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Saturday's lead editorial.

Realizing he could run but not hide from the truth, John Edwards has owned up to “a serious error in judgment.”

The former North Carolina senator and presidential hopeful has admitted to a sexual relationship with a campaign worker, though not to fathering a child from that relationship.
By now, the admission is not all that surprising. After bobbing and weaving for weeks in futile attempts to evade reporters, Edwards had found himself with nowhere else to go. Literally.

While being chased last month by National Enquirer reporters in a Beverly Hills hotel, Edwards ultimately was cornered in a rest room. Maybe it occurred to him then how sad and hopeless the ruse had become.

After flatly dismissing Enquirer reports of his relationship with a former campaign videographer, Rielle Hunter, 44, as “tabloid trash,” Edwards was discovered meeting with her in that hotel, a visit he confirmed in an interview that aired Friday night on ABC’s “Nightline.”

Edwards admitted to a sexual relationship with Hunter.

He said he told his wife, Elizabeth, and other family members of the affair in 2006, though he also said he didn’t tell his wife of the July 2008 hotel meeting with Hunter.

Finally, he insisted he is not the father of Hunter’s daughter. He said he has not taken a paternity test, but added in a written statement that “I am and have been willing to take any test necessary to establish the fact that I am not the father of any baby.”

A former Edwards aide, Andrew Young, has said the baby is his.
Edwards obviously had hoped the allegations would fade with time. Instead, the story gained more and more traction and began to raise doubts among party leaders about Edwards’ role in the Democratic Convention this month in Denver.

Now Edwards’ confession should effectively end any speculation over his potential role as a convention speaker. He should banish any thoughts, as well, of an outside shot as Barack Obama’s running mate. Or as a member of Obama’s cabinet.

As for his long-term political future, the damage isn’t irreparable. (Sad to say, such situations are not exactly uncommon, on either side of the aisle.) But it is serious. “You can’t lie in politics and expect to have people’s confidence,” Edwards’ campaign manager, David Bonior told the Associated Press Friday.

Not only have Edwards’ character and honesty been impugned, but his sense of common decency. He stressed during the ABC interview that his wife, Elizabeth’s, cancer was in remission at the time of the affair.

As if that made it any better.