Edwards comes clean (well, sort of)

John Edwards clearly had to say something about the brewing scandal, on e way or the other, prior to the Dem convention. Otherwise, he wasn't going to be able to attend it. Conventions are wall-to-wall media, and he wouldn't have been able to go anywhere in Denver without being hounded about it.

He chose to speak up today because it's a Friday and also Opening Day of the Olympics. For this reason, the story won't make quite the same splash it otherwise would have.

Substantively, he has chosen to "split the baby," as it were. He denies paternity, but based on reasoning that sounds suspiciously weak. He says the affair started in'06 and ended too soon for him to be the father (which presumably means no later than April 2007). However, he admits visiting Ms. Hunter at the Beverly Hilton within the last few weeks (as reported by the National Enquirer), casting doubt on his claim that the affair had ended back in early '07. Moreover, he hasn't taken a paternity test, which would seem like the first thing a person in his position would do if he were so certain of not being the father.

Sounds almost like he's saying he's not the father now just so he can act surprised about it later, when a paternity test is actually conducted. "Oh, human gestation is nine months. I thought it was two months. In that case, sure, I guess I could be the father. Sorry! Didn't mean to lie or anything when I called the story ridiculous."

There are other details seemingly designed to make Edwards appear less heel-like. For example, Elizabeth's cancer was supposedly in remission during his relationship with Hunter (although, again, that wasn't the case when he hooked up with her at the Beverly Hilton last month).

There's a huge opening here for further media attention. Edwards says he hasn't paid any money to Hunter, but left open the possibility that his friends did so without his knowledge. I suppose it's possible Edwards has friends who are so devoted to him, they go out of pocket to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars in order to take care of his enormous personal problems without so much as telling him about it. Color me skeptical, however.

A FURTHER THOUGHT (3:52 PM): Why would his friends be paying this woman if Edwards is not the father? If anything, payments by Edwards would tend to point to paternity, as would any extraordinary efforts to put her or Andrew Young into comfortable digs. If Edwards isn't the father, it makes no sense for his friends to be doing any of these things.