Thrilling swimming races and scary Cold War flashbacks have snatched our collective attention from the John Edwards affair bombshell, but before moving on completely, I just wanted to make a couple of quick comments.

First, Edwards is a sleazebag. But not so much cause he first lied about the affair and in the process slandered the writers who reported the news - his entire political career was on the line so it's easy to understand why he tried so hard to deny the story (and why he probably did much worse to keep the story hush-hush).

And not so much cause he cheated on his wife - I've been stung hard by infidelity and it's a truly awful thing to do to someone you love, but we are human beings, capable of failure and not necessarily designed for monogamy, so I'm not about to judge him solely for falling to temptation.

And not even cause he allegedly cheated on his wife as she battled cancer, which is most certainly tough to stomach, but again I don't want to judge, because I don't know the whole story and because then I'd be JUST LIKE HIM.

It's Edwards' hypocrisy that truly bothers me. Edwards was never one to shy away from judging others' conduct. At a primary debate this spring, Edwards scolded Obama and Clinton for bickering with each other, declaring he was from the 'grown-up wing' of the Democratic Party.

In an interview with Katie Couric, Edwards said he made the decision to rerun for President after finding out the extent of his wife's disease, and implied that he would be a morally superior candidate - "I think every single candidate for president, Republican and Democratic, have lives, personal lives, that indicate something about what kind of human being they are. And I think it is a fair evaluation for America to engage in to look at what kind of human beings each of us are, and what kind of president we'd make."

A few years earlier, Edwards couldn't resist commenting on President Bill Clinton's infidelity: "I think this President has shown a remarkable disrespect for his office, for the moral dimensions of leadership, for his friends, for his wife, for his precious daughter. It is breathtaking to me the level to which that disrespect has risen ..."

Edwards' whole political persona was premised on the idea of fighting for the little guy, the poor, the disenfranchised. Just please try not to notice his multimillion dollar mansion or fancy beach house, the $400 haircut, his $55,000 fee for giving a speech on poverty, his disturbing record on tort reform legislation.  The fact that anyone ever bought his spiel amazes me; He always reminded me of a used car salesman. or more accurately, like the slick trial lawyer/politician he is.

Edwards, who loved to speak of his faith,  once said that Jesus would be appalled at "our ignoring the plight of those around us who are suffering and our focus on our own selfish short-term needs"

Amen, brother.

p.s. after writing this, i watched on my DVR the Daily Show-edited version of Edwards' Nightline confession, and can now honestly say calling him a hypocritical sleazebag is an insult to hypocritical sleazebags.

In the interview, he apparently felt it was necessary to say that none of his family were 'responsible for (his affair)"; said he didn't want to talk about other politicians' affairs and yet brought up McCain's infidelity, and then pointed out that his wife was actually in remission during his affair (Jon Stewart joked that Edwards "was just celebrating' and 'wanted to shoot off fireworks but they were illegal').

Here are some YouTube links to the full Nightline interview -
Part 1- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCc7x4z52o0&feature=related

part 2- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbL-vj-RKxQ&feature=related