On Tuesday night, New York’s John Heilemann appeared on The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell to discuss John Edwards’s 2008 presidential campaign and impending criminal charges he now faces for allegedly using more than $1 million in donations to cover up his affair with Rielle Hunter. Sure, one could argue it was a necessary expense: “He couldn’t have a campaign if it was revealed he has a pregnant girlfriend,” said O’Donnell. “Keeping the pregnant girlfriend hidden … is part of allowing the campaign to succeed.” And keeping a mistress hidden costs a lot of money! But then, as Heilemann noted, if the $1 million donation Edwards received from Fred Baron and Rachel “Bunny” Mellon was, in fact, a campaign contribution, it would have violated campaign-contribution limits. Such a conundrum!
