Oh, John Edwards

Jillian Bandes | February 01, 2010 1:38 PM

I'm not sure what I should do with the John-Edwards-baby-daddy-pregnant- sex-tape-video-tell-all-book controversy. Talk about Edwards' hypocrisy over denying, then admitting, he was the father of

Rielle Hunter's child? Blast Andrew Young for giving Edwards up only after Edwards stopped paying him off -- but until then, admitting paternity to said love child? Applaud Elizabeth for finally filing for divorce? Pray for her speedy recovery to stage 4 breast cancer?

Instead of actually trying to figure out what it all means, I'm just going to do what one does during a bad Lifetime movie: sit here, take what I'm watching half-seriously, eat some popcorn, and reduce my faith in the state of humanity a notch or two as I witness each progression of the plot.

If nothing else, the ordeal represents one more example of why getting it all out there right off the bat is always the best approach to scandals, especially of the sexual-political sort. Had Edwards admitted paternity from the get-go, the story might have gone away. Had Young come clean months ago instead of now, he might have avoided looking like a complete imbecile (an entrepreneurial one, at that) for publishing a book about how he was coerced into admitting paternity. Had everyone just maintained even a semblance of self-respect, one small child could have avoided the trauma of what is certain to be a lifetime of rumors and slander.

Had they avoided pressing "on" on the video recorder.....

This is a non-partisan issue. Clearly, a Mark Foley or Larry Craig is guilty of similar scorn. But the fact that Edwards was a leading presidential candidate -- and the fact that a small child is involved -- makes it all the worse.