Posted on 02/12/2004 9:02:48 PM PST by Ryan Bailey
Kerry will respond to infidelity charge Report says woman fled to Africa after inquiry by top news producer
Posted: February 12, 2004 9:45 p.m. Eastern
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
Sen. John Kerry plans to respond to allegations of infidelity published yesterday by the Drudge Report, according to the Internet newssite.
Drudge reported several major news outlets are engaged in a serious investigation of Kerry's relationship with a former Associated Press reporter.
The AP, Time magazine, ABC News and the Washington Post have been working on a story about a woman who began a two-year relationship with the Massachusetts senator in the spring of 2001, Drudge said.
The woman reportedly was approached by a top news reporter, prompting Kerry to urge her to leave the country. Drudge reported last night the woman fled to Africa, where she remains.
Late last year, the relationship was revealed to a reporter by a close friend of the woman "claiming fantastic stories," said Drudge, "that now threaten to turn the race for the presidency on its head."
Earlier this week, according to the Internet site, Gen. Wesley Clark told a dozen reporters in an off-the-record conversation, "Kerry will implode over an intern issue … ."
Just two hours after the report was posted, Clark aids said the candidate, who dropped out Wednesday, would endorse Kerry.
According to Drudge, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean sees the "Kerry commotion" as a chance to revive his dying campaign. The allegation is why Dean "has turned increasingly aggressive against Kerry in recent days, and is the key reason why Dean reversed his decision not to drop out of the race after Wisconsin," top campaign sources told Drudge.
After Dean built a seemingly insurmountable lead in polls, Kerry became the front-runner for the party's nomination three weeks ago by winning the Iowa caucuses and 11 of 13 contests since then.
He is scheduled to appear on the popular radio show "Imus in the Morning" tomorrow before joining Clark at a campaign event in Wisconsin.
Drudge said "reporters who witnessed Clark making the stunning comments marvel at the general's reluctance to later confirm they were spoken -- only to later endorse Kerry for the nomination."
Clark's press secretary Bill Buck refused to comment on the allegations.
"We do not respond to right-wing Internet postings in any way, shape or form," he said.
The mainstream media in the U.S. apparently have ignored the report, but it has been picked up by at least two British papers, the Scotsman and the Daily Telegraph of London.
The news-industry magazine Editor & Publisher contacted the Associated Press to see if the wire service would report the story.
"We simply don't comment on stories we are pursuing or not pursuing," AP spokesman Jack Stokes said.
Hard to prove
Drudge said unlike the Monica Lewinsky drama with President Clinton, which he first revealed, Kerry's situation has posed a challenge to reporters investigating the claims.
"There is no lawsuit testimony this time [like Clinton with Paula Jones]," a top source told Drudge tonight. "It is hard to prove."
The Kerry allegation grabbed the attention of talk radio shows across the nation today, where there was considerable speculation that associates of former President Clinton and Sen. Hillary Clinton could be behind the leak of the story.
In an article about Kerry rival John Edwards, AP cites recent encouragement the North Carolina senator has received from Bill Clinton.
Clinton told USA Today, "A lot of times things happen late in the race" which may or may not make a difference. "Look at the elections of the last 30 years. And ask yourself, is this election the same or different?"
Commenting on the Drudge story, Craig Crawford of the Congressional Quarterly said the allegation is something Wesley Clark campaign secretary and former Al Gore adviser Chris Lahane "has shopped around for a long time.
"It was one reason the Gore vetters in 2000 shied away from Kerry as a running mate choice," Crawford said in an e-mail to colleagues.
Gore's staffers concluded the news wasn't bad enough to disqualify the Massachusetts senator, he continued, "except for the fact that they couldn't risk it as they were trying so hard to distance themselves from Clinton's personal failings."
Crawford notes that in addition to working for Gore, Lehane briefly advised Kerry during the current campaign.
"The Kerry camp has long expected to deal with this, and have assured party leaders they can handle it," Crawford said.
Lehane strenuously denies the charge, according to Crawford.
A week ago, the Boston Herald's Inside Track column discussed a National Enquirer investigation on Kerry which claimed the senator is "an admitted pot smoker who had an eye for Hollywood honeys, namely Morgan Fairchild, Michelle Phillips and Catherine Oxenberg. In fact, Morgan and Michelle were so turned off by him, they both contributed to the other candidates seeking the nomination," the Herald stated.
According to the column, the Enquirer story also mentioned a "22-year-old blonde who was spotted around midnight 'dropping off her resume' at Kerry's Louisburg Square home while wife Teresa Heinz was in Nantucket."
In an interview last year with Elle magazine, Kerry's wife gave an indication of how she might respond to any indiscretions by her husband.
Referring to the effect of President Clinton's affairs on Hillary, Heinz Kerry said, "I don't think I could have coped so well. I would've been like psheww!," she said, making a gunshot noise.
"I used to say to my husband, my late husband, 'If you ever get something, I'll maim you. Not kill you, just maim you.' And we'd laugh, laugh, laugh."
Meanwhile, the London Telegraph said diehard Dean supporters exulted at the news on Internet forums, where there has been considerable bitterness about what they perceive as the media's destruction of their candidate.
The Kerry campaign Internet forum, in contrast, was seething with anger over "Republican dirty tricks."
On a popular conservative forum, Lucianne.com, one post reads: "Watch out boys, those hoof prints you are hearing is Hillary running in for the rescue of her party!"
The Senator, one of the most liberal in our nations history, has changed his mind at least once on such important issues as; Vietnam, Gay Marriage, Husseinist Iraq, and who knows what further revelations are to arise between now and the conventions.
Perhaps the most striking of these changes in basic views was his 'free pass' to Pres. Clinton's service record, or more specifically his lack thereof. It was no secret that President Clinton became essentially an anti-Ameican socialist during his time overseas, and has not changed much since. His clear and incontovertible evading of service was swept under the rug with the sweeping categorical by Se. Kerry in 1992 that he didn't think we needed to divid the country over who served and how. Indeed. How those words must haunt him today as he besmirches the record of a brave F-102 pilot who just happens to currently occupy the oval office. What exactly is it that has caused democrats in recent years to disresepect the Nat'l Guard.
The clear contempt for these gallant volunteer citizen-soldiers has become one of the most negative aspects of the new democratic party. if anyone thinks the Nat'l Guard was a way of avoiding combat in the Cold War, they should remember that the reason the Guard was kept in reserve was to fight the Soviets. In Pres. Bush's case, then Lt. Bush of the Texas Air Nat'l Guard, he would have been tasked with intercepting the Soviet Bombers in a Soviet Attack, had it occured. How this can be termed the conduct of a coward is quite beyond me.
Also remember the one hundred Guardsmen and five thousand reservists whose names appear on the 'Wall' in Washington D.C. Sen. Kerry, are they cowardly duty shirkers too.
Are the only heroes those who recalled war crimes only when addressing Congress, and who throw other people's medals away. I wish to preface this by saying that I admire and respect everythinmg the Senator did in Vietnam but I must agree that John Kerry in so abusing those military decorations, has made himself a disgrace to the uniform.
Now it remains to be seen whether the Senator will alter his previous stance on whether infidelity is acceptable for an American President. this time I imagine he will not be so quick to change his mind.
"A double minded man is unstable in all his ways"
:^)
It's not a joke or sarcasm to say so, it is very clearly a BIG plus with the democratic masses. It's also great 'press' for the dems convention and should kerry fall, rest assured HILLARY is ready to lower herself to take the reigns of power, as she has stayed so "above the fray" over the past few months. DRAFT HILLARY is coming up... bet on it.
That ain't the half of it.
Look... Senator J-effin-K has voted to gut the CIA, and Military as late as the 90's.
This man is obviously unfit to lead this country; post 9/11.
And that FACT needs to be hammered home - without all these sleazy side-stories.
Be bigger than the Demoncrats, and focus on the issues at hand.
enjoy
Drudge stated the affair started in 2001. Yet in 2000, Gore shied away from Kerry. Hmmm...either Drudge is mistaken or there are at least two little honeys.
They say they can handle it...can they deny it? That means bringing up time dated documents, witnesses etc. for all times he might have meet with this woman.
That's ironic now that Gore's endorsement is seen as a mark of death.
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