'This Won't Go Away. What Happened Is Much Nastier Than Is Being Reported' (Kerry)

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 2-15-2004 | Adrian Blomfeld/Andrew Alderson

[blam]

'This won't go away. What happened is much nastier than is being reported'

By Adrian Blomfeld in Nairobi and Andrew Alderson
(Filed: 15/02/2004)

Alex Polier, the twenty-four year old journalist who could end Senator John Kerry's hopes of becoming the next president of the United States is alleged to have had a two-year affair with the front-runner for the Democratic nomination. Last night the rumours were in danger of becoming a full-blown scandal.

"This is not going to go away," one American friend of Miss Polier said yesterday. "What actually happened is much nastier than is being reported."

The allegations come at a crucial time for the senator. Polls showed him leading Mr Bush by 52 per cent to 42 per cent, and aides will be anxious to see if the apparent scandal affects his standing among voters.

Miss Polier, a former intern who also spent some time in 1998 doing work experience at the Houses of Parliament in London, is in Kenya staying with Yaron Schwartzman, her fiance and a member of the country's fashionable young set. The couple have refused to make any comment on her alleged links with Senator Kerry, who is married to Teresa Heinz Kerry, an heiress to the food empire.

Senator Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran dubbed the new JFK, has vehemently denied any relationship with Miss Polier, and shrugged off allegations that he had a two-year affair with her from 2001. "I just deny it categorically. It's rumour. It's untrue. Period," he said.

Mr Kerry, 60, has won 12 out of the 14 Democratic primaries and has looked all but certain to seal the nomination to take on President George W. Bush in November's elections.

His aides have blamed a dirty tricks campaign for bringing the allegations about Miss Polier into the public eye; they first surfaced last week on a Right-wing internet site, the Drudge Report, which famously first broke the news of Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Miss Polier's parents, Terry and Donna, from Malvern, Pennsylvania, added fuel to the fire by claiming that Mr Kerry did pursue their daughter.

"I think he's a sleazeball. I did wonder if she didn't get that feeling herself," said Mr Polier. "He's not the sort of guy I'd choose to be with my daughter.

"John Kerry called my daughter and invited her to be on his re-election committee. She talked to him and decided against it."

The Drudge website also quoted retired Gen Wesley Clark, one of Mr Kerry's rivals for the nomination, as having told journalists off the record: "Kerry will implode over an intern issue."

Mr Clark later dropped out of the race and endorsed Mr Kerry.

Miss Polier, a journalist who once worked for Associated Press, is a graduate of Columbia University, New York. She apparently met the senator as she was beginning her media career. Miss Polier and her fiance were believed to be hiding yesterday at the Nairobi home of Mr Schwartzman's parents, who moved to Kenya from Israel.

She appears to have few friends of her own in Kenya: she has never lived in the country and makes only occasional visits. "She seemed perfectly nice, although she was a little cool," said a Schwartzman family friend.

"She didn't seem to be very willing to open up but whether it was because she was aloof or just shy, I couldn't work out."

[I still care]

She didn't have a friend like Linda Tripp to tell her to save the dress.

If you can't prove it, you are just be made into a tramp, so just take the money and run...

[Enterprise]

"Btw, who in the H decided the ketchup boy is the "newJFK"?"

It must be the slugs at ABCCBSNBCCNNMTVNPR who want to have "Camelot" back. The closest I can get to anything like Camelot with Kerry is that he looks a lot like a Camel.

[Milanese]

Because her fiance lives in Africa it makes the "fled to Africa" less exotic.

Her friend says "much nastier than reported." Friends hear the worst, even exaggerations. But combined with the parents' frustrated statements that John is a sleaze, one can wander if something else than a mere affair occured...example -- stalking.

[billhilly]

Just look at the way Bill Clinton and his henchmen handled "bimbos" and you will know that the poor girl is petrified. With the power of a United States Senator, and the vast wealth of his wife, those toys are theirs for the momentary pleasure, and are to be discarded when they become liabilities. If they get destroyed in the process, better them than the senator and his ambitions.

This country has been there and done that, but it should be better than that.

[Jorge]

Note the preposterous claim in this article that Kerry leads by ten points!

I saw similar poll numbers on FOX News today.

[Beck_isright]

'This won't go away. What happened is much nastier than is being reported'

Bump.

[ambrose]

"What actually happened is much nastier than is being reported."

Rape?

[Capt. Tom]

"This is not going to go away," one American friend of Miss Polier said yesterday. "What actually happened is much nastier than is being reported."

If only...If only it's true.

If I was supposed to believe Clinton's Black churches burning in Arkansas story, why can't I believe this?? - Tom

[oceanview]

I see nothing in this story to indicate its anything more then an affair, and if that's all it is, its going nowhere. there will be a backlash and this will end up helping to insulate kerry against future attacks if there is nothing more to it then a guy cheating on his wife with a young woman.

[Rokke]

I think Drudge already has a lot more information. I don't think he would have broken the story as a ***World Exclusive*** if he was merely repeating vague rumors. He knew this would put him in a bright spotlight. I seem to recall him following a similar course with the Lewinsky episode.

[Beck_isright]

I love demorats. They allow me to be creative with my taglines.

[PeteFromMontana]

Polls showed him leading Mr Bush by 52 per cent to 42 per cent

__________________
WHAT??? I have not seen that poll.

[coloradomom]

I'm guessing that you are correct and a threat or bribe is involved in keeping the woman quiet.

The British press will investigate.

The American press will not, even though a totally unsubstantiated charge about George H. W. Bush having a mistress was national news in 1988.

Typical media double standard.

[per loin]

The foreign press has the decency to not call Kerry a "war hero" in every article about him. But I've heard the phrase used so many times by the American media that I'm beginning to wonder if there is something about his getting those medals that is very sleazy. The Dems are crafty in how they mold the public discourse.

[omnix]

We are all human and not perfect. There is not one single person besides Jesus Christ that has not had some ambugiety in his life.

[Old Sarge]

Glad to oblidge, Beck (LOL)

[oceanview]

you are playing right into the Dems hands with stuff like that. Suppose they "find" some woman who claims Bush raped her 30 years ago?

[PJ-Comix]

4. He threatened to reveal pics of the two of them together thus proving her guilty of bestiality with Mr. Ed.

[the invisib1e hand]

Kerry apparently is just another Kennedy. It's probably best for her to be halfway across the world just now.

[Darnright]

"But combined with the parents' frustrated statements that John is a sleaze, one can wander if something else than a mere affair occured...example -- stalking."

Or an unplanned pregnancy?