What does a politician do with his days after being disgraced in public, indicted on federal charges and losing a wife that left video testimony against him for his upcoming trial? Spend a lot of time with his late loved ones, according to a recent profile of former Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards. Daily Beast writer Michelle Cottle spent Edwards’ birthday in his native Chapel Hill, where residents noted he was so despised he was mostly seen alone these days, by tour guides at the local cemetery.

Elizabeth Edwards, who passed away from cancer in early December of last year, has left a damning video testimony highlighting what she knew about her husband John Edwards‘ extramarital affair with his former campaign worker, Rielle Hunter … this, at least, according to an exclusive by The National Enquirer, the publication that first broke the story of Edwards’ affair and subsequent child with Hunter.

News outlets are abuzz over a report that John Edwards has proposed to Rielle Hunter, his former mistress with whom he had a child, just a few weeks after the death of his wife, Elizabeth. The interesting thing is that the initial report came from the National Enquirer. The tabloid famously was the first to break the story of Edwards’ affair and child, so the media has seemingly collectively decided that Enquirer stories of Edwards and Hunter are the only ones they’ll “deign” to cover.

Multiple sources are now reporting that Elizabeth Edwards has died from cancer at her home in North Carolina today. Writing for the News Observer, Rob Christensen and Mandy Locke report: Elizabeth Anania Edwards, who became a national figure in her fight against cancer and as a partner in her husband John’s political career, died today. [...]

Rielle Hunter made her much-promoted appearance, flatteringly lit, on Oprah Winfrey today to discuss her long and sorted (Pulitzer Prize eligible) relationship with the Edwards family. Nothing terribly jaw-dropping was revealed (mostly because it had already been revealed…again and again!) though there are a couple of the exchanges that will likely set the morning talks shows on fire for the next few days.

Who: Julianna Margulies, Christine Baranski, Josh Charles, Archie Panjabi, Matt Czuchry, moderated by Matt Roush
What: “An Evening with The Good Wife”
Where: Paley Center for Media
When: April 21, 2010
Thumbs: Up

Every single person involved in the John Edwards story is awful.

But People magazine is still Team Elizabeth, and gets Elizabeth Edwards‘ PR team’s spin reaction to the GQ Rielle Hunter interview. And the Today show dug deeper.

In case you missed it, here are some key concepts surrounding this bizarre story: Presidential Candidacy, Baby Dady, Mistress, Sex Tape, Cover up and Mastermind. The players? John Edwards, Rielle Hunter, Elizabeth Edwards and Andrew Young (former staffer to the Edwards presidential campaign.) Yesterday, Geraldo Rivera interviewed Young about the existence of the so called steamy sex tape, a video of which follows

According to the Pulitzer Prize-nominated National Enquirer a Federal grand jury is about to indict John Edwards. Also, Elizabeth may be helping to send him to jail, though they don’t actually provide detail on this front…and really, who could blame her if this happens to be true.

Politics is a dirty business, but but even among the thickest of thick-skinned folk there have been few scandals as stomach-churning as the John Edwards sex scandal. Yet out of all this irresponsible suffering, Newsweek has found an unlikely hero: Rielle Hunter.

Just like last week, former John Edwards aide Andrew Young was back on cable news to talk about the latest revelations in the Edwards soap opera, including reports the former Senator may now be engaged to Rielle Hunter.

But that’s not all! Young was on Fox & Friends this morning to discuss everything Edwards-related.

Evidently its the season to heap vast amounts of shameful detail on sleazy politicians who were long ago buried alive in vast amounts of shameful detail. Not a week after Andrew Young, the malleable former aide to John Edwards, released The Politician, the New York Daily News has reported that Staying True , a memoir by Jenny Sanford, the soon-to-be ex-wife of the disgraced satyr-governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford, will come out this Friday. . .

That’s the question poised in Clark Hoyt‘s public editor column in the New York Times this Sunday, as Game Change tops the paper’s nonfiction best-sellers list. The “racy” stories of “dysfunctional” relationships are captivaating, but led Hoyt to a question of journalistic ethics: “How do you deal with a talker of a book reported in a way that the paper’s own standards do not permit?”

Last night’s 20/20 featured an exclusive interview by Bob Woodruff with Andrew Young, a former John Edwards aide and author of the upcoming tell-all The Politician. 8.1 million people watched, the highest-rated 20/20 in nearly three months. If you missed it, we’ve got a clip from the show, detailing Edwards’ reaction immediately after the National Enquirer caught him at the Beverly Hilton visiting Rielle Hunter and their child.

It’s with some trepidation that I continue to report on the sick, sad, can’t-make-this-up story surrounding John Edwards. I never liked the guy, he’s no longer a public figure, he’ll never be a public figure, and all of this ugliness occurred when he was a private citizen, albeit one running for the most powerful position in the world. Nevertheless, I know I’m not the only one who can’t look away from this story. So here’s what’s breaking in our Tar Heel Soap Opera:

I guess this can be called the first iPad news dump. ABC News is reporting that John and Elizabeth Edwards have officially split, which is only shocking in so far as it took this long to happen. The timing of the announcement was obviously carefully coordinated: Elizabeth Edwards is on the cover of this week’s People magazine announcing the split, something obviously organized in advance. However, People didn’t make the cover or article available on this site until sometime this afternoon.

When Game Change authors Mark Halperin and John Heilemann joined Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough in discussing their best-selling and oft blogged about book, Halperin mentioned that the authors are in discussions with HBO about making a film version. Their dreamcast? Meryl Streep playing Hillary Clinton and Will Smith playing Barack Obama. Mediaite’s ideal cast is after the jump!

Game Change, the dishy, exhaustively researched, and occasionally overwritten new book on the 2008 election by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, has dominated both political gossip and book publicity for the past week. It’s produced a small political scandal, a New York magazine cover story, and innumerable blog chatter. The book has been number one on Amazon since the day before its release, and the print run has reportedly already been increased twice. But it’s long — so if you’re busy, here’s the good stuff to tide you over.

That’s the provocative claim (the web loves reactions — and clicks!) made in Emily Miller‘s column for Politics Daily, entitled “Does the National Enquirer Deserve a Pulitzer for Breaking the John Edwards Scandal?” Well, Ms. Miller, what does the paper deserve? Let’s run down her case inside. It’s not as crazy as it sounds.

A DC local news station, WJLA, has gotten into hot water in some quarters for airing a bare-breasted, unpixelated guide to breast self-exams. Critics say it’s a salacious ratings ploy, but defenders say it’s a valuable public service. Could it be both?

Ten days ago the New York Times ran a A-1 takedown piece on John Edwards that relied heavily on revelations made in a book proposal by former Edwards aide Andrew Young. Politico has now taken the time to do what the NYT didn’t do in their original piece and provide some background on Young. It ain’t pretty.

The New York Times is not going to be scooped by the National Enquirer anymore! The Times is running an A-1 story today about the latest developments in the John Edwards “drama” and its plenty sordid. However there is something slightly more worrisome than Edward’s alleged behavior. Many of the most damning elements of the piece are paraphrased from a book proposal that has just gone out to publishers. Did anyone vet this proposal?