Until recently, the Edwards affair/love-child scandal had produced only one of the most ludicrous bits of self-justification in American political history: Edwards’s admission that he did have sex with that woman, but only in the narrow window of his wife’s remission from cancer. But now, suddenly, that number of absurdities has doubled.

Apparently, former senior Edwards campaign staffers, the folks who knew their candidate was cheating on his cancer-stricken wife one minute and emoting about poverty the next, are telling the press that there was a “doomsday strategy” in place, an inner circle plot to “blow up” the campaign if it were somehow to catch real fire.

In other words, these folks were not craven political hacks but principled plotters, willing to take down their own handiwork to save America from the threat of an Edwards Presidency.

How long, Lord, how long? How long will these half-bright lickspittles trouble the nation?

We’re supposed to believe that after years of planning and organization and monotonous toil and sweat, these well-connected and ambitious staffers would deliberately sabotage the whole enterprise if, and only if, it looked as though it might actually result in cushy White House jobs for one and all? Please.

To point out the obvious, if they were unwilling to pull the plug when the campaign was limping along, it’s all but impossible to see them acquiring a group conscience if it had begun to soar.

They were well-paid, and they decided to remain well-paid, until such time as they could be well-paid no longer.