Rielle Hunter is looking to have the courts suppress the tape of herself and John Edwards engaged in intimate activities.

John Edwards's ex-mistress is seeking to suppress what appears to be a sex tape featuring her and the disgraced politician, according to court records. Rielle Hunter yesterday secured a restraining order against a former Edwards aide in connection with "a personal video recording that depicted matters of a very private and personal nature." Andrew Young, the ex-Edwards assistant, has said he is in possession of a tape showing Edwards having sex with a woman he believes to be Hunter, who gave birth to Edwards's daughter Frances Quinn in February 2008.

The affidavit provides some tantalizing clues about why the sex tape exists and how it came into the possession of Edwards campaign aid, Andrew Young.

When you call something a sex tape, the tendency is to think of rock stars and fame junkies hoping to boost their careers with porn that is not porn (professionally speaking...). Edwards was reckless, as evidenced by his affair with Hunter, but a sex tape is a whole order of magnitude more stupid for a politician whose image depends on his being married to an Rubenesque, cancer-stricken wife. It just never seemed likely to me that he would have knowingly participated in making it.

I strongly suspect Hunter made the tape for leverage, or as insurance, and that is undoubtedly what Andrew Young thought when he found the tape in her hat box. He took it to protect the boss, and now that its all gone to hell, the tape has other possibilities.

Poor Rielle. Hoist on her own petard. For the rest of us, more evidence of why its smart to remain faithful.

This is an interesting observation.

John Edwards, as described by former aide Andrew Young in Young's book The Politician: "Since she was 'a crazy slut' and they had an 'open' relationship, he thought there was only a 'one-in-three chance' that he could be the father of her baby."

Elizabeth Edwards, wife of John Edwards, in her book Resilience: "I have come to understand his liaison with this woman … Those with any fame or notoriety or power attract people for good reasons and bad … They flatter and entreat, and it is engaging, even addictive. They look at our lives, which from the outside in particular are pictures of joy and plenty, and they want it for themselves."

Andrew Young in The Politician: "Rielle was a very demanding and self-absorbed person who focused intently on her social life and fashion. If we prepared a salad for dinner and set it on the counter, she'd come in and start eating it with her hands."

John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, authors of Game Change: "She looked like a hybrid of Stevie Nicks and Lucinda Williams, in an outfit more suitable for a Grateful Dead concert than an evening at the Regency."

Rielle's sister, Roxanne Druck to Entertainment Tonight: "I feel a lot of sympathy for Mrs. Edwards ... I'm very ashamed my sister had an affair with such a public man."

Now a sampling of the things that Rielle Hunter has said publicly in those two years, outside of prepared statements from her attorneys and court affidavits:

Nothing.

Astonishing in this era where scandal always presents itself as a windfall for the mistress.