The John Edwards scandal regarding his affair and subsequent child with Rielle Hunter seems to be snowballing into a massive cluster of increasing icky-ness.  As if it wasn't enough that Senator Edwards cheated on his terminally ill wife, he now can add allegations that he tried to get another individual to say he was the father, he wanted to have a doctor submit a false paternity test claiming he was not the father, he wanted to steal a diaper from the baby to have a secret paternity test, and he recorded a sex tape with the visibly pregnant Hunter to the roster.

What sort of advice should we give Senator Edwards in this situation?  I think that Edwards' behavior after his misdeeds is almost more telling than what he did "wrong" in the first place.  Edwards could have had an affair and fathered a child with a woman who was not his wife - fessed up to it, and somehow garnered the nation's respect to some degree.  Instead he lied about it, repeatedly, and concocted many elaborate and (in my opinion) sick cover-ups to mask what he did.

Instead of heading over to Haiti in an effort to cleanse his image, perhaps he should have worked on rectifying the problems he started at home.  Of course, much of what we are accusing Senator Edwards of is only allegations found in Andrew Young's new book, but we will assume they are true for the purposes of this conversation.

The moral of the story is, we all do things wrong.  But perhaps we should, instead of panicking about our misdeeds, think about the best way to fix them - for everyone involved.  Do you have something in your life you've done that you're figuratively "stealing diapers" in order to cover up?  Or should you be admitting your faults, and making the necessary steps toward cleaning up your mess?

Email your relationship questions to: lisa@relationshipper.com.  I do hope they won't be as complicated as Senator Edwards, for your sake and mine! : )  Happy Friday!