Who's your daddy? Rielle Hunter says no paternity test on John Edwards or anyone

Well, so much for Sen. John Edwards' offer to take a paternity test to prove he did not father the infant daughter of his mistress, Rielle Hunter.

Edwards admitted a 2006 affair this week, said according to his timing he could not be the father of the five month-old infant, Frances Quinn Hunter, and said he'd not paid any money to Hunter or the married former Edwards staffer who has said he's the father.

Saturday, Hunter's lawyer, Robert Gordon, issued a statement for his client saying she wanted to forever protect the privacy of her daughter, whose birth certificate from Feb. 27 carries no name on the father line.

“Rielle will not participate in DNA testing or any other invasion of her or her daughter's privacy now or in the future," Gordon said.

Be sure to watch the Rielle Hunter video at the end of this item.

Edwards, who publicly denied the affair until he admitted it, has said, and his wife Elizabeth has confirmed, that the former Democratic senator and presidential candidate told her about his liaison with Hunter in 2006 and it was a difficult period for them.

Edwards says the affair was brief and occurred while his wife's breast cancer was in remission.

In his statement and an interview with ABC, Edwards said, “I am and have been willing to take any test necessary to establish the fact that I am not the father of any baby, and I am truly hopeful that a test will be done so this fact can be definitively established.”

Looks like not. For now.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Photo credit: Chris Hondros / Getty Images

Comments

[MaryJ]

I wonder, how much did Hair Boy pay her for that?

[Deanna Jameson]

Why did Edwards' former staffer get paid to admit that he had an affair with Rielle Hunter? Why would anyone get paid to admit to having an extramarital affair? John Edwards may think he's off the hook after giving a contrived, staged interview with 'Nightline', his problems are far from over yet. He's the baby daddy, no doubt. I guess admitting that fact would have ended his political career for once and ever. Now he's hanging on to it, but to no avail. What a misery.

[Johny]

I'm waiting for the second confession.

[Leon Salter]

Mr. Edwards' behavior is cerainly unacceptable by the norms of most Americans. Such behavior of the egocentric males leaders of our country in the last half of the twentieth century is unacceptable by judeo christian teachings and principles. I do not of all the leaders who have strayed from their stated morals or the vows they have taken when they married, but there are many.(FDR, DDE, JFK, Clinton and on and on) It shows the fallibility of us all. It may not prevent them from serving, but it shows they are not perfect by any stretch. We want to elevate our leaders, but they have not proved themselvesdeserving. They are simply human. Who will be next to let us down? Obama? McCain?

[Alyssa]

He’s probably just scared to admit the truth. But I mean it isn’t as if he couldn’t put it tactfully and poetically: http://www.236.com/news/2008/08/08/john_edwards_throws_lovechild_8208.php There. Now was that so hard?

[Craig]

His wife to me is considered a high price prostitute, all the senators wifes are when they stay with there husbands after they cheat on them. Way to go ladies, you have set the womans movement back 30 years. Truly a disgrace to women every where. HIGH priced prostitute; because the only reason you stay is so you dont lose your lifestyle!

[Depressing]

Obviously, if he admits to the child, then it becomes clear he was cheating on his wife while she fights cancer (and cheating on his wife during the primaries, which is a far less important issue, but still of significance.)

That must be why he refused to identify a time line for the affair.

Is that why he referred to McCain in his interview? Didn't John McCain abandon his 1st wife when she was ill (along with Newt Gingrich?) The Repubs sure are staying quiet so perhaps they don't want similar issues brought up.

It is questionable whether he did in fact inform his family back in 2006. Perhaps Elizabeth Edwards just learned of it and refused to appear on Nightline.

And now a newborn baby is going to face life long issues about being rejected/abandoned by a parent.

[Tim_CA]

Wow...you guys were finaly given permission by the Times Censorship Bureau to Blog about the story I see!!

Well good for you!! The rest of the Blogosphere is elsewhere reading the real story.

Pretty sad when you have to depend on the Enquirer for local L.A. news without a pointed liberal agenda - but you've once again proven where the LAT's loyalties lie.

So now you've become even less relevant.

I'm sure you're all very proud!

[Elect Non-Lawyers]

He must've paid her off.

Lawyers think they are above the law and accountable to no one. Especially good looking ones who can trick many people with a smile.

America needs more politicians who aren't lawyers.

[GEAH]

Okay, LA Times. Here's your chance to (partially) redeem yourself.

Find out who the baby daddy is. Camp out in front of Hunter's love shack. Go through the trash. Find a diaper. Get the baby's DNA. Then go to Edwards' hairdresser (I'm sure he's there daily) and get a DNA sample from him.

Then Edwards can do another interview with DNA, reminding us that he's 99% honest.

Oh, who am I kidding? The LA Times will watch from the sidelines while real reporters do the real work and get the real story. Then, maybe, the LA Times will report on the successes of other publications.

[Jim Traynor]

The broo ha ha over this is just as stupid as the big deal that was made over Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky. Men are men. Men like women, and they like to sleep with them, and women like powerful men and want to sleep with them, regardless of whether that man may already have a woman. When America starts realizing that, it will be a better, happier place.

The false ideas imposed by a puritanical version of Christianity practiced in the USA, disrupt families and impose expectations that cannot be lived up to. Forcing men to have only one wife is the fundamental error that broke with a long biblical tradition that is natural to the way that God created man. Man is meant to have more than one wife. Because Christians have imposed their contorted ideas upon the law, this is now forbidden. So, children are now habitually born out of wedlock, and marriages are broken simply because there is another woman in the man's life. This leads to unhappiness and societal stress.

America needs to return to the biblical ways. Polygamy should be legalized.

[Alessandro Machi]

I think it is sad that normal people can't cut the good looking successful folk some slack. If everywhere I went, people were anticipating my entrance, and perhaps had spent a day at the hair salon, bought a new dress, new perfume, and primped, and hung on my every word, I probably would give in to some temptation at some point.

But alas, most of us don't have to worry about such behavior from those who meet us, so why do we choose to be so judgemental of those who live in a lifestyle we can't even fathom?

All I care about is do they put in an actual day's work and use their brilliance to solve problems, that is what matters most.

http://www.HILLARY-WINS.com
http://www.CAUCUSCHEATING.com
http://www.PROTEST-POSTCARDS.com
http;//www.FAIR-REFLECTION.com

[Diana]

Edwards isn't the daddy. It's time to see how many others Rielle's met with since the stories I've read said he's admitted his mistake, and I think Rielle doesn't want anyone probing into her personal life because they might unturn too many stones she doesn't want unturned. Read the story about how she told the Newsweek reporter, "What Rielle Told Me"..this story says plenty and she's quite the mover. Plus, she doesn't want a paternity test, but, her younger sister does, how interesting. Sounds like the younger sister sees $$ signs, and wouldn't surprise me if they were the tip-off's to the NE about Edwards meeting her at the hotel, how convenient. There's an election coming up, bujt more important than trying to nail Edwards, you all should keep your eye on what's happening in DC and not let this be used as a distraction because DC is where it's happening.

[Aly]

Wow, think of this - the oldest trick in the book - get pregs and you have 21 years of financial stability. Given that the woman was living in a $3 million home in a gated community where he could have visited her for the 5 hours, they opt to go to a 5-star hotel in Beverly Hills where the press had rented a room, knowing that he would show. Second oldest trick in the book - come in for the kill - Hunter probably tipped them off, herself, setting up a very public place versus her home for the meeting. So, her privacy argument is rather shakey- she went to a hotel meeting? Come on. It's easier to get into a hotel lobby than a gated community. Anyway, what was he doing there till 2 in the morning if it was over and done with? He is so arrogant that he has gone so far as to say his God forgives him. How can he be sure he won't burn in hell for putting his sick wife through all of this? Four hundred dollar hair cuts, five star hotels and a baby with a stand in father. Is this turning into the Anna Nicole story? Whose your daddy. Hunter will further gain by this - here comes Barbara Walters' exclusive interview, Vanity Fair, sell the pictures to People magazine. America, we have another no-talent celebrity! Here we go again. BTW - who's paying her $15,000 a month - him or taxpayers? But, the sooner we forget her, rather than try to see her on tv, the less she stands to make even more money off of the scandal - time to forget both Hunter and Edwards. Personally, I don't want to buy anymore into it.

[teresa30701]

There is something much bigger going on in this story.

Yes, yes, yes, many people behaving badly... but what is the most harmful behavior? I think the worst is the cover-up, bigger than just an indiscrete affair. And it has EVERYTHING to do with Edwards and his buddy Fred Baron. Rielle Hunter and Andrew Young, and Young's wife and children are living together, same house, in a multi-million dollar gated community in Santa Barbara, without any means of support other than money coming from Fred Baron. Supposedly, Baron also owns the multi-million dollar home they are in. But is it a home? Or a prison? Fred Baron is one of the key fundraisers for the Democratic Party and a very good friend of John Edwards. (Fred Baron, a trial lawyer, who also has an $11 million estate in Texas made his fortune the same way that Edwards made his, in plaintiff litigation settlements.) These two guys are in collusion, and I suspect the Democratic party already knows about it. They know.

Edwards is against tort reform (those high settlements that drive up our insurances, resulting in things like higher medical costs.) Baron and other influential democratic lawyers were hoping to get Edwards on that short list for VP... and if not as Obama's running mate, then as Attorney General if Obama won the presidency. These guys DO NOT want tort reform. If you read Frederick Baron's wikipedia entry, there is a chilling paragraph referring to a Wall Street Journal interview from 2002:
"Baron has joked about the prominence he and other trial lawyers have in the Democratic Party. In a July 2002 speech, he noted a Wall Street Journal editorial that said that "the plaintiffs bar is all but running the Senate." Baron pointed to the editorial and said, "Now I really, strongly disagree with that. Particularly the 'all but.'"

Edwards screwed up (literally)... and now the trial lawyers "running the Senate" are protecting their ass-ets. They are willing to cloak this debacle in any way possible. Rielle Hunter is not an innocent... ok....but I think she is not as corrupt as the people playing her.

We really, really need MSM to do their job, investigate.

[klm]

McCain already did this, to his first wife, who he left to marry his current wife months later. She was wealthy, young, and blonde. His 1st wife who waited for him and health problems. For reference find archive L.A. Times article about the Reagans (who helped McCain's first wife through the difficulty) and their dislike of John McCain.

[jbautista]

What is amazing is how it is the big shot poltician who is at fault for having an affair, yet the woman is off the hook for knowingly having sexual relations with a married man. Was it Edwards egotism that got him in this trouble or the Hunter or Druck or whatever her name is, who had a desire to become famous, yet the only way for her to do so was to have sex with a politician?

[ed]

@Craig

I disagree with the term "high priced prostitutes". Perhaps women who stay with cheating husbands consider their lifestyles as a factor but that does not make them a prostitute. They are highly dependent because it is a life they have been accustomed to perhaps even prior to marriage.

[DaddyEdwards]

How CONVIENIENT for her to "hide" the truth. Mr. High and Mighty (acid tongue fake when Clinton was on the grill)

This man oozes FAKE/ LIAR. Notice a thread here....they are ALL lawyers!

[Your dad is Obama's Alter ego]

They both conspired to beat Hillary with the mutual promise that the winner would take the other as his
running mate. Their complicity was more than obvious in
the 3 way debates and it was governor Judas who
remarked hypocritically on it before he gave up and was
bought out by Obama. James Carville saw through this
sting and stigmatized the new-mexico governor quite
appropriately in the circumstances. Obama has known for
months about Edwards turpitude and attempted to delect
attention to it by throwing racism accusations at the Clintons.Edwards only aim was to take enough far left
votes from Hillary to pave the way for his Chicago
accomplice. How would you like to be saddledwith either of
theese to bums as your dad ?

[Red Sky]

Hardly wait for the "Tell all Book,the movie made based on the book!"

[cally]

Re Craig's post above:

She has cancer you idiot. She is trying to survive. You are a bigger cad than Edwards if you can't figure out why women stay with men who cheat on them.

[Dwight]

Craig,
There are women and men in this world that will forgive a spouse for one indiscretion. It is a serious undertaking to break up a family with children still at home. It may very well be financial interdependence. But it could also be a better understanding of the circumstances surrounding the event than anyone outside the relationship.

Forgiveness for all is required of Christians, I would think that a repentant spouse, with whom one has made a lifetime commitment would deserve no less.

[Matt]

Hunter is doing this to mess with Edwards. She won't allow a paternity test because she doesn't want Edwards to get off the hook by proving he is not the father.

She probably tipped off the Enquirer and let them put the "hidden camera" in her hotel room, too. Edwards was really stupid to walk into that trap.

[smart choice]

Edwards met with Reille in the hotel room probably to ask her not to reveal his paternity while his wife is still alive. If she succumbs to cancer, you'll learn for sure who the father is.