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I was in Washington last weekend and happened to drive through Georgetown, that posh neighborhood of elegant houses inhabited by senators, cabinet members and the well-heeled.

Among Georgetown's former residents were John and Elizabeth Edwards of North Carolina, who lived there in happier times before his sex scandal scorched their marriage.

I thought about the Edwardses while I was in Georgetown, probably because Elizabeth is seemingly everywhere you turn nowadays -- on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," on "Larry King Live," on "The Diane Rehm Show," on "Good Morning America," on you name it.

And while I'm an admirer of Elizabeth Edwards, I'm not sure she should be there. She's everywhere because she's promoting her new book, "Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life's Adversities," published this month.

Her promotional tour has opened the barn door and revealed some messy stuff. And she is talking, talking, talking. She is talking far more openly into a microphone about her husband's infidelity than what she wrote about it in her book.

During "The Oprah Winfrey Show," which was taped at the Edwardses' home in Chapel Hill, Oprah said, "The other woman has a baby. And there is great speculation that your husband, John Edwards, is the father of that baby."

To which Elizabeth replied: "That's what I understand. I've seen a picture of the baby. I have no idea. It doesn't look like my children, but I don't have any idea."

The baby is not mentioned in the book. Neither does Elizabeth name the other woman, Rielle Hunter, who made videos for Edwards' presidential campaign. Elizabeth describes her as "pathetic."

Elizabeth has been fiercely criticized for rehashing her husband's infidelities in a book and re-exposing her three children to the pain and publicity. I see their point.

Critics also fault her for sending mixed messages. Her intent, she writes, is not to air dirty linen, and yet some hangs out. "This (book) is not about his indiscretions," she writes. "He has his own battles to rediscover himself and realign his life &ellipses; This is about looking around me one day and finding, first, an ugly crack in the foundation of my life and then finding out in time that the crack was deeper than I first thought."

She continues: "If you picked up this book in hopes that in it there will be details of a scandal, you should now put the book down. This is my story, and my story is filled with pain and anger &ellipses; and new outlines for the future, but it is not filled with the clatter you seek."

But there is some clatter. She writes that John told her on Dec. 30, 2006, that he'd had an affair. He said it had been a one-night stand, and he was sorry. She cried, screamed and threw up in the bathroom. She wanted him to drop out of the presidential race.

For more than a year, she believed his dalliance had been a single night, she writes. Not until he dropped out of the race did he tell her "that more had happened."

Her defenders praise Elizabeth for being forthcoming and honest. They blame the media for focusing on the 20 pages about the scandal in a 200-page book. Her defenders stress that her book is far more about Elizabeth's response to adversities -- the death of her 16-year-old son, her incurable breast cancer. Her resilience, they say, has inspired others to face life's hurdles.

Still others, including women who've traveled their own rocky marital road, are glad she wrote the book instead of suffering silently like a good little wife. They're also glad the book will probably drive another nail in John's political coffin. Call it vengeance, they say, but the book needed to be written.

Meanwhile, what of the Edwardses' marriage? "When I'm sick or distracted, he is the caregiver I need, tender and attentive," she writes. And their future? "There are no guarantees but the road ahead looks clear enough, although from here it looks long."

And her book? Read it and decide for yourself what you think. Like me, you may not be quite sure.

Rosemary Roberts writes a column on alternate Fridays. E-mail: Rmroberts@triad.rr.com