John Edwards’ artful admission of his affair with former staffer Rielle Hunter leaves several questions still unanswered but let’s start off with his official position just before Edwards’ orchestrated press assault from today:

“The story is false. It’s completely untrue. It’s ridiculous. I’ve been in love with the same woman for 30-plus years….The story is just false”

On Friday, 08/08/08 (timed to be overshadowed with onslaught of media coverage of the Olympics) Edwards downgraded his honestly level from 100% to 99%. Let’s look at what might fall into the 1% of deceipt:

Tort King Fred Baron

1. The “hush” money.

Significant funds were paid to Ms. Hunter by the campaign as well as by his friend and campaign manager Fred Baron. Edwards claims to have been unaware that the woman he was banging received any money from Baron. Baron claims to have done it out of the goodness of his heart since two good families were being harassed by the Enquirer.

Hunter and Young, the recipients of Baron’s generosity, were not high-ranking officials in the Edwards campaign. How Baron got to know them and how he decided to fund their move to California, and why he decided to do so without Edwards’ knowledge, might be the subject of more questions as the Edwards matter goes forward.

This money is on top of the $114,000 that Hunter was paid to create campaign sports even though she was fairly unqualified to do so after Edwards met Hunter in a bar. (TMZ/AOL).

2. Who is Frances Quinn Hunter’s father?

Ms. Hunter’s alibi over the fathering of her child is that it was a different married man that fathered the child. That is stunning in itself. And it’s not just any man but a person involved with the Edwards campaign who is also receiving side funds from Edwards’ finance campaign manager Fred Baron (see above). Looking at Frances Quinn’s birth certificate won’t help since the name of the father was left blank.

Party Gril Reille Hunter

3. What will Rielle Hunter do next?

Rielle is the wild card in all of this. What is going to keep her from sticking to Edwards story and Edwards has the “prisoner’s dilemma” to worry about. Even more than that, whatever amount of money that Baron is paying for her silence could be dwarfed by what she could make in a book deal or selling her story to the tabloids. But is she that kind of person?

As Lisa Druck, she was a Florida girl from the time she was born in Fort Lauderdale until she left in 1984, after spending less than two years enrolled at the University of Tampa. By 1987, she had ended up in the hard-partying New York circle of novelist Jay McInerney.

Hunter tells him that she left New York to move to Los Angeles to become an actress and to get away from the drug scene in New York. She said she got off drugs in California with the help of a healer.

In 1991, she married Alexander M. Hunter III, a lawyer; they lived in a $700,000 bungalow in Beverly Hills and started using the stage name Rielle Hunter, and in 1994 legally adopted that name. which is pronounced “Riley.”

In 2000 … her divorce was finalized. According to the records, she received $5,000 a month for all of 2000 and then $4,000 a month for the next year, and then the spousal support ended.

During the ensuing years, Hunter claimed to have spent a lot of money attending spiritual retreats and by May 2004, was tired of it, according to her Breathe Magazine conversation with McInerney. She said in that state of despair she had an awakening that was so startling — “For weeks after I couldn’t even leave my house.” By the end of 2004, Hunter had started a foundation promoting higher consciousness, and set up a Web site: beingisfree.org, in which she posted the Breathe Magazine story, photos of herself and other spiritual seekers, including a swami, an astrologer and a Malibu healer.

Then in 2006 she met Edwards in a bar, got a six-figure contract to make little web videos, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Despite Edwards announcement that he is done explaining himself and that this is now a private manner for he and his family (“I have given a complete interview on this matter and having done so, will have nothing more to say.”), until the three questions are answered this will remain an open topic.

While not specifically germane to this story, let’s look back at what John Edwards said in 1999 about Bill Clinton and his affair:

I think this President has shown a remarkable disrespect for his office, for the moral dimensions of leadership, for his friends, for his wife, for his precious daughter. It is breathtaking to me the level to which that disrespect has risen.

john edwards
Frances Quinn Hunter
Fred Baron
Rielle Hunter
love child

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 9th, 2008 at 9:57 am by Insider and is filed under Election 2008 Live Team Coverage!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.