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Blogs buzzing about alleged Edwards affair

By amNewYork staff

8:25 PM EDT, July 24, 2008

Political blogs are buzzing about ex-Democratic Sen. John Edwards' political future after a National Enquirer report this week that the former presidential candidate visited a woman the supermarket tabloid describes as his mistress and mother of their love child.

The Enquirer reported that the 55-year-old married father of three went to the Beverly Hilton Monday night, where he reportedly visited Rielle Hunter, a woman the magazine claimed last year had sired a child with Edwards.

Several Enquirer reporters confronted Edwards at 2:40 a.m. Tuesday as he tried to leave through the basement of the Los Angeles hotel, but he high-tailed it without comment, the magazine said.

Reports of the affair with the divorcee, which first surfaced while the former North Carolina lawmaker was still a presidential contender, have been widely ignored by the mainstream media. Edwards, whose wife Elizabeth is battling cancer, staunchly denied a romantic involvement with the woman last year. Hunter has said she was pregnant by an Edwards' aide.

"The story is false. It's completely untrue, ridiculous," Edwards said last year.

This week, the Los Angeles Times blog, "Opinion LA," picked up the Enquirer's report, suggesting the story reduced the likelihood that Edwards would be tapped as a vice presidential candidate by Barack Obama . And the respected Washington magazine The Hill published an article Wednesday detailing reports of the affair, and how they might impact Edwards' role in an Obama White House.

"What will happen now?, " the article in The Hill asked. "Well, we probably won't hear as many mentions of Edwards as a possible key player in an Obama administration."

Edwards had indicated earlier this year that he was not interested in running for vice president, but has recently suggested he might be interested in the position.