ABC NEWS: John Edwards repeatedly lied during his Presidential campaign about an extramarital affair with a novice filmmaker, the former Senator admitted to ABC. In an interview for broadcast tonight on Nightline, Edwards told ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff he did have an affair with 44-year old Rielle Hunter, but said that he did not love her. Edwards also denied he was the father of Hunter’s baby girl, Frances Quinn, although the one-time Democratic Presidential candidate said he has not taken a paternity test. Edwards said he knew he was not the father based on timing of the baby’s birth on February 27, 2008. He said his affair ended too soon for him to have been the father. MORE
JOHN EDWARDS: “In 2006, I made a serious error in judgment and conducted myself in a way that was disloyal to my family and to my core beliefs. I recognized my mistake and I told my wife that I had a liaison with another woman, and I asked for her forgiveness. Although I was honest in every painful detail with my family, I did not tell the public. When a supermarket tabloid told a version of the story, I used the fact that the story contained many falsities to deny it. But being 99 percent honest is no longer enough.
I was and am ashamed of my conduct and choices, and I had hoped that it would never become public. With my family, I took responsibility for my actions in 2006 and today I take full responsibility publicly. But that misconduct took place for a short period in 2006. It ended then. 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. I only know that the apparent father has said publicly that he is the father of the baby. I also have not been engaged in any activity of any description that requested, agreed to or supported payments of any kind to the woman or to the apparent father of the baby.
It is inadequate to say to the people who believed in me that I am sorry, as it is inadequate to say to the people who love me that I am sorry. In the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic. If you want to beat me up — feel free. You cannot beat me up more than I have already beaten up myself. I have been stripped bare and will now work with everything I have to help my family and others who need my help. I have given a complete interview on this matter and having done so, will have nothing more to say. [via ASSOCIATED PRESS]
DALLAS MORNING NEWS: Dallas lawyer Fred Baron told The Dallas Morning News today that he paid relocation and housing expenses for the woman that former presidential candidate John Edwards has confessed to having an affair with. Mr. Baron, who was chairman of Mr. Edwards’ presidential campaign finance committee, said he paid money for Rielle Hunter to move from North Carolina to another location. MORE
ABC NEWS: John Edwards’ admission that he had an extramarital affair puts pressure on Sen.
Barack Obama to quickly distance himself from the former North Carolina senator and prominent Democrats are calling on him to announce immediately that Edwards will not have any role at the Democratic National Convention. MORE
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: Is it worse when a darling of progressives betrays you than if it’s Newt Gingrich? Better? The same? Was there a conspiracy to out Edwards hatched in a political brain? Will the MSM ever figure out the journalistic etiquette following a big tabloid scoop? Does anyone really think that a story splashed in the tabs and debated on blogs like a powerful fire back draft is 
somehow not part of the public discourse? And if it’s true – except, according to Edwards, the baby part – and the Enquirer first reported it in October of 2007, then apparently caught the guy at the Hilton with Hunter last month, how come it took everyone else so long to get there? Gary Hart’s presidental chances were dead and buried in a heartbeat after he challenged the media to bust him. Why can the Miami Herald stake out Hart and still have principles but Edwards is treed in a hotel basement in the dead of night by the National Enquirer and no one else will take the shot? MORE
PAUL BEGALA: “Obviously, unless he heals his family he can never heal his career,” Begala said. “But supposing he does that, yes he can come back. Divorce was once a career-ender, then Ronald Reagan changed that. No one 
confronts Newt Gingrich about his infidelity, nor my old boss. Maybe folks are starting to practice what they preach about letting he who is without sin cast the first stone.” MORE
ALSO: After decades of entertaining women (and men!) turning their lips into a smile with pictures of men, either completely naked, or stripping, Playgirl magazine bids farewell to its printed version. Founded in 1973, during a breath of feminist venture, as an answer to erotic magazines for men led by Playboy and Penthouse, Playgirl was often called infamous for daring to put pictures of naked men on its pages. MORE
OLBERMANN: Elizabeth Edwards’ Statement