Andrew Young, the former John Edwards aide and confidante who helped Edwards conceal (for a time) his affair with Rielle Hunter--who claimed the baby was his and took Rielle into his house--has written a book about Edwards and the whole saga, called "The Politician," and Hotline OnCall has gotten its hands on an early copy.

It is lurid, as one might expect--fraught with details about Edwards and some justifications of Young's seemingly sycophantish relationship with the man ("Inside the campaigns, I found a cult-like atmosphere that eroded my ability to resist his requests for ever more extreme behavior.")

 The affair was financed by two donors, Texas fundraiser Fred Baron and American aristocrat Bunny Mellon (who didn't know where her money was going). Young calls Edwards "lonely" and disconnected from Elizabeth, whom Young seems to think was ambitious and a little bit crazed. There is a description of the sex tape. Edwards orders HairTec Thick & Strong shampoo by the case. Edwards was consistently late appearances in Iowa during the '08 primary, Young says, delayed "in part, by the time he used on the phone listening to his angry wife, comforting his lonely mistress, and maintaining his relationship with me."

And this part, which hadn't come out before: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both called Elizabeth Edwards, after the affair story broke, "to say they were sorry about what was happening and to tell her she was in their prayers." Bill Clinton called John Edwards to ask, basically, "How'd you get caught?"

See many more details, descriptions, and quotes from the book in Jamie Shufflebarger's post at Hotline OnCall.