom a tabloid newspaper claims was fathered by former Democratic senator John Edwards of North Carolina doesn't identify the child's father.

The document, obtained through a routine records request, shows that Frances Quinn Hunter was born last Feb. 27 to Rielle Hunter, a videographer who worked on Edwards' presidential campaign last year.

But the space for the name of the father is blank, although the child was born more than two months after Hunter identified Andrew Young, Edwards' campaign finance director, as the father of her then unborn child. Young claimed paternity in a statement from his lawyer that was posted on the political blog mydd.com.

It sure would have been a gotcha moment if Edwards' name had been on that document. And while it certainly doesn't exonerate him, it doesn't do anything to bolster the claims and the smears against him, either. Like we said early on when this non-story broke, show us the documents. Show us the proof. So far, nothing. No photos. No video. No documents. Just smears and bullshit, and obsessed wingnuts coming out of the woodwork to speculate about someone's sex life because their own problems dwarf anything they can deal with.

In this day and age, politicians are always going to let you down in one way or another. John Edwards has been smeared by a third rate tabloid that has been given way to much credibility and way too much exposure. Does that mean he's innocent? No, of course not. I don't care what he did or who he did it with because Edwards doesn't go around telling people how to live their lives, he goes around telling people why we need economic justice in this country. That message is still dangerous to people who prefer the status quo and would love to see him smeared, and his message diluted and withdrawn from the public discourse. Whatever happened here is between him and his wife, and it doesn't change the fact that he's right.

Hopefully, this will end the story, and we can go back to ignoring the tabloid trash.

--WS