Well, this can't be a good sign — for John Edwards, anyway. The jury that is currently considering whether to convict him for alleged campaign-finance violations asked yesterday for a copy of the "haircut letter."

Elderly rich person "Bunny" Mellon, then an Edwards supporter, wrote the letter to campaign aide Andrew Young in 2007 not long after it had come to light that Edwards had (1) gotten himself a $400 haircut and (2) charged said haircut to his campaign. "I was sitting alone in a grim mood," wrote Bunny, "furious that the press had attacked Sen. Edwards on the price of a haircut." These dastardly rules that prevent candidates from spending campaign money on themselves were unreasonable, Bunny apparently believed. "From now on," she told Young, "all hair cuts, etc., that are a necessary and important part of his campaign, please send the bills to me. It is a way to help our friend without government restrictions."

Oh dear.

The report doesn't say (and I don't know) whether any haircut bills were actually sent to Bunny, how she thought they might distinguish between haircuts that were a necessary and important part of the campaign and those that weren't, and most importantly, whether the "etc." referred to other luxuries like possibly hiring an untalented videographer to have sex with. But Bunny did proceed to write a series of checks totaling about $725,000, two of which were "funnelled to Andrew Young through an intermediary," which also doesn't sound that good. (The jury asked for copies of those checks, too.)

Defense attorneys suggested yesterday that the jury could be out for a while, but that might be wishful thinking.