The trials of John Edwards continue. Literally and figuratively. Today’s newscycle is such that Edwards debacles may seem like a bit of a distant memory, but the philandering former Presidential candidate is still in court tangling over access to the sex tape he allegedly made with Rielle Hunter, his former mistress and mother of his child.

The national media have been much quicker to report on the National Enquirer-driven Al Gore sex scandal than they were the John Edwards story, both of which featured underpinnings of traditional journalism, such as named sources, documents, and in Edwards’ case, photographs. It may surprise some, then, that quick-to-lecture-on-journalism Politics Daily Chief Editor Melinda Henneberger is peddling a new rumor about Gore, with a single anonymous source. (h/t Drudge and Washington Examiner)

The New Republic just published a piece by Gabriel Sherman documenting how John Edwards spends his endless hours of spare time now that his political career has been chucked in the wood chipper. Jogging on the beach in North Carolina, taking lengthy lunch breaks at Wendy’s, and partying with drunk Duke coeds are just a few of his hobbies. Sound familiar?

Over the weekend the National Enquirer published an “exclusive” story claiming President Obama had had an affair in 2004. Drudge ran it as its lede, giving the story a level of attentionit probably shouldn’t have received. When reached for clarification, the National Enquirer is standing by their story.

The story of John Edwards‘ affair with Rielle Hunter seems to have raised a media meta-quandary about how to treat stories reported by The National Enquirer. Should we report on them? Should we report that they’re being reported? Throw in a Drudge link to an already explosive rumor like, say, the President covering up an affair with a former campaign staffer, and it’s damn near irresistible. There is a responsible way to cover something like this

The National Enquirer, which published a report this morning that “investigators are attempting to obtain a tape” that proved an illicit rendezvous between President Barack Obama and former US Senate campaign staffer Vera Baker, has updated their story this afternoon to retract the claim that there is video evidence of the affair with the alleged testimony of an anonymous chauffeur. Looks like the National Enquirer Obama sex scandal is unraveling rather quickly.

Chaos in Arizona, an oil spill the size of Rhode Island, and now this on the eve of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner: the National Enquirer published a story last night claiming that President Barack Obama was caught having an affair with a former campaign staffer at a Washington hotel, and they might have the tape to prove it. (UPDATE: Enquirer retracts video claim)

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

John Edwards must be thanking Rielle Hunter‘s earth spirits that Jesse James has dethroned him as the most despised man in America. Sandra Bullock‘s disgraced husband who cheated on her with some sort of tattoo fetishist, is now under fire for a photo of him sieg-heiling in a Nazi hat, and he’s pulling out the oldest trick in the book: “some of my best friends are Jewish!”

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.

Andrew Young certainly hopes so. The former John Edwards aide – who is admittedly leveraging all he can out of the former VP candidate’s sex scandal with Rielle Hunter – is now starting to hint at other women Edwards may have been involved with.

The pictures are, in fact, kind of sexy. There, I said it. Rielle Hunter, the woman behind the man who might give the National Enquirer its first Pulitzer, has finally come out of her shell. In a big way. Her interview with GQ is all over the place (in more ways than one), but it’s the accompanying photo spread that’s getting all the attention. The revealing shots have drawn near-universal condemnation (even from Hunter) for their odd mixture of stuffed animals and a seemingly fresh-from-sexytime Hunter. I’m here to tell Rielle not to be so hard on herself.

Now that Rielle Hunter is talking (and crying) it’s time for the other player in the John Edwards soap opera to come forward and make the media rounds as well.

Andrew Young was interviewed by HLN’s Joy Behar (in what was billed an exclusive) – but since he was around, he talked to Anderson Cooper too. Results were predictable.

Governor Paterson’s favorite person in New York these days is probably Hiram Monserrate, the former New York State Senator whose political path has gone…awry. A few weeks ago, the Times’ J. David Goodman looked at Monserrate’s 2008 campaign website, which was still allowing comments. (The comments he was receiving were not particularly flattering.) In the piece, Goodman asked an interesting question: How many orphaned campaign sites litter the Internet? That, of course, was a challenge.

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

Well, it looks like no matter how much you wish for it the Edwardses and their scandals are not going away. Behold the latest installment. Rielle Hunter has given a long interview to GQ in which she says, among other things, that it was Andrew Young’s idea to claim paternity and that (alas) the Dave Matthews anecdote is completely false. There’s more.

Former John Edwards aide and faux-baby-daddy-for-hire Andrew Young was handed a relatively stiff sentence today, as a judge ordered he and his wife to be jailed for contempt for up to 75 days. At issue is Superior Court Judge Abraham Penn Jones’ suspicion that the Youngs have failed to turn over all copies of an alleged sex tape featuring Edwards and mistress Rielle Hunter.

The National Enquirer really hit a grand slam in 2008 with their Rielle Hunter/John Edwards story: not only did it bring some previously unthought-of prestige to the tabloid for uncovering the affair, but now Edwards may actually be indicted by a grand jury for diverting political campaign funds for both Hunter and hush money. Enquirer Executive Editor Barry Levine was on Bill O’Reilly tonight to discuss.

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.

According to this month’s CBS/Vanity Fair poll 22% of those asked would be willing to forgive Tiger Woods his bad behavior (no word on whether Elin was one of the polled). This may seem like a low number, but Tiger should perhaps breathe a sigh of relief: he polls well compared to, say, John Edwards who only got five percent of the forgiveness vote.

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.

But no, the joke wasn’t in the “package” part. Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell certainly has a way with words: This morning on Fox News Sunday, the Senate Minority Leader spoke out against Obama’s economic stimulus package, and even tried to…make a joke? Maybe? We’re really not quite sure what his comments about Tiger Woods and John Edwards having a better year than the stimulus package were supposed to mean. Does the economy have a sex problem or secret love-child that we should know about? What?

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.

Next On “As The Edwards Turns” – A Marriage Proposal To Reille? Could be – or so says the breathless reports from the National Enquirer. Oh sure, there was a time in the not-so-distant past where we’d dismiss such a scandalous report from the tabloid progenitor itself. But no more – we now are openly cheering for their investigative journalism to be lauded with a Pulitzer Prize.