Legal Commentary

Rielle Hunter conveniently refuses to subject her baby to a DNA test to determine whether John Edwards is the father.

So Edwards can deny that the child is his and say he's perfectly willing to take a DNA case to prove it. Now, all we need is a test to prove that Edwards and Hunter didn't arrange it so that she'd look like the one who chose not to demonstrate whether Edwards is the father. Maybe some sort of test to determine if he's paying child support (directly or indirectly)? But that would be far more complicated and invasive than the DNA test.

Looking at it another way, why do we care? Let the mother raise her child in peace, and stop wasting our attention on the details of the life of a now-irrelevant man. Oh, but then, why must Edwards be seen as irrelevant? Many, many politicians have affairs. We would stupidly limit the pool of potential public servants if we excluded all the men who had had affairs. If Edwards is just another one of those guys, his confession that he had an affair ? years ago, and he's sorry ? has restored him to suitability for public office.

Full post as published by Althouse on August 10, 2008 (boomark / email).