primaries without having to battle charges from the national press that he was cheating on a dying wife, and had a pregnant mistress stowed back in North Carolina.

After a weak showing at the end of January in the South Carolina primary, Edwards suddenly quit the race. There was some speculation about a possible deal with Barack Obama, involving an Edwards endorsement against a job in the Obama administration. Edwards duly issued the endorsement and let it be known that he would be agreeable to an invitation to run on Obama's ticket.

On July 21 the Enquirer lowered the boom on Edwards. It reported that it had nailed Edwards visiting Hunter and child in the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles. The same helpful friend of Rielle's, perhaps in receipt of helpful subventions from the Enquirer, had supplied the paper with time and location of the rendezvous. The Enquirer's reporters staked out both Edwards and Hunter, ambushed the former as he stepped out the elevator, pursued the white-faced Edwards until he took refuge in one of the hotel's lavatories, at which time he seems to have

called hotel security on his cell phone and was escorted to safety.

Short of a formal portrait of Edwards, Hunter and the new-born baby, the Enquirer's was as solid story as you could hope for. Shortly thereafter Fox News got a corroborating interview with one of the Beverly Hilton's doormen.

The pace is now quickening. This week, under the headline 'John Edwards Secret Payoffs to Mistress' (left), the Enquirer relayed from its spies inside the Hunter camp the news that one of Edwards's rich friends was helping out with scads of cash, with $15,000 a month going to Hunter. This same flush friend "is also shoveling cash to Edwards's pal and former aide Andrew Young – who tried to take the heat off the ex-Senator by claiming he is the father of Rielle’s baby.” A puzzle here is that Edwards himself is a millionaire, presumably with ample resources to cover such incidental expenses.

I’d guess Hunter will soon be showing up soon in some network studio, but so far there’s not been a word in the mainstream press, even though Edwards is certainly a