Cheaters Only Confess After They Get Caught

John Edwards has moved on.

He says he has made peace with God, and probably more importantly for now, his wife.

Great.

Here's what isn't: Thinking he'd be making peace with anyone had he simply not been caught.

Let's not kid ourselves, those who cheat and confess and apologize, only confess and apologize when they've been caught.

Otherwise, I suspect they'd keep cheating, or keep trying to.

Had the National Enquirer not so relentlessly pursued him, I dare say we wouldn't have heard boo out of Edwards.

And had there not been an incriminating blue dress, Bill Clinton would still be wagging his finger, insisting he did not have sex with that woman.

Eliot Spitzer too. The only thing that forced this soulful and painful search with his wife, was someone else's soulful search of Spitzer's actions that showed he had little regard for his wife.

Until he did.

Until they all did.

And suddenly they were moved, and shaken, humbled, and wiser.

Look, I'm not here to judge anyone's moral lapses, just how they account for them.

Jesus didn't bring them to this point. Telltale photos or dresses or incriminating receipts did.

Otherwise Jesus didn't matter, the wife didn't matter, being truthful didn't matter.

I mean, do you think any of them, any of them, would have so much as wagged a finger had they first not been caught wagging something else?

I don't remember a time a philandering candidate has volunteered an affair because he simply had to get it off his chest.

Usually it's because someone else had gotten it on videotape, or worse.

So in a sense, they compound the lie with yet another lie.

Usually the wives seem too shocked to distinguish the difference.

But that doesn't mean we should be.

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