"Edwards told ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff he did have an affair with 42-year old Rielle Hunter, but said that he did not love her."

Typical male attitude. He admits he had an affair, but it was okay because he did not love her. Same thinking as Eliot Spitzer. He didn't love that woman he was with either.

Edwards' personal character flaw is at this time his concern, and his family's concern, not so much ours. He is a private citizen. Had he become our nominee, his irresponsibility would have been a campaign disaster, I agree. But he's not.

Giving this story any more energy enables Republican gasbags to use it as a cudgel, a distraction and a way to ask innuendo-laden questions about the Obamas' marriage. Perhaps we should be discussing John McCain's dubious marital history instead. After all, he is the nominee.

By the way, you probably know that I was an Edwards supporter, so perhaps by your lights I have an extra right to feel betrayed. I'm not defending what he did to his family, but I'm much more revolted by a press and an army of right-wing hypocrites who think they have the right to air anybody's dirty laundry, whether or not it bears on their ability to do their job, or if they even have no job. Let's deal with what is, not what might have been.

What is really sad about this is that John Edwards had been a bright, shining light in the party. He was out there talking about the poverty issue when few other candidates or party officials wanted to face it. Every candidate wants to champion the middle class, but few want to tackle the real issues behind the class divide in this country and even fewer want to talk about how many people are out there living in poverty and raising their familiies in squalid conditions in the middle of this supposedly rich country. John Edwards made this the center of his campaign and he was going to be just as much a champion for fighting poverty as Al Gore has become for fighting global warming.

But now John Edwards can't even show his face in public. The Obama people have reportedly told him to stay the hell away from Denver on Convention week. Far away. So the Edwards delegates and supporters will not get their moment with him on the podium moving the country as he moved them. Edwards won't get a cabinet position now, as he surely was in line for, to continue his fight against poverty. He is now being eaten alive by the press. The whole thing is sad.