How far has John Edwards' political stock fallen?

Only a few months ago, he was a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, a former vice presidential nominee and a former North Carolina senator.

On Friday, he admitted to being unfaithful to his wife.

And on the Sunday morning talk shows, he was hardly even a topic of consideration.

On "Fox News Sunday," the host grilled John McCain's campaign manager about his energy plan, on "Meet the Press" Tom Brokaw put the Treasury secretary on the spot about the mortgage crisis, and "Inside Washington" covered a range of non-Edwards-related issues.

In previews of the show, only "Meet the Press" mentioned that it will talk about Edwards — at the very end of the show.

That's the spot on local news usually reserved for the waterskiing squirrel segment.

Update: In the middle of an extended riff on how much time should be spent on the Clintons at the Democratic convention, "Inside Washington" pundit Mark Shields briefly touched on Edwards.

"John Edwards is a separate case altogether," he said, then moved on.

Second Update: On "Fox News Sunday," Democratic Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin said that the Edwards' affair had a "quantum difference" from the Congressional interns scandal.

He was asked if if Barack Obama would consider Edwards for vice president.

"I have no idea. I've not spoken to him about that," he said. "As you're aware, Senator Edwards announced through one of his staffers he would not be attending the convention in Denver."

Third Update: The dean of the Washington press corps dismissed Edwards' political future on "Meet the Press."

David Broder said he never thought there was any likelihood that Edwards would be the vice presidential nominee again, but he worried the revelation would hurt the next president's ability to ask the American people to sacrifice.

"He's not really very important in American politics right now, but I'm afraid this will just deepen the cynicism that the American people feel towards politicians and politics," he said.

Meantime, Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Paul Gigot, no fan of liberals, congratulated the Democratic electorate on "their wisdom" in not nominating Edwards, saying the party would be in "desperate straits" right now if it had.

Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne agreed, saying that there would be talk of an open convention, with Edwards delegates rebelling, if he had won the nomination and the affair came out.