John Edwards denies engagement; either way, we're still disgusted

Oh, John Edwards. If it's true that you became engaged to Rielle Hunter weeks after your betrayed wife of 33 years died from cancer, then you have replaced our New Year's resolution to never think about you again with those old familiar feelings of disgust and bottomless disappointment.

The National Enquirer is reporting this to be true. There used to be a time when anything reported by the National Enquirer would never be repeated by another news organization, but then the National Enquirer turned out to be spot on in its reporting of John Edwards' affair with Hunter and the truth that he fathered her baby--something Edwards denied for the first two years of the child's life. So while he and those close to him are busy denying this latest report, it would not be surprising if there were a kernel of truth somewhere in this messy, weird, terribly disappointing report.

And he is denying it, according to People and the Daily Beast. But he also tearfully stated on camera that his affair with Hunter was brief and over when it was not. Hunter, meanwhile, professed her undying love for Edwards in a GQ article earlier this year. So if they do indeed turn this tabloid mess into wedded bliss, well, then, all we can say is they probably deserve each other.

True or not true, this report makes the legitimate reports that Elizabeth Edwards left no mention of and nothing to her husband of three decades in her will all the more satisfying.

To wash away the bad taste this reported betrothal leaves behind, watch this beautiful eulogy by Edwards' daughter, Cate, to appreciate what it means to love someone more than Edwards was capable of in his marriage.

"She could bring out the brave in anyone," Cate said about her mom. Brave and strong she was to endure reports like today's, which her children are left to handle with the grace and strength she passed onto them.