"The Candidate" Revealed

Hotline On Call has acquired a copy of the new John Edwards expose "The Politician," by longtime staffer/professional fall guy Andrew Young. Intended for release Feb. 2, the book chronicles the Edwards-Young relationship and reveals how Young was sucked into a cover-up that spanned a WH campaign.

Young details the often slavish loyalty he demonstrated to the Edwards family during the lengthy affair the candidate had with Rielle Hunter. Despite outlandish requests and increasingly complicated lies, Young says he remained loyal to Edwards until he grew impatient with Edwards' denial of paternity for Hunter's child ... or at least until Young ran out of money.

On Jan. 21st Edwards admitted he was the father of Hunter's daughter, Frances Quinn, in anticipation of this book's release.

Young began working for Edwards more than 10 years ago on his first SEN race, and worked his way up to become the operations mgr in WH '04. By '06, he was Edwards' confidante. He eventually became the liaison between Hunter and Edwards. He was responsible for getting her in and out of the senator's room on the trail so other staffers wouldn't become suspicious. He was the keeper of the "Batphone," the cell phone Hunter gave to Edwards so she could reach him privately.

Young even arranged for Hunter to interview Edwards' parents and meet his children at the family's NC mansion.

In early '07, the story started to unravel when Elizabeth Edwards became suspicious of Hunter after Elizabeth answered a call on the "Batphone." Edwards admitted to his wife a one-night stand. But Edwards then claimed Hunter was still present on the campaign trail because Young was having an affair with her.

After Hunter became pregnant, Edwards and Young negotiated an arrangement that would protect the candidate from detection by the suspicious media. Young released a statement claiming an affair with Hunter. She moved in with Young and his family, and he hid her from the paparazzi.

Edwards maintained the masquerade after he dropped his WH'08 bid because he was convinced he was a frontrunner for Barack Obama's VP spot. Edwards even told Young that he had seen Obama's internal polls that said he was strongest of all possible VP candidates in OH and PA. That aspiration was extinguished after the Beverly Hilton-National Enquirer run-in in Jul. '08.

Two figures stand out in the book as funders of the frantic lifestyle Edwards led. Their murky financial support is now the subject of a grand jury investigation in which Young has testified.

Trial atty Fred Baron was the most powerful Dem fundraiser in TX before his death from cancer in Oct. '08. For Edwards, Baron not only provided financial assistance, he also advised the candidate on legal matters and managed Hunter after the affair broke in the National Enquirer in Oct. '07.

American aristocrat Bunny Mellon's money donations were prompted by the infamous $400 haircut. A longtime Edwards supporter and philanthropist, Mellon was appalled by the flurry of "jealous" media reports about the Edwards coif, and volunteered to "pay whatever expenses the senator incurred that could not be covered by the campaign." Young claims that Mellon eventually gave more than $6M that largely went to covering Hunter's expenses, although Mellon did not know it.

"Bunny's checks, written for many hundreds of thousands of dollars, were made as payments to her decorator, Bryan Huffman, so that she wouldn't have to offer an explanation to the professionals who handled her accounts. These funds (and the money that came from Fred Baron later) were gifts, entirely proper, and not subject to campaign finance law," Young writes. "She did not know that the money was being used in part for Rielle. Bunny sent the checks to Bryan hidden in boxes of chocolate and with notes discussing her contributions to "the confederacy." Bryan sent them to me with notes of his own."

Young spends quite a few pages in "The Politician" trying to rationalize his enabling of Edwards.

"Armchair psychologists will say that when John Edwards came along, I adopted him as a substitute for my father. He became my hero, and my commitment to him was like a son's commitment to his father," writes Young in the epilogue. "Inside the campaigns, I found a cult-like atmosphere that eroded my ability to resist his requests for ever more extreme behavior."

In fact, despite what Young claims Edwards put him through, he is often more kind to the candidate than his wife Elizabeth. Young lent a sympathetic ear to the "lonely" candidate, who often called his wife "overly demanding, obsessive, even 'crazy.'" But Edwards also said he would never seek a divorce, because he still loved Elizabeth "in certain ways."

And Edwards believed that "his wife was more popular with many voters than he was and that if he left her, he might as well forget ever becoming president."

Young saves incredible rancor for E. Edwards, accusing her of blackballing him in political circles and purposely keeping him unemployed. He paints Elizabeth as an obsessive and paranoid woman who micromanaged the '04 and '08 campaigns, fired staffers over petty arguments, and held on to grudges long past their importance. He claims that Elizabeth would often leave furious voice mails for Young's wife which called Young a liar and a cheater and Hunter a "completely crazy, desperate, pathetic woman."

As for Hunter, Young calls her an immature and dramatic woman who "seemed to act before thinking." She employed her own personal guru named "Bob" who was present at her daughter's birth, and often refused to stay in hotel rooms because they possessed "bad energy." She believed Frances Quinn was "some kind of golden child, the reincarnated spirit of a Buddhist monk who was going to help save the world."

Other interesting pages of note:

* There's a weird Dave Matthews band anecdote where Hunter freaked the band out. (165)

* Edwards uses HairTec Thick & Strong Shampoo. He purchases it by the case, and if he doesn't get a good hair cut, he looks like Opie. (206)

* "As Senator Edwards barnstormed the state (Iowa), the press took note of the fact that he was significantly tardy- an hour late wasn't unusual- for every event. But no one knew that the delays were caused, in part, by the time he used on the phone listening to his angry wife, comforting his lonely mistress, and maintaining his relationship with me." (250)

* "...the senator, who was worried about losing his support. He had talked to me about how Fred's cash would be only "our short-term solution." Edwards believed this because he thought Fred would soon shift his interest to another candidate. He also knew that Fred had been diagnosed with cancer and, like Mrs. Edwards, might not be around for very long. With his in mind, he said that Bunny Mellon was more likely to provide "the long term solution" to his need to fund both Rielle's lifestyle and an organization to keep the Edwards name in front of the public after the election. (Bunny's support would also keep me employed.) He was confident about Bunny's loyalty because he had been building a relationship with her." (253)

* Hunter did not have health insurance, ironically enough. (263)

* Young arranged for the flowers from Edwards to Rielle after the birth, but Edwards didn't want his name on them because "someone might see it." (264)

* Young, after the birth, produced a requested shirt for Rielle decorated by his kids with the logo "I am the granddaughter of a millworker." (265)

* Fred Baron promised Young: "Don't worry about it, we're going to take care of you. We need to focus on getting him the vice presidency." (269)

* Young demanded three things of Edwards in '08 through Fred Baron - wanted to know why Edwards hadn't yet told the truth, wanted to "separate from Rielle and her child, and wanted a long-term plan for the future concerning the antipoverty foundation that would provide Young with health insurance. (272)

* Edwards tried to work with Bunny Mellon to get anywhere from $3M-$50M for the "New Heritage Education Foundation" Young was promised a position. (278)

* Sex tape description (281)

* "Later I heard of additional developments that never reached the public. For example, Edwards told me that both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton phone his wife to say they were sorry about what was happening and to tell her she was in their prayers. Bill Clinton, a veteran of his own sexual disgrace and attempted cover-up, called the senator and said, in effect, "How'd you get caught?" (289)

* On the last meeting arranged by Fred Baron (8/18/08):

"Elizabeth's taken all my keys."

"Elizabeth's taken all your keys?" I wanted to embarrass him by making him explain.

"Yeah, and she's got me sleeping in the barn. She yells at me all night, and when I sleep she gets in my face and screams." (292)

* "I have written this book to end years of gossip and lie about me, John Edwards, and a host of people who deserve better than to be remembered only as sinners or fools. I have written it to make money to support my family at a time when no other job was available to me. And I have written this book as an exercise in my own understanding, so that I could learn something from the trauma suffered by so many who believed in what they thought John Edwards represented and were willing to sacrifice for the greater good." (300)

* "Gifted, charismatic, and mesmerizing, John Edwards knew what was right but was so blind to his own flaws - narcissism, greed, power lust - and so determined to hide his shame even from himself that he couldn't correct the. Mrs. Edwards pursued noble ideals but never saw how she was changed by the privilege that comes with wealth, power, and fame. She got a vision of her husband in the White House and herself at his side, and she pursued it with an ambition that became blind and destructive." (300)