Why the US
media is ignoring the John Edwards affair story

Caligulas Romp on Your Dime
As the American mainstream media continue to ignore the story of John
Edwards and his meeting in a Los Angeles hotel with his alleged
mistress, Rielle Hunter, speculation escalates on the edges of
the blogosphere as to why "the respectable press" are ignoring the National
Enquirer's scoop. It is beginning to look as though the Democratic
convention (August 25 in
Denver) will be
underway by the time the majority of the American people - other than the 2.5m
or more who read the Enquirer - know anything about it.
Kevin Rennie, the former Republican state legislator
blogging on Courant.com, touches a nerve when, retelling the story of how
Edwards was cornered in the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where he had apparently gone
to meet Hunter, alleged to be the mother of his love child, he tells readers:
"You may grimace that it's coming from the National Enquirer."
Rennie tells how the two-times former presidential nominee took refuge from
reporters in a men's lavatory until hotel security could escort him safely out
of the hotel. But when Edwards later issued a brief statement criticising the
tabloid's tactics, "he didn't address the love child story, though it was
the right time to deny it if it isn't true. Whether it's true or not, his
behaviour was bizarre for a potential attorney general."
Rennie concludes: "The love child story is not going to go away. By the
time the Democrats gather in Denver, it will
rival the 1996 'Dick Morris with a hooker' [Sherry
Rowlands] tale that broke as Democrats met in Chicago."
Ken Layne, editor of the Washington DC
gossip site Wonkette.com, argues on AOL's Political Machine that what he calls
"the respectable press" is avoiding the Edwards story not just
because the "unseemly" National Enquirer is the main source
but because it's a story that makes everybody look bad.
"Why is everybody so squeamish about this story?" he asks.
"Because it ruins the 2008 campaign narrative, which is all about the
grizzled old war veteran vs the hopeful young star. Because, if true, it is a
tawdry and tragic ending to a political love story [John and Elizabeth
Edwards] that was nothing but an empty media performance.
"It reminds us that John McCain left his wife, after she was disfigured
in a car accident, so he could chase women in bars until he met the beer
heiress of his congressional-district dreams.
"It reminds us that Bill Clinton squandered a
successful second term in a prosperous, peaceful America by shaming his family and
the country with his dumb redneck inability to keep his pants on, and it
reminds Hillary supporters that she would likely be the Democratic nominee
today if Bill wasn't such a self-centered jackass."
Layne concludes: "It reminds us that politicians in Washington
are creeps and weirdos, and whether they're Senator Larry Craig cruising for gay sex in an airport bathroom or ex-Senator John Edwards hiding
from tabloid reporters in a Beverly
Hills hotel bathroom, they are twisted little
Caligulas pretending to be statesmen, on your dime."
FIRST POSTED J