Fashionable as it is to register scorn at the mention of the National Enquirer, we owe that publication a debt for their recent exposà of former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and his sexual peccadillo.

Edwards' claim that his affair is the sole business of his family and himself would be true if he were not simultaneously lusting after a position of power in our government. During his political campaigning Edwards strove to present the persona of a "Mr. Perfect" right up to a $400 haircut. His performances were replete with constant bouncing around the stage, unremitting grinning and the unflagging energy of a high school cheerleader.

The recent interview with ABC's Bob Woodruff showed that Edwards still feels that his faÃade of genuineness is still intact. Reporter Woodruff (and the millions of viewers) were subjected to the phony grins, the piercing eye contact and the repeated assertions of his love for his wife as he desperately tried to salvage his career hopes.

Edwards, whose self-inflicted injury has unmasked him, betrayed his arrogance most blatantly when he referred to himself as having come "from nothing ... the son of a mill worker." Men and woman who work hard and raise their children in less than luxurious circumstances are infinitely superior to this self-destructive man who wasted the potential his "mill worker" parent provided him.

Gene Rickaby, Martinez