Lee Stranahan — author of the #1 most popular story at the Huffington Post right now — has a correction to yesterday’s Deceiver post about the Rielle & Johnny non-scandal scandal. I described Andrew Young, the alleged father of Rielle Hunter’s baby, merely as “an Edwards employee.” But apparently the working relationship was closer than that.

According to Snopes, during the 2004 presidential race, Edwards was involved in a dispute with his neighbors in Raleigh, NC because news crews were damaging their lawns and generally making a nuisance of themselves. (Hey, maybe the news folks are trying to make up for that now by leaving him alone!) In response to this, an essay purporting to be from one of his neighbors, Brian T. Nicholson, detailed Edwards’ various other supposed transgressions, including his tactics as a medical malpractice lawyer, his tax practices, his Senate voting record, his coldness toward his neighbors, and his habit of flipping off passing cars on his morning jogs.

After the essay made its way around the Web, Nicholson said he didn’t write all that. He claimed the piece started off as an e-mail he sent to family and friends, and someone else ended up embellishing it and putting it up on the Internet. Whoever wrote it certainly wasn’t a fan of John Edwards. (The whole essay is at Snopes.)

The Raleigh News & Observer interviewed his neighbors and couldn’t find anybody to back up the essay’s claims of Edwards being a crappy neighbor or a bird-flipper. And according to Snopes again — I really am getting to the point here, honest — contrary to the picture the essay painted of Edwards as a heedless lawn-demolisher, he sent out this note (emphasis mine):

Dear Friends & Neighbors:

As you know, 2003 has gotten off to an exciting start for our family. In light of our recent decision, we know that many of you may also be feeling the effects. We want to apologize for any inconvenience you and your family may have experienced.

Please call our assistant, Andrew Young… if you have any lawn damage from the media traffic. Our personal lawn maintenance company will make any necessary repairs. Thank you for your patience.

Assistant Andrew Young.

So: Young, who was Edwards’ assistant from at least the summer of ‘04 up until about a month before Rielle Hunter moved down to North Carolina in the fall of ‘07, is the father of her baby. And he paid for her mansion in his own gated community, the BMW she was driving, and her medical bills, all out of his own pocket. Oh, and he had Hunter over for dinner with his wife and kids. (Er, his other kids.) These are all things that a family man did for his visibly pregnant mistress.

Could it be that Young was doing all this to… in some way… assist John Edwards? Does Young handle damaged careers as well as damaged lawns? Would it be worth his time, effort, and reputation to take the hit and do a really huge favor for a guy who might be in the White House someday?

It would be irresponsible to speculate without further evidence, apparently.

(Hat tip: Lee Stranahan)

In other non-news, Radar Online has some interesting excerpts from Jay McInerney’s 1988 novel Story of My Life. The book’s main character, Alison Poole, was directly based on McInerney’s girlfriend Rielle Hunter, then known by her rather less glamorous birth name: Lisa Druck.

The money quote, quite literally:

“Sorry, I just wasn’t raised to work… I mean, you take an indoor cat eating smoked salmon and lying around in the sunny spots all its life — you can’t suddenly chuck it out into the cold and expect it to feed itself and fight like an alley cat. I could start a clinic for former rich girls. Deprived Debs Anonymous.”

Sounds like a fun gal! (Although it’s too bad what happened to Hunter, I mean Druck, I mean Poole, in American Psycho. Yeowtch. At least it sounds like Patrick Bateman let her live. If anybody has any idea what McInerney did to piss off Bret Easton Ellis that much, please let me know.)

I’m sure all this stuff is of absolutely no interest whatsoever to anybody who’s following this non-story. “What does it have to do with anything? Who cares about the guy after he’s completely removed himself from public life?” Exactly.

Update: Radar Online also says the Enquirer is in no hurry to publish its alleged pictures of Edwards’ Bennyhillian late-night hotel chase scene. Enquirer editor David Perel tells them:

“It’s a story that we’re taking a long view of. We’ve got a big exclusive coming out this week, and we are on the trail of some stuff that’s even hotter. But no one will dictate the time-table for when we release our unpublished material. We’ve been setting the agenda, and will continue doing so.”

Very odd. But then, I don’t remember seeing any pictures of Larry Craig getting to know another gentleman through a hole in a bathroom stall, and the “real” news didn’t seem to need any visual evidence before they ran with the story for weeks. If Perel is lying about those pictures, or any other part of the story, seems to me he’s opening himself up to a huge lawsuit. Well, it’s still a lot of news cycles until the DNC…

Update 2: Ken Layne points out that Edwards still has delegates going to the DNC. Sure, he’s only got 4, but that’s still more than all but two other Democrats in the whole country. And he’s expected to speak at the convention, or at least that was the plan before 2:40 AM last Tuesday. So maybe he’s not the long-forgotten private citizen some people are insisting he is.

Update 3: The Enquirer now says that Edwards has been paying Hunter $15,000 a month to keep her mouth shut, and is also paying off the “real baby daddy,” Andrew Young. Also, the baby is a girl and her name is Frances Quinn Hunter. News? We’ll see. Please leave your “Sasquatch” and “Bat Boy” jokes in the comments.