Kerry intern's parents respond to allegations

News Interactive Australia? ^

[rocklobster11]

FACING the first crisis of his campaign, Democratic presidential nomination front-runner John Kerry will today respond to allegations he had a two-year affair with a young woman who has since fled the country.

Branded a political dirty trick by the Democrats, the pro-Republican Drudge Report website yesterday accused Senator Kerry, 60, of having an affair that threatened "to turn the race for the presidency on its head".

At the centre of the allegations is Alex Polier, 24, who had worked as a New York-based reporter for Associated Press. She now is now in Kenya.

Her parents, Donna and Terry, speaking from Malvern, Pennsylvania yesterday, said there was no evidence of an affair, only that Senator Kerry may have been attracted to their daughter.

Mr Polier said Senator Kerry had called his daughter "two or three years ago" to ask her to work on his re-election team. She declined.

"I think he's a sleaze-ball," Mr Polier told London's Sun newspaper.

Mrs Polier claimed Senator Kerry was "after" her daughter.

Drudge, which broke the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal, alleged yesterday that a young woman, "recently fled the country, reportedly at the prodding of Kerry" after a two-year affair beginning in early 2001.

Drudge further claimed General Wesley Clark, in an off-the-record conversation this week with reporters just before he dropped out of the race for the White House, said that "Kerry will implode over an intern issue".

General Clark made no mention of this during an interview with CNN yesterday. Today, he will throw his support behind Senator Kerry as the Democrat candidate to challenge George W. Bush at the November 2 federal election.

Senator Kerry is married to Teresa Heinz, heiress of the food empire.

He has two daughters from his first marriage, which ended in 1990.

[Hon]

Another correction: not Mugabe. But President Moi.

I need more coffee.

[kegler4]

"Because no American press called the parents since they probably already know all the details."

So you're saying that conservative outlets like the Washington Times and the WSJ are also conspiring to cover this up for Kerry? At last check there's nothing on the WT website about it. Why would they do that?

[William McKinley]

Because this is not coming from conservatives. It is coming from Democrats who want to blame it on conservatives.

[Aquinasfan]

that comment in itself seems to indicate some real possibilities.

Yup.

[kegler4]

I just saw the Australian link and thought Australia.

[Ron in Acreage]

Is Drudge aware of his blog.

[Beck_isright]

There is no evidence the pair had an affair, but her father Terry, 56, said: “I think he’s a sleazeball. I did kind of wonder if my daughter didn’t get that kind of feeling herself.

“He’s not the sort of guy I would choose to be with my daughter.”

[Hon]

"Not only that, but a blog entry made many days ago 'broke' the story."

What is funny about this, is that it looks like Chris Lehane was getting so impatient that he wasn't able to ge this story out, that he turned it over to a blogger.

But it is reliably reported that he has been shopping it around for a long time. And Estrich, Morris and others have said that "they" (probably Lehane) have been sitting on it for a long time.

[AmishDude]

Thats it? That he was "attracted" to her, THAT IT?

Actually, how would they know he would be attracted to her? At worst, this indicates a sleazy kind of stalking on Kerry's part. I mean, if you're as ancient as Kerry, hitting on a 20-something like this is just plain nasty. Even if he were single at the time, which doesn't seem to be the case.

We all know that Kerry was chasing everything in a skirt before he became a Ketchup King, so we have to be careful that some of his dalliances aren't contacts with women he dated when he was single.

[kegler4]

"Because this is not coming from conservatives. It is coming from Democrats who want to blame it on conservatives."

I see. So revealing that Kerry boinked a young thing and then hustled her out of the country will hurt Bush? I think I need to go buy some more tinfoil.

[kcvl]

I doubt they want to get called a "right-wing" smear machine like Drudge. Since everyone on Capital Hill is talking about it, I'm sure the media has known it for a while too. Like Rush said yesterday, they are all trying to be second because they don't want to be linked to Drudge. It's like the elephant in the room, that they don't want to talk about, that we know about, but they don't think we know about it. Too bad they haven't figured out they are the last place we go for real news.

[Hon]

Also, it has been suggested elsewhere that this story originally came from Capitol Hill, and that is probably the case.

As I've posted elsewhere, there was a minor blurb in "The Hill" about how the Boston Globe was going to assign a team to investigate Kerry's womanizing rumors. That was printed by them in 2003.

It was probably inspired at least in part by this story--as well as the other rumors about him.

[Howlin]

OMG, I have NO CABLE today........what has happened?

Did ANYBODY report this?

[Hon]

Sen. Kerry under microscope of Boston Globe reporters

Presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) will be the subject of a multipart investigative series soon to appear in The Boston Globe. Several months ago, the paper assigned “a team of reporters to dig through Kerry’s legislative, political and personal lives,” said a Globe source.

The Globe reported earlier this year that Kerry’s grandparents were Jewish and not Irish Catholic, as many assumed they were.

That news was uncovered by the paper’s special team and deemed “too hot to hold.”

One story being examined for the upcoming series involves Kerry’s brief fling in the 1980s with a young British journalist working in Washington. Dates planned around his tight schedule often began late at night, after political functions where the bachelor lawmaker eagerly seeking gravitas couldn’t afford to be seen in the company of an attractive 25-year-old reporter.

The woman soon tired of the arrangement and dumped Kerry for a member of Pink Floyd.

http://www.hillnews.com/open_secrets/041603.aspx

This was later picked up by Newsmax without attribution (of course).

[William McKinley]

Obviously, you have not been following how pundits like Joe Conason is already parrotting the Hillary line that it is all part of a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

That's the way they are already starting to spin it. No tinfoil required.

[Mo1]

.

[OldFriend]

And why didn't Imus ask Kerry why he thought Weasley Clark would make such statements about him?

According to Drudge, this has been percolating out there for several weeks.

[kcvl]

NO!

What happened to your cable?

[Hon]

"One story being examined for the upcoming series involves Kerry’s brief fling in the 1980s with a young British journalist working in Washington. Dates planned around his tight schedule often began late at night, after political functions where the bachelor lawmaker eagerly seeking gravitas couldn’t afford to be seen in the company of an attractive 25-year-old reporter. The woman soon tired of the arrangement and dumped Kerry for a member of Pink Floyd."

This seems to be an almost intentional garbling of at leas three rumors about Kerry. 1) British Emma Gilbey, who did date a Pink Floyd member. 2) The 22 year old former model seen coming out of Kerry's pad in 1998. 3) Polier, the 20-something (now former) AP reporter.

[Aquinasfan]

Saying he is "pro-Repudlican"or"conservative" is an attempt to slant this story as a "Republican" dirty trick.

Yesterday it was the "right-wing Drudge Report." Anyway, this indicates that this paper is probably sympathetic to Kerry.