Elizabeth Edwards Leaving John; John Complete Tool

According to such unimpeachable sources as People, Perez Hilton and The View, Elizabeth Edwards is leaving her husband John – now that the rest of the world knows he likes the Dave Matthews Band (and other shameful revelations):

“It was like watching a traffic pileup occur in slow motion – it was repelling but also transfixing.” That’s former Edwards aide-turned-faux-father-of-Rielle-Hunter’s-baby-turned-new-tell-all-author Andrew Young on the Hunter-Edwards sex tape he found in the trash (and repaired and watched!), but it might as well stand in for this entire clusterfuck. Which has, apparently, culminated in the end of a marriage that once, in the glossy pages of Vanity Fair, met and delighted America. Now, it’s over. And Young’s new book, The Politician, tarnishes John even further.

Whether it was Edwards’ admitted paternity of Hunter’s baby Frances Quinn or a series of Young’s tawdry allegations that proved the breaking point is hard to say; at this point, it really doesn’t matter. To hear Young tell it, Edwards was a petty, venal, hair-obsessed narcissist who referred to his supporters as “fat rednecks,” seemed more than resigned to his wife’s death, contemplated faking paternity tests, called mistress Hunter “a crazy slut,” was furious that she kept the baby, and, oh yeah, was on the Atkins diet by my reckoning long after it had been discredited. In short, he’s an asshole, which at this point we already knew. In fact, at this point I feel like we’re reaching an Edwards disgust saturation-point in which it’s hard to even absorb any more proof of his malfeasance. Is Edwards coming off as awful? You bet – but it’s also becoming increasingly clear just how much is concealed about politicians, period, and just how much concealment is a part of the game. Ineptitude is what always gets them in the end – and in a sense the laundry-list of revelation begins to feel as much like an exercise in self-flagellation, punishment for our collective naivete, as anything else.

In one respect, however, I do feel shocked by revelations in Young’s book. Summarizes the Wall Street Journal,

While Elizabeth was on a book tour for “Saving Graces,” Hunter allegedly spent time at the Edwards home. Young writes that Hunter slept in their bed and entertained the children. He also writes that he listened as Edwards told her that one day they would form their own family and have a wedding where the Dave Matthews Band would play.

The Dave Matthews Band, people. As the Washington Post‘s Richard Cohen reminds us, “John Edwards could have become president.”

John Edwards’ Wife Finally Dumps His Sorry Ass! [People, via PerezHilton]

John Edwards Exposed As Cheating Lowlife, Serial Liar In Book ‘The Politician’ By Andrew Young [NY Daily News]

From John Edwards, Lessons On Celebrity And Politics [Washington Post]
Book Report: ‘The Politician’ By Andrew Young [Wall Street Journal]