Circling the wagons

(via the NYT)

A rather eye opening account of what damage control looks like in the big leagues:

As tabloid reports of a sex scandal threatened former Senator John Edwards’s presidential campaign last December on the eve of the Iowa caucuses, two lawyers surfaced with written statements that appeared to exonerate the candidate.

One of them, Robert J. Gordon of New York, said that his client, Rielle Hunter, a pregnant 43-year-old filmmaker, was not carrying Mr. Edwards’s child. Shortly thereafter, the other lawyer, Pamela J. Marple of Washington, sent word that her client, Andrew Young, an Edwards campaign aide, was the baby’s father.

Seemingly issued independently of Mr. Edwards, the statements appeared to deflate the anonymously sourced reports of an Edwards tryst. But what went unnoticed was that the two lawyers shared an important connection to Mr. Edwards that suggests they were part of an orchestrated effort to protect him, one that is continuing even after he admitted last week that he had an affair with Ms. Hunter but denied that he fathered her child.

The lawyers are linked through Fred Baron, a wealthy Dallas lawyer and former finance chairman for the Edwards campaign who was a key player in the campaign’s response to the scandal. Mr. Gordon has worked with Mr. Baron on class-action personal injury cases, and Ms. Marple helped defend a lawsuit brought against both men and their law firms by an asbestos manufacturer.

After initially saying that he did not know how the lawyers were chosen to represent Ms. Hunter and Mr. Young, Mr. Baron acknowledged that he might have played a role.

Here's a loose end I sincerely hope is being followed up on: This Mr. Young, who has gamely jumped in to assert his parentage over this child - how is it that he know it's his kid?

Surely he had ample reason (his wife and family perhaps) to deny he was the father. What brought him around? Was there a paternity test? Have there been any comments by Mr. Young's spouse on the situation?

Just because the story's been told - what assurances do we have that this isn't another smoke screen?

Oh and Edwards? You're a dork.

If you're going to fool around - you should have switched parties first.
Then your colleagues would rush to your defense - and your political career could continue without pausing.

Now, you'll have to wait until the voters forget (that might take a year!)