Damned anonymous liars: John Edwards staffers claim they had "doomsday plan" to blow up campaign if Edwards looked like a winner

John "Pretty Boy" Edwards preps his locks for another day of lying

What's worse than John Edwards lying to the American people for a year? Or Edwards lying to his wife? Or Elizabeth Edwards pathetically joining in her husband's public lying to help get them both to the White House?

For a long time, I'd have thought, not much could be worse. I'd also hoped never to feel the need to write the words, "John Edwards," ever again. But now, there is a lie from the Edwards camp that tops them all.

Elizabeth's new tell-all book tour set off a new round of media questioning about why Edwards campaign staffers, who must have known about his affair with Rielle Hunter with whom he fathered a child, kept their mouths shut in light of the fact that Edwards' winning the nomination could have destroyed the Democratic Party's excellent chance of taking the Presidency.

So "several people in [Edwards] inner circle" have given George Stephanapoulos their answer to that question -- anonymously:

Several of them had gotten together and devised a "doomsday" strategy of sorts.

Basically, if it looked like Edwards was going to win the Democratic Party nomination, they were going to sabotage his campaign, several former Edwards' staffers have told me.

They said they were Democrats first, and if it looked like Edwards was going to become the nominee, they were going to bring down the campaign.

Has there ever been a more obvious, self-serving lie coming from cowards who won't put their names to the lie so they can be tested?

Mickey Kaus has already done a superb job of taking this flimsy fabrication apart. I just want to add this: no one in America is going to believe that these hired campaign guns would work for six months or a year to win the nomination for Edwards and then, when "it looked like" he was actually going to win it -- and have a better than 50-50 shot at taking them all to the White House -- they were ready with a plan to blow up his campaign and take themselves out of the running for the good of the party.

Please, these guys need to make up a better lie -- one that has a glimmer of credibility so that some gullible people somewhere will buy it. Maybe they should ask Edwards for help; he's a master at it.

Meanwhile, since they have cast themselves into the public fray by trotting out this ridiculous story, some enterprising journos should make it their business to find out who tried to sell it to Stephanapoulos. Was it media guru Joe Trippi? Campaign Manager David Bonior? Deputy Campaign Manager Jonathan Prince? Senior Advisor Kate Michelman? Who told this lie?

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