Just about a week before Christmas in December 2007, former Senator John Edwards was the subject of a nasty rumor - that he had a secret affair with a woman by the name of Rielle Hunter and fathered a child with her. Interestingly, this was all swept under the rug at the time by most major media outlets and the rumors quickly died off. The Cleveland Leader, of course, reported on it and was chastised for publishing so-called "lies". But now it looks like Edwards has been caught red-handed. Edwards was caught visiting Hunter and their child at 2:40 Monday morning at the Beverly Hilton on the last night of the Television Critics' Association press tour by the National Enquirer reporters who were staked out at the hotel.

John Edwards, if you recall, is married to his wife Elizabeth. They had four children together over the course of their marriage, one of whom is now deceased. Elizabeth Edwards was famously diagnosed with breast cancer while Edwards was busy being John Kerry's VP running mate in 2004, and announced in March 2007 that the stage IV cancer had returned while Edwards was again making his bid for the presidential nomination.

Edwards denied the rumors of the affair when they first surfaced in November 2007, and confidently brushed them off. The media also seemed to oblige his request to not dig any deeper, backing off from the scandal-in-the-making and allowing him to continue his campaign in relative peace.

Edwards, as successful as he was in keeping most of the media off his back for the past nine months, slipped up and was caught with his pants down. A National Enquirer reporter allegedly cornered him at the Beverly Hilton on July 21. Edwards, being the coward that he is, hid in the bathroom for 15 minutes, hoping that it would just all go away. He apparently doesn't realize the tenacity of the Hollywood paparazzi and the payday that this kind of scandal brings in. He could have hid for three hours and would still have to face the cameras and questions.

The National Enquirer first broke the story last year, and can only be too pleased by the "gotcha" moment this week that proved them right all along. A cover-up was clearly orchestrated, as also claimed by the Enquirer last year. When the rumors of Edwards affair with Hunter, and the subsequent pregnancy that is said to have resulted from that affair, first surfaced, both Edwards and Hunter denied it. Even more, a married close friend of Edwards came forth and said that it was he who was having an affair, and that he was the father of the baby, not Edwards.

After the story ran in the Enquirer, Edwards was quietly rumored to have met up with Hunter several times to see the baby and continue the relationship with his mistress. One of those meetings was scheduled for Monday, July 21, 2008, and the Enquirer was tipped-off in advance.

Ready and waiting for his arrival, the Enquirer staked out the Beverly Hilton. Edwards is said to have arrived at 9:45pm Monday, where he was dropped off at one of the hotel's side entrances. According to the Enquirer, Edwards wasn't carrying anything with him, and walked in alone. "He was looking around nervously before he entered the hotel."

The reporter on duty said, "Once inside, he interestingly bypassed the lobby and ducked down a side stairs to go to the bottom floor to catch the elevator up - rather than taking the elevator in the main lobby. He went out of his way not to be seen."

In the meantime, Rielle Hunter had reserved two rooms under the name of the friend who accompanied her, Bob McGovern. Bob got one room, and Rielle and her baby got another room. This allowed Edwards to sneak in to spend time with her. He was also spotted going out of the hotel briefly with Rielle before returning to her room, and later attempting to sneak out unnoticed at 2:40am. Little did he know, he was being watched.

After being greeted by several National Enquirer reporters and questioned about what he was doing in the hotel, Edwards ran like a deer in headlights trying to avoid reporters and photographers, and this is when he hid in the bathroom. He was eventually escorted out by hotel security.

The scandal, however, isn't going away. Edwards has a lot of questions to answer, and has likely all but killed any chances he has of ever running for president again. It was bad enough that he choose his political career over taking care of and spending time with his sick wife, but to have also taken up a mistress makes him even more of a dirty, rotten scumbag.

His endorsement of the Democratic nominee for President in 2008, Barack Obama, isn't looking so good anymore either. Plagued with enough scandals of his own, an endorsement by yet another shady politician can't be good for his campaign.