INSIDE JOB

Edwards' Staffers Plotted Against Him

Senior aides hatched "doomsday" strategy.

John Edwards' reputation hit a new low Sunday, as ABC's George Stephanopoulos revealed that senior members of the former North Carolina senator's 2008 campaign eventually came to believe rumors that he was conducting an extramarital affair—and created a "doomsday" strategy they plotted to use against him, should he get close to winning the Democratic nomination. The staffers, recognizing the importance of the election, decided they would sabotage the campaign before allowing Edwards to become their party's nominee for president. They justified their plans by reasoning that "they were Democrats first," Stephanopoulos reports. Commentator George Will, appearing on This Week, raised a question in many people's minds: "Think about what a tragedy it would have been if he had won?"