According to the National Enquirer, a source which has emerged as the foremost authority on the subject, John Edwards resorted to physical abuse against his wife in the final confrontation before the couple split up…

Disgraced former presidential candidate John Edwards reportedly beat his cancer-stricken wife during a horrific marriage-ending fight.

“John lost his temper big time,” a close friend of Elizabeth’s revealed to the National Enquirer. “She has the divorce papers drawn up, but she can amend them to charge John with domestic violence.”

The couple’s furious confrontation was the “final straw” in Elizabeth’s decision to end their 32-year marriage after it was revealed that he had fathered a child out of wedlock with his ex-mistress Rielle Hunter, the newspaper revealed today in a bombshell report on its Web site.

“When [John] made the decision to hit me, it was over,” a friend said Elizabeth told her.

Former Edwards aide Andrew Young makes Elizabeth Edwards look anything but appealing in the red-hot new book The Politician, but has there ever been a political figure in recent American history so utterly loathsome and representative of everything people hate in their would-be leaders than John Edwards?