John Edwards: No 'p.r. campaign'

by Mark Silva

John Edwards, the trial lawyer, former senator from North Carolina and Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004 who admitted to a sexual affair with a campaign aide, says he has no interest in waging a 'p.r. campaign' to rehabilitate his name.

But he apparently was interested in talking for 90 minutes on the telephone with the Washington Post, his first such talk since acknowledging his affair with videographer Rielle Hunter, though he set some guidelines -- including no questions about that affair.

"He says he has no plans to make a push to restore his name, along the lines of what former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer has embarked on,'' the Post's Alec MacGillis reports.

Reputation "is not something I'm focused on," Edwards told his interviewer. "The only relevance of it at all is my ability to help people. That's the only reason it matters. I'm not engaged in, or interested in, being in a p.r. campaign."

Edwards, who campaigned for his party's presidential nomination with a promise of bridging the "two Americas,'' insists that he still views himself as an advocate for the poor, and has not ruled out a return to politics.

His wife, Elizabeth Edwards, battling cancer, has published her own memoir, Resilience, and has had quite a lot to say lately about her husband's affair, forgiveness and moving on. But John Edwards isn't talking about the future yet.

"Right now, a lot of that is unanswerable,'' he says. "Sometimes you just keep your head down and work hard and see what happens.''

(Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards spoke at Indiana University in Bloomington on Nov. 11, three months after he acknowledged an affair with a woman hired to produce videos of him in 2006. (Photo by Michael Conroy / AP)