And so, more than a year after Silky lied his ass off on ABC about the baby not being his, he’s finally ready to come clean. How appropriate that the Enquirer, which dragged big media to this story kicking and screaming, apparently forced the final revelation with yesterday’s report on a secret DNA test confirming paternity. WRAL TV in North Carolina delivers the coup de grace:

Sources have told WRAL News that they expect former U.S. Sen. John Edwards to admit that he is the father of his former mistress’ 18-month-old daughter.

Edwards, a two-time Democratic presidential candidate, confessed last August to having an affair with Rielle Hunter, who served as a videographer on Edwards’ 2008 campaign. He has denied fathering her daughter, saying his relationship with Hunter ended before the child was conceived…

A federal grand jury is investigating whether Edwards’ campaign funds were illegally paid to Hunter to keep quiet about the affair…

Sources said Edwards’ public admission could come before the end of the criminal investigation.

The rumors of hush money laundered through the campaign have also been around for ages. From what I remember of how this all played out, Silky caught a bad break when his pal/money man Fred Baron died. It was Baron who had been sending payments to Hunter and fall guy Andrew Young, supposedly out of simple kindness towards a couple that was in a tough spot. Once Baron died and the money stopped flowing, Young started angling for a book deal and the dominoes began falling, making this a rare scandal where pretty much everything was exactly what it looked like and played out exactly as you’d expect.

Here’s a trip down memory lane from last August, a few days before Hunter’s sister felt obliged to remark publicly on how much the baby looked like Silky. Skip ahead to 45 seconds in. Exit quotation:

WOODRUFF: I need to ask about probably the most controversial allegation. Which is that a report has been published that the baby of Ms. Hunter is your baby. True?

EDWARDS: Not true. Published in a supermarket tabloid. That is absolutely not true.