Anyone who believes that John Edwards knew nothing about Fred Baron paying for Rielle Hunter to move is completely naive. The way to get this story to go away is not to continue trying to cover one's tracks or to blame the messenger.

Hypocrisy is the issue here, not the affair, which is a private matter unless funds donated for a public cause were used to hush Hunter up.

I think the majority of the American people are far more willing to forgive an affair than to excuse politicians who lecture others on conduct and turn out to be doing exactly what they are condemning others for, such as Larry Craig, Elliott Spitzer, Newt Gingrich and now John Edwards.

Edwards' comments in 1999 regarding Bill Clinton were "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."

Edwards continued, "We have a man who has just been confronted with this problem, who is political by nature. And do we really believe that the first thing he thought about is, 'I’m going to go protect myself legally’? I suspect the first thing he thought about is 'I’m going to protect myself politically.' He was worried about his family finding out. He was worried about the rest of the staff finding out. He was worried about the press finding out."

Now in a post on The Daily Kos, Elizabeth Edwards accuses the National Enquirer of lying about her husband "because of a picture falsely suggesting that John was spending time with a child it wrongly alleged he had fathered outside our marriage, our private matter could no longer be wholly private.”

It might have stayed a private matter if Edwards hadn't run for president but in these days of tell-all journalism, did they really believe this wasn't going to hit the fan?

While I don't care what people do in their private lives, spending PAC money to pay Rielle Hunter what appears to be hush money crosses the line into making it a public matter.

I don't think that having an affair should disqualify somebody from public service or running for office. If it did, we would probably have very few people serving in government.

But I do care about hypocritical politicians, whether it's Larry Craig condemning gays and then being arrested for his airport antics, Elliot Spitzer throwing the book at men who use prostitutes and then turning out to be one, or John Edwards, who said this in 1999 regarding Bill Clinton:

"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." Edwards said. "It is breathtaking to me the level to which that disrespect has risen."

Edwards continued, "We have a man who has just been confronted with this problem, who is political by nature. And do we really believe that the first thing he thought about is, 'I’m going to go protect myself legally’? I suspect the first thing he thought about is 'I’m going to protect myself politically.' He was worried about his family finding out. He was worried about the rest of the staff finding out. He was worried about the press finding out."

The hypocrisy is breathtaking, as is Elizabeth Edward's post at the Daily Kos on her husband's confession, accusing the National Enquirer for lying about her husband "because of a picture falsely suggesting that John was spending time with a child it wrongly alleged he had fathered outside our marriage, our private matter could no longer be wholly private.”

While I feel sorry for Elizabeth, if she was aware of this situation, she should have convinced him to either break the story himself or not to run for the presidency.

I went to the site you mentioned, http://www.thriveorfail.com/4b818, and found your thoughtful comment but was appalled to also see this posting by randyc:

"His wife is probably too preoccupied with her cancer to desire sex. His wife probably knew about it. Who cares. I don't think he loves her any less. I don't think he's any less committed to his wife and family. I don't think there's three Americas now. The real story is his perfect hair."

Next, maybe randyc can suggest that Elizabeth Edwards is the one who gave Hunter the more than $100,000 she reportedly received to produce Edwards' videos for Youtube, including one of a speech in which Edwards said "I want to see our party lead on the great moral issues — yes, me a Democrat using that word — the great moral issues that face our country."

As a Clinton supporter, the only emotion I feel about this revelation is the deepest sympathy for Elizabeth Edwards that she has to deal with this at the same time she is fighting for her life.

I'm not sure what our zest for revealing the private affairs of public figures says about our society. Some of the greatest presidents in history, such as FDR and JFK, would never have been elected had the same tell-all mentality existed when they ran for office.