Edwards joins pols-behaving-badly club

We've seen this movie before. The sweaty contrition. The apologies and praise for the woman who stood by her man. The request for God's forgiveness.

Think Bill Clinton, Gary Hart, Eliot Spitzer, Jim McGreevey, Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart and Newt Gingrich. And the list goes on and on -- politicians and husbands behaving badly.

This time it was North Carolina's most famous living politician -- the man who had gone further in American politics than any Tar Heel resident before him.

There have been a lot of people waiting for the day John Edwards would fall. In their view, Edwards had got above his raisin', climbing too far, too fast. He was too pretty, too slick and too rich.

The Germans have a great word for this: "schadenfreude." It means the enjoyment of another's misfortune.

Republicans didn't like him for partisan or philosophical reasons.

But a lot of Democrats didn't like him, either. Some of it was undoubtedly jealousy. But behind closed doors, many Democratic politicians would bad-mouth Edwards as a self-centered so-and-so.

Edwards touched on his sense of entitlement in his ABC "Nightline" interview -- how the former small town Southern boy had lost his focus amid the adulation of being a hot-shot trial lawyer, U.S. senator, vice presidential and presidential candidate.

Edwards very nearly put himself on the psychiatrist's couch.

All the success and adulation, Edwards said, "fed a self-focus, an egotism, a narcissism that led you to believe that you can do whatever you want. You're invincible. And there will be no consequences."

At least one consequence is that Edwards' political career seems dead.

But Edwards pretty much knew his seven-year quest for the White House was over when he dropped out of the presidential race in January in New Orleans.

Edwards said he never thought he was being seriously considered by Barack Obama as his vice presidential running mate. And his admission probably precludes him from getting a Cabinet post if Obama is elected.

Edwards said he had no plans to go to the Democratic National Convention in Denver later this month.

"I'm not sure I had a political career for the future anyway," Edwards said.

Edwards told "Nightline" that he was through talking about his extramarital fling.

But the story won't go away quite so easily. Among the lingering questions:

1) Paternity: Edwards said he had sex with Rielle Hunter, the 44-year-old campaign filmmaker, but did not father her child. Edwards said he was willing to take a paternity test. Hunter's sister is challenging him to do so. Will Edwards back up his claim, or was the "Nightline" appearance only a partial confession?

2) Money: Hunter is reportedly living in a $3 million house in Santa Barbara, and former Edwards campaign aide Andrew Young -- who says he is the real father -- is also living in Santa Barbara. Fred Baron, a wealthy Dallas trial lawyer and Edwards' chief fundraiser, has said he was helping both Hunter and Young. Baron said he acted independently, and with no strings attached for Hunter and Young. Edwards says he knew nothing of the arrangement. It seems likely there is more to this tale.

Edwards had sold himself as the most electable Democrat -- even though he had a secret that could blow up his campaign at any time.

The Greeks have a word for this: hubris. Which means overweening pride, self-confidence and arrogance resulting in fatal retribution.