Remember when John Edwards was John Kerry’s VP pick? Doesn’t that seem like a long time ago? Who am I kidding: his Presidential campaign seems like a long time ago. His extramarital affair certainly didn’t do him any favors. I have the feeling that this won’t, either. Via the AP Wire:

His once-prominent political career is buried and the turmoil of his marriage is playing out in public. Now, John Edwards is facing a federal inquiry.

The two-time Democratic presidential candidate acknowledged Sunday that investigators are assessing how he spent his campaign funds – a subject that could carry his extramarital affair from the tabloids to the courtroom. Edwards’ political action committee paid more than $100,000 for video production to the firm of the woman with whom Edwards had an affair.

The former North Carolina senator said in a carefully worded statement that he is cooperating.

“I am confident that no funds from my campaign were used improperly,” Edwards said in the statement. “However, I know that it is the role of government to ensure that this is true. We have made available to the United States both the people and the information necessary to help them get the issue resolved efficiently and in a timely matter.”

I read that as, “I’m pretty sure I’m screwed.” You’ll notice that he only mentioned campaign funds. Apparently, there’s more to it than that:

While Edwards focused his comment on campaign funds, he also had a range of other fundraising organizations – including two nonprofits and a poverty center at his alma mater – that have come under scrutiny.

Chief among them was the PAC that paid Rielle Hunter’s company for several months in 2006 for Web videos that documented Edwards’ travels and advocacy in the months leading up to his 2008 presidential campaign. The committee also paid her firm an additional $14,086.50 on April 1, 2007.

Edwards acknowledged the affair with Hunter last year, months after dropping his presidential bid.

At the time of the 2007 payment, the PAC only had $7,932.95 in cash on hand, according to records filed with the Federal Election Commission. That day, according to the records, Edwards’ presidential campaign paid the PAC $14,034.61 for what is listed as a “furniture purchase.”

Willfully converting money from a political action committee for personal use is a federal crime.

The furniture money was one of just five contributions to the political action committee between April 1 to June 30, 2007. The other four were on June 30, the last day of the reporting period, including a $3,000 contribution from the wife of Edwards’ finance chairman, Fred Baron.

I guess it is sort of sad to see a politician fall like this, but at the same time, I don’t think anyone can really argue that he brought all of this on himself. I’m thinking back on his campaign, and I guess it’s kind of funny that I agreed with him on a lot of things. On an issues-only basis, I agreed with him as much as any of the candidates. Of course, I realized he had about the same chances as a one-legged man in an ass kicking contest, but I found a lot of what he said to be agreeable. I guess there won’t be a 2012 campaign for old John boy, huh?

In case we’ve already forgotten, there is one more victim in this blazed trail of self-destruction: his wife. The article doesn’t fail to mention her:

Since announcing the affair, Edwards has remained largely secluded, and he canceled all his public appearances before the November election because he said he didn’t want to be a distraction for Obama.

His wife, Elizabeth, who is terminally ill with cancer, will soon be releasing a book talking about the affair. In it, she writes that news of the affair made her vomit. She also describes Hunter as “pathetic.”

I hope that she has something at least as scathing reserved for her husband. It’s something I’ve never understood about people whose significant others cheat on them: why are they more upset with the third party than with the person who apparently didn’t care about monogamy? Sure, there are people who have no qualms about trying to break up a relationship, but it still takes two people to cheat on a third. At any rate, it’s too bad that she had to be dragged into all of that, but I guess that’s what happens when your husband is a prominent politician.

(TE)DC