EXCERPT: 'The Politician,' by Andrew Young

Jan. 29, 2010— -- Former John Edwards' aide Andrew Young gives his account of the sex scandal and the elaborate cover-up for the Democratic presidential candidate in a new book, "The Politician: An Insider's Account of John Edwards's Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal that Brought Him Down."

When Mrs. Edwards left Chapel Hill to start her book tour, the senator brought Rielle to his home, where she met Jack and Emma Claire and even interviewed them briefly while holding a video camera to capture their replies. (She also interviewed Edwards's parents, who were there that afternoon.) When I went to the house to see him, I discovered her sitting in the living room curled up in a chair like a cat, with her shoes and socks off. She wore blue jeans and had a colorful scarf around her neck and sunglasses perched atop her head.

The mood in the house was relaxed and upbeat. Instead of the news blaring out of various TVs, which Elizabeth kept tuned to C-SPAN. I heard music playing. I noticed because the senator had told me he had stopped listening to music when Wade died, and I had seen him turn off music whenever it was playing. We went on a run together, following our usual route past a cow pasture full of mooing heifers and waving to neighbors who hailed us from their front porches. While we were gone, Rielle napped in Cate's room.

That evening, we ate take-out ribs from a place called Nantucket Grill and sat on the senator's back porch, a huge space covered by a sturdy roof. The group included me, the nanny, Heather, and her husband, Jed, the senator, his kids, and Rielle, who talked excitedly about everything from national politics to astrology. She said she had been a spiritual teacher and that she believed the future was foretold by the stars. Rielle took great pleasure in noting that John Edwards's future was limitless, and every once in a while she punctuated her observations about him with a laugh and the line "It's good to be king."