PICTURE NOT RELATED: “Stigmatization of St Catherine of Siena” by Domenico di Giacomo di Pace “Beccafumi” il Mecherino

SHE SAID: “The innuendoes and lies that have appeared on the internet and in the National Enquirer concerning John Edwards are not true, completely unfounded and ridiculous. My video production company was hired by the Edwards camp on a 6 month contract, which we completed December 31, 2006. When working for the Edwards camp, my conduct as well as the conduct of my entire team was completely professional. This concocted story is just dirty politics and I want no part of it.” [Rielle Hunter via MYDD]

HE SAID: “The story is false. It’s completely untrue, ridiculous.”” [John Edwards via ASSOCIATED PRESS]

*

And then there’s this:

Statement On Behalf Of Andrew Young
December 19, 2007

As confirmed by Ms. Hunter, Andrew Young is the father of her unborn child.

Senator Edwards knew nothing about the relationship between these former co-workers, which began when they worked together in 2006.

As a private citizen who no longer works for the campaign, Mr. Young asks that the media respect his privacy while he works to make amends with his family.

Pamela J. Marple
Attorney for Mr. Young

PREVIOUSLY: The John Edwards ‘Love Child’ Blues
HUFFINGTON POST: Who IS Reille Hunter?
RELATED: Seven weeks after the first story, one Enquirer insider admits, “There’s a lot of smoke” but “no smoking gun.” Edwards himself has another explanation for the delay. “The story disappeared because it’s made up,” the Democratic candidate tells us. Meanwhile, Edwards said his wife, Elizabeth, continued to bravely wage her battle against cancer.

NEW YORK TIMES: Mr. Edwards strode in as if he were climbing into a boxing ring. For half an hour, he talked about fighting special interests and battling corporations. He urged his audience to “rise up” against health care companies and insurance executives. Pugilistic until the end, he loudly told a story of how his father ordered him to go out and “kick that guy’s butt” after he came home from school with a bloodied nose, suggesting that was a lesson he would carry into the White House as well. MORE

NEWSWEEK: [John Edwards] made some questionable choices for a champion of the underprivileged. He built a 25,000-square-foot house, the most expensive in North Carolina’s affluent Orange County. He got caught paying a ridiculous sum for a haircut. More seriously, he took a part-time, $500,000 consulting job with Fortress Investment Group, a hedge fund of the type that has become a symbol of Wall Street excess. Edwards invested nearly $16 million of his own money in the fund. This summer, it was revealed that Fortress invested in two major subprime lenders that had sought to foreclose on victims of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana—an unflattering detail for a candidate who launched his campaign with a speech in the Lower Ninth Ward. MORE