It's the ads. Like most active pages, Drudge probably has agreements that open him up to sabotage from outside his site. Or possibly you already had the problem and visiting Drudge just set it off. Anyway, with my combination of programs I've never had trouble with Drudge, and it's been a couple of years since I saw any of his ads.
I now have Spy Sweeper and McAfee and they do a nice job.
Also, I have this pop-up killer called POW! that works pretty well (when I remember to activate it).