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If there’s one thing I’ve come to find pretty reliable in news and in life, it’s that people are seldom logical, clear-of-vision or even particularly consistent. A woman who overpays the IRS may steal lipstick from her mother’s purse; managers who support the noblest of charitable causes may mistreat their own employees; a grown male teacher who is utterly sincere about keeping his 15 year old daughter safe and protected may simultaneously be inappropriately eyeing his own 15 year old female students; and otherwise moderate, and even successful people, will gorge, gamble or drink themselves into oblivion. We humans are a pretty confused and confusing lot.

But once in a while you stumble upon someone who goes a bit beyond the realm of those normal irregularities of human texture. Someone apparently sane suddenly exhibits such a massive failure of judgment and reasoning that you have to wonder about the integrity of their whole eye/brain/spinal-chord assembly. I’m thinking Nixon during Watergate or the sweet mother of ten years who suddenly drowns her kids in a bathtub. And frankly, I’m starting to wonder if John Edwards is treading very far from such territory.

I mean, okay, so the guy cheated on his wife. A wife, at least according to his political narrative, that he was supposedly immensely devoted to. A wife sick with cancer, and who, it’s looking more and more likely (despite his protestations to the contrary), had relapsed and found out she was terminally ill while he was misbehaving. In fact, according to the newly credible Enquirer, who is sticking to its original story, while Edwards’ affair with Rielle Hunter may indeed have temporarily ended in 2006 like he claims, it was rekindled shortly thereafter, leading to a daughter with whom he visited at least three times since her birth. I’ll admit, it doesn’t look great on paper. But if we’re going to be grown-ups about the whole thing, we’ve got to face that there’s nothing particularly jaw-dropping about the scenario: A high-powered ambulance chaser finally gets his chance on the campaign trail. He’s getting to sleep in the wee hours of the morning and waking to cantaloupe-colored sunrises. Living between suitcases and a private jet. High on exhaustion and dreams of victory. And here, this new age sweetheart who thinks his every waking moment, his every smile, is worth capturing on film, is bringing him coffee, mussing up his hair, talking to him about the power of his aura and the greatness for which he’s destined. Overtaken by desire, a child is conceived. At 54, High Powered Attorney is reassured his boys can still swim. And with the odds of naturally conceiving at 43 looming at a mere 3%, New Age Mistress is convinced this represents nothing less than the supremacy of fate. It isn't hard to fathom. We all have our vulnerabilities.

So no… it isn’t the possibility of all this that makes me wonder about Edwards. What’s so intriguing to me about the evolving saga are not the bare naked facts, or the timing, or even the likely fruit of such a transgression, but rather the circuit-blowing complexity Edwards appears to have gone through in order to save a political career that was not only doomed because of precisely these machinations, but that would have doomed the chances of his entire party had he managed to work his way onto the Democratic ticket, whether as a front-runner or VP. In light of this, we’re looking at a potentially lethal combination of selfishness, narcissism, and utter stupidity.

I mean, did Edwards really think he could eternally sustain a political career while avoiding the exposure of an affair that took place while he was campaigning? And in trying to mop up his mess, did he truly think, as a public figure, that no one would question campaign aide Andrew Young’s claim to the paternity of Rielle Hunter’s child despite the fact that a) Young appears to have a criminal history, b) no one has come forward to corroborate any romantic relationship between Young and Hunter, c) Young is not listed on the birth certificate as the father, d) even Young’s mother says she isn't buying the story, and e) Hunter herself, after publicly stating Young is the father of her child, then invokes a sudden demand for privacy in refusing a paternity test? Did Edwards think his I-will-have-nothing-more-to-say statement would put a cap on all the inquiry? That his on-camera interview would feed the mainstream media to satiation? That he could traipse around Washington avoiding questions about the thousands upon thousands of dollars that had been funneled Rielle Hunter’s way, or dodge any scrutiny into the financial help she and Young received from Fred Baron, Edwards’ longtime chief fundraiser, to move them both across the country? I don’t know how Edwards’ mind works, but I certainly wouldn’t want him to be my president or vice president or attorney general or regular attorney or even friend, frankly. With friends like that who needs… well, you know…

But forget my take. What’s yours? Is Edwards insane, dumb or just a normal guy who fell into some inconvenient circumstances? And who has been hurt most by his whole dig-a-deeper-hole debacle? Edwards himself, his family, Rielle Hunter and her daughter, the friends and associates who appear to have been trying to help him, or the whole Democratic party? Finally, are there any winners here besides the National Enquirer? Do you think this will, and ultimately should, help McCain and his supporters’ cause?

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Is John Edwards Nuts?

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