There goes ole Drudgy again. Let the kid get it out of his system.
Harry Hope
http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2004/02/13/drudge/
There he goes again!
Matt Drudge and the GOP smear machine are back in the Democrats'
pants.
By Joe Conason
Feb. 13, 2004 --
Is American politics suddenly returning to the bad old days, when
Washington journalism became frenzied with sheet sniffing and keyhole
peeping?
That seems to be the default program of the right-wing media machine
whenever Republican poll numbers sink into the red zone.
Late Thursday morning -- with George W. Bush's credibility damaged on
several fronts as reporters demanded answers to questions about his
National Guard service that should have been asked years ago -- the
Drudge Report defamed his leading Democratic challenger with a "world
exclusive" smudge of personal dirt.
Vague and unsourced but hyped to the maximum by Drudge, the brief item
sounded disturbingly familiar.
The Internet gossip accused John Kerry of "recent alleged infidelity"
with "a woman who recently fled the country," adding that a "close
friend of the woman recently approached a reporter with fantastic
stories."
The same item ran an "off the record" comment attributed to retired
Gen. Wesley Clark, who was quoted as saying, "Kerry will implode over
an intern issue."
Major news organizations from ABC News to the Associated Press, warned
Drudge, were all over the story.
By evening, however, no major news organization had run with it,
though many were chasing it.
Perhaps frustrated, Drudge put up an additional item eight hours
later, with a few more details about the alleged relationship.
"Unlike the Monica Lewinsky drama, which first played out publicly in
this space, with audio tapes, cigar and a dress, the Kerry situation
has posed a challenge to reporters investigating the claims," his
later item explained.
Drudge also quoted a "top source" as saying:
"There is no lawsuit testimony this time [like Clinton with Paula
Jones]. It is hard to prove."
But the kind of proof usually required by national news organizations
isn't what Drudge needs in order to put innuendo into circulation.
Somewhat conveniently, Drudge had earlier posted an item that blamed
the sudden smudging on a disgruntled Democratic consultant named Chris
Lehane, who had been fired by Kerry before going to work for as a
communications aide to Clark.
That second item was later taken down without explanation.
By then, of course, this Drudge-drama was already "rocking" Democrats
-- and delighting Republicans -- across the nation, at least according
to Drudge.
The template was pure Monica: Intern has affair with married
politician, is betrayed by a "close friend," and finally exposed by
the pliant Drudge.
So far, however, the mainstream media has yet to touch the Drudge
item, despite heavy promotion by Rush Limbaugh and the Wall Street
Journal's Opinion Journal Web site.
Whoever lit this match must have been disappointed when the story that
smoldered in newsrooms during the afternoon failed to blaze into a
firestorm by early evening.
The only exception, so far, is a daily newspaper in Scotland.
Over the years, Kerry's private life has generated its share of
gossip.
He was a divorced, socially active single man for several years before
he remarried.
No woman has so far stepped forward to embarrass him in any way -- and
the only published report even remotely hinting at marital infidelity
is a 6-year-old unfounded clipping from the Boston Herald.
Sources in the Kerry camp insist that the Drudge story has no
foundation, although they have been predicting since Bush's numbers
began to drop that the White House would soon dump its opposition
research on their candidate.
It may also be worth noting that the Massachusetts senator underwent
surgery and radiation treatment last year for prostate cancer.
Was the Drudge item a late hit by an angry Democrat seeking revenge,
or a plant by desperate Republicans hoping to distract attention from
the president's problems?
Lacking proof, the most pertinent questions are the standards of
forensic inquiry: Cui bono (who benefits)?
And who had the motive, method and opportunity?
Drudge's allegations set off a chain of speculation.
Certainly some Democrats wondered if the evidence-free item came from
Lehane, who declined public comment this afternoon.
Lehane has a reputation as an often rough operator, and that may
provide a pretext for Drudge to smear him, too.
Following Lehane's dismissal from the Kerry campaign some months ago,
the tone of his remarks about his former employer occasionally sounded
vengeful.
If Clark actually uttered the nasty remark as quoted by Drudge, the
general might have heard such rumors from his sharp-edged consultant.
But then if Clark believed Kerry was about to "implode," he might not
have dropped out of the primary race -- or decided to endorse the
Massachusetts senator, as he is expected to do on Friday.
A source close to Lehane vehemently denied to me that Lehane had
peddled any rumors about Kerry -- and turned attention back toward the
White House as Drudge's likely source.
"My assessment is that this is not merely a serendipitous event," he
said.
The Drudge item blaming Lehane quoted Craig Crawford, a former
Democratic operative who now works as a consultant and columnist for
MSNBC.
Within 10 minutes after Drudge posted the Kerry intern item, Crawford
sent a memo to his superiors that said the story was "something Chris
Lehane (clark press secy) has shopped around for a long time."
According to Crawford, someone at MSNBC promptly leaked his memo to
Drudge.
But when Lehane called Crawford with a loudly indignant denial, the
MSNBC columnist quickly issued a public retraction.
He said:
"The comments attributed to me are from a private email to television
news associates based on conversations with Democratic campaign
operatives. I did not consider any of it confirmed enough to report or
publish. I can only verify that Chris Lehane's rivals in other
Democratic campaigns made these claims and I have found no independent
source to confirm it. Which is why we did not go with the story. But
then someone sent my email to others, which is the only reason it got
into the public domain."
In other words, there is no proof that Lehane circulated the rumor,
let alone that the rumor has any basis in reality.
Once again, Drudge has raised questions -- but they may not be the
ones he seeks to raise.
The first is about journalistic standards.
The second is the identity of his anonymous sources.
Journalists must ask themselves why the rumor of a private peccadillo
deserves their attention and resources in the 2004 campaign.
The press faces a more important issue: learning from its own failure
to report the false rationale and abused intelligence that drove the
nation to war.
_____________________________________________________
Stay tuned, folks, this is gonna be fun.
Harry
Daniel
--
Dodge Ram SRT-10, world's fastest production truck 154.587 MPH
"Harry Hope" <riv...@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:rnlo20p0211262gla...@4ax.com...
>
> http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2004/02/13/drudge/
>
> There he goes again!
>
> Matt Drudge and the GOP smear machine are back in the Democrats'
> pants.
so GEN. Clark is a Republican now?
CJT
>so GEN. Clark is a Republican now?
I don't think it would be the first time. <g>
--
After being targeted with gigabytes of trash by the "SWEN" worm, I have
concluded we must conceal our e-mail address. Our true address is the
mirror image of what you see before the "@" symbol. It's a shame such
steps are necessary. ...Charlie
Salad
> After being targeted with gigabytes of trash by the "SWEN" worm, I have
> concluded we must conceal our e-mail address. Our true address is the
> mirror image of what you see before the "@" symbol. It's a shame such
> steps are necessary. ...Charlie
Ain't that the truth.
Salad
>
> http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2004/02/13/drudge/
>
> There he goes again!
>
> Matt Drudge and the GOP smear machine are back in the Democrats'
> pants.
I was wondering why the spreaders of right wing lies and gossip were
quieting down. Nobody believed them.
Keep up the dirty tricks, right wing losers. It will help ensure your boy
loses. He's going to retire in November.
George
>
> There he goes again!
>
> Matt Drudge and the GOP smear machine are back in the Democrats'
> pants.
Here comes Karl Rove with his $200 million to spend.
Just another mindless juicy distraction.
While Americans are paying, with countless billions of hard-earned tax
dollars - and the LIVES of their sons and daughters - for George W.
Bush's war.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOUSTON, Texas (CNN, 9/26/2002)
In discussing the threat posed by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Bush
said: "After all, this is the guy who tried to kill my dad."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Miles
Wasn't it Wesley Clark and 3 journalist that were the source of this?
The Wesley Clark that is running as a democrat at the request of the
Clintons?
jslater
Clark endorsed Kerry, so he wasn't the source of the smear.--Joe
Cavello
>
> There he goes again!
>
> Matt Drudge and the GOP smear machine are back in the Democrats'
> pants.
Actually you should have done a little research before you blew your
stupid top, because Drudge was not the first to report the story. It
in fact can be seen posted here on February 6th, almost a week before
Drudge picked up on it:
http://www.watchblog.com/thirdparty/archives/000780.html
Eat crow, shithead.
Cavello
>
> >
> > http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2004/02/13/drudge/
> >
> > There he goes again!
> >
> > Matt Drudge and the GOP smear machine are back in the Democrats'
> > pants.
>
> I was wondering why the spreaders of right wing lies and gossip were
> quieting down. Nobody believed them.
http://www.watchblog.com/thirdparty/archives/000780.html
You need to think again about what you beleive and don't. Drudge is
only passing it on, he didn't come up with this at all.
>
> Keep up the dirty tricks, right wing losers. It will help ensure your boy
> loses. He's going to retire in November.
Yeah, to four relaxing years at 1600 Penn Ave
bobbyhaqq
how afraid the Bush people are. They see the economic data, they see
the mess in Iraq, they see the failure of the Afghan operation and
they see Al Qaeda continue to survive. They know they have no record
to run on, Bin Laden is free and after us, Iraq has been utterly
destroyed, the deficit has been driven up, the dollar ruined, the
economy is utterly stagnate, America is hated around the world and
hatefull. A Bush re-election would be a diaster of untold dimensions
for the US, any rational person would have to conclude that.
So they try like they tried against Clinton. Expect to see them try
and steal this one again. Bush didn't get the majority in 2000 and
since then he invaded Iraq for WMD that did not exist, got us drawn in
a deadly pointless exercise in nation building which is the new
Vietnam, let Al Qaeda get away with 9-11 as the Taliban is allowed to
regroup as we squander our forces in Iraq, let the dollar collapse,
ruined our repuation around the world, run up massive deficits which
will inflict higher taxes on generations of Americans, and been the
first President since Hoover to see the total jobs lost in the nation.
What does he have to run on? The fact that there have only been a few
small terrorist strikes inside the US in the 2 years since 9-11,
though Al Qaeda has launched massive attacks killing many hundereds
around the world and American forces stuck in Iraq now come under
daily attack?
liberal shmiberal
>
> There he goes again!
>
> Matt Drudge and the GOP smear machine are back in the Democrats'
> pants.
these right-wing gossip-merchants and dirty-trickster types seem to be
all of the same mindset. i think they should comply with full
disclosure in their OWN personal lives.
Salad
No.
Salad
> > Keep up the dirty tricks, right wing losers. It will help ensure your boy
> > loses. He's going to retire in November.
>
> Yeah, to four relaxing years at 1600 Penn Ave
That's what most of us thought he did prior to 911. It was one big party for him,
every day was a vacation.
Salad
> What does he have to run on? The fact that there have only been a few
> small terrorist strikes inside the US in the 2 years since 9-11,
> though Al Qaeda has launched massive attacks killing many hundereds
> around the world and American forces stuck in Iraq now come under
> daily attack?
Based upon an economic model of bush economics, by 2040 taxes will need to
double to keep up with out current services or else all services in the
gov't will need to be cut by 50%.
gwb's economic plan is to bankrupt America.
Ty Leonard
"Daniel" <sabot...@diespammersdie.com> wrote in message
news:EPYWb.9643$ng6....@fe2.texas.rr.com...
>
>
No that part's a lie as well. C'mon keep up now. I know it's hard for you
repugs.
>
SPQR
Did you fail reading comprehension? Have you always been stupid or
did you just get that way?
Clark HAS ENDORSED KERRY. Drudge published the bullshit claim that
Clark said Kerry's campaign was about to "implode" over an intern. If
Clark knew that, why would he endorse Kerry?
No, fool, Clark is not a Republican -- and Clark has not criticized
Kerry.
Crawl your dumbass back under your rock.
>>>>
SPQR
<<<<
eflorack
>
> There he goes again!
>
> Matt Drudge and the GOP smear machine are back in the Democrats'
> pants.
>
Ya know, you really have to get your head out of CONason's ass.
Blame the Republicans for Kerry intern story? Well now, THAT didn't
take long, did it?
Does you ever actually check this stuff before you spew?!?!??
Let's be honest here. This is a Republican op only if you think
Weasely Clark is a Republican this week. And he's a Republican only if
Bill Clinton is a good role model. Speaking of which I'm willing to
bet the Clintons had their hands in this one.
In any event, for all the credit Drudge deserves for running the
story, the fact is, it's not his story, really. This story was being
shopped around for months, and has been in blogdom for the last month.
Check:
http://www.watchblog.com/thirdparty/archives/000780.html
Look specificly at the date.... 2/6... LONG before Matt got it.
Sorry, no sale, here.
Cavello
I see no need to fisk your comedian's parody of a post, but the fact
that you're able to describe the US economy as 'stagnant' when in
actuality it's growing at its fastest rate in 20 years speaks volumes
about your level of acquaintance with reality.
Mr. Video
> Harry Hope <riv...@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message news:<rnlo20p0211262gla...@4ax.com>...
> > http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2004/02/13/drudge/
> >
> > There he goes again!
> >
> > Matt Drudge and the GOP smear machine are back in the Democrats'
> > pants.
>
> Actually you should have done a little research before you blew your
> stupid top, because Drudge was not the first to report the story. It
> in fact can be seen posted here on February 6th, almost a week before
> Drudge picked up on it:
> http://www.watchblog.com/thirdparty/archives/000780.html
>
> Eat crow, shithead.
Yet another hate-filled, spiteful neanderthal.
McCleod
Off the record means that Karen Hughes, the news concocter, made it
up, duh! That is her job now. It's something she can do from while
pretending to be a good GOP housewife.
Cavello
Who's just proved a crowd of dopes wrong and pissed them off. Boo hoo.
America
No affair, no intern, no story.
You just got duped again.
You're either totally stupid or you must enjoy being abused.
Cavello
Comprehension of basic English is clearly not your forte, cos I never
said there was an affair or an intern. That remains to be seen. I was
just pointing out the original source of the story was *NOT* Drudge.
America
You just got duped again.
You're either totally stupid or you must enjoy being abused.
You're out of any other options when you propagate bushkult lies.
Don't get upset when you're noted as a lackey.
Cavello
But who, you? Who cannot even read properly? I'm so wounded.
America
>... cannot even read properly... I'm so wounded...
It's even affected your writing, making you seem totally illiterate.
Of course, total illiteracy would be a reason you'd be suckered that way
by the lies of the Bush crime organization.
Cavello
Go on, drone. Add on another sentence.
America
>Go on, drone...
That's the mantra they chant, those voices in your otherwise empty head, isn't it.
FSIA
Feb 16, 12:57 PM (ET)
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - A woman who has been the subject of rumors
linking her to Sen. John Kerry denied Monday that she ever had an
affair with the Democratic presidential candidate.
Breaking her silence four days after the allegations surfaced on the
Internet, Alexandra Polier issued a statement to The Associated Press,
saying, "I have never had a relationship with Senator Kerry, and the
rumors in the press are completely false."
Kerry already has denied reports that he had an extramarital affair.
On Monday, his campaign said he would have no further comment.
Polier's statement was released to the AP in Nairobi, where the
27-year-old freelance journalist is visiting the parents of her
fiance, Yaron Schwartzman, an Israeli who was raised in Kenya. She
previously worked as an editorial assistant for the AP in New York.
"Whoever is spreading these rumors and allegations does not know me,"
Polier said, appealing to the media to respect her privacy and the
privacy of her fiance and his family.
Polier also took issue with reports that referred to her as a former
Kerry intern.
"I never interned or worked for John Kerry," she told AP over the
phone.
In a separate statement, Polier's parents, Terry and Donna Polier of
Malvern, Pa., dismissed the "completely false and unsubstantiated"
allegations about their daughter.
"We love and support her 100 percent and these unfounded rumors are
hurtful to our entire family," the statement said. "We appreciate the
way Senator Kerry has handled the situation, and intend on voting for
him for president of the United States."
The statement did not address purported quotes by Polier's parents in
the British tabloid The Sun that were harshly critical of Kerry.
Kerry has won 14 of 16 Democratic primaries and caucuses, and is
expected to be the Democratic challenger to President Bush in
November.
Rumors of a relationship between Kerry and Polier first appeared
Thursday on the Internet and were picked up by newspapers in several
countries outside the United States. Few U.S. publications printed her
name, however.
Asked Friday about the reports, Kerry told reporters: "I just deny it
categorically. It's rumor. It's untrue. And that's the last time I
intend" to respond to questions about it.
Regarding her silence until now, Polier said, "Because these stories
were false, I assumed the media would ignore them. It seems that
efforts to peddle these lies continue, so I feel compelled to address
them."
By Monday, reporters and photographers were camped outside the
Schwartzmans' Nairobi home, and at one point pursued the car of
Yaron's mother, Hannah Schwartzman, as she left the walled compound.
Polier and Yaron Schwartzman met at Columbia University. They arrived
in Kenya last October.
Polier graduated from Clark University in Worcester, Mass., in 1999.
She received her master's in journalism from Columbia in 2003.
Cavello
> cav...@yahoo.com (Cavello) wrote:
>
> >Go on, drone...
>
> That's the mantra they chant, those voices in your otherwise empty head, isn't it.
>
> cav...@yahoo.com (Cavello) wrote:
>
> >... cannot even read properly... I'm so wounded...
>
> It's even affected your writing, making you seem totally illiterate.
Which is why you're bothering with me.
America
>... you're bothering with me.
It's no bother, you're making yourself look really stupid and I'm
just supplying the captions of the bemused.
cav...@yahoo.com (Cavello) wrote:
>Go on, drone...
That's the mantra they chant, those voices in your otherwise empty head, isn't it.
cav...@yahoo.com (Cavello) wrote:
>... cannot even read properly... I'm so wounded...
It's even affected your writing, making you seem totally illiterate.
Of course, total illiteracy would be a reason you'd be suckered that way
banjocat
As usual, you never bother to do any proper follow-up.
If you had done so, you would have discovered that the bloger who posted that
has debunked your little myth.
All you had to do was go to the end of that post (the one you refered to)
and click on the hyperlink "SoL", to navigate to his website
http://wakeupandsmelltherevolution.com/