The reason I don't buy the Right's safari into Kerry's shorts

[PlanetBev]

If he had an affair, surely he must have learned from Clinton's folly that there's no literbox big enough or deep enough to bury this shit. The press has no honor and the Right has become a well-honed three-headed monster that can dig this stuff up no matter how well you think you can hide it. To run for President knowing that this will come out and then deny it would be a Kamikaze mission of the first order. Kerry can't be that stupid. Or can he?

[ProudToBeLiberal]

1. Love sometimes can be irresistible

[Bombtrack]

2. he didn't deny it. He's showing himself to be a lousier and lousier

candidate

and this story is not necessarilly a construct of "the right"

Clark and Lehane aren't right wingers

[brentspeak]

3. That's because there's nothing to deny

there is no story. There's some "report" that some female journalist once declined an offer from Kerry to work on his staff. Cut to quotes from her father that Kerry is a "sleazebag."

Do you see the smoke and mirrors of this "story"?

brentspeak

[Adelante]

5. Clark and Lehane are not in this

Rival Democratic campaigns are in this. No matter how many hundred times it is repeated on DU that Clark and Lehane are the guilty parties, it will still remain untrue.

"Rivals in other Democratic campaigns..." = Edwards or Dean. Got it?

"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."

Source: Joe Conason, Salon, 2/13/04

[emulatorloo]

11. "I just deny it categorically. It's rumor. It's untrue. Period"

Good enough for you?

<snip>

Asked about the report by Internet Web site operator Matt Drudge, Kerry told reporters on his campaign: "I just deny it categorically. It's rumor. It's untrue. Period."

<snip>

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040213/pl_nm/campaign_kerry_denial_dc_1

[OneBlueSky]

4. I read on an earlier thread that Kerry categorically denied . . .

the accusations . . . knowing full well that the truth always comes out in the end, and that history has shown that, politically, a coverup is far worse that the crime itself, he'd have to be a complete fool to make such a statement were it not true . . . I don't think he's a fool . . .

[Lexingtonian]

6. yep, on Imus's radio show

The idea being to keep the 'discussion' confined to the disreputable sources that mainstream media refuses to use in the absence of corroborating evidence- Drudge, Imus, chat rooms, BBSs. A surprisingly good move by Kerry, really.

After Clinton's crucifixion only a fool would do what Kerry is now alleged to. If he did then a pratfall is deserved- but there clearly isn't evidence for either that kind of particular foolishness or the particular actions alleged.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

12. Yes. Highly unlikely after Clinton's assassination. eom

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

7. That's what I think too

Any of the candidates would be idiots to not see that the swing voters, and who knows how many other Americans, appear to think extra-marital sex is the worst crime that could ever be committed by a public official. Why would they even bother to drag themselves and their families through that wringer?

[arwalden]

8. Oh My! Very Creative Wording... "A Safari Into Kerry's Shorts"

and a perfect way to describe it. Thanks for the smile, Miss Bevey! :-)

Love,
Allen

[agingdem]

9. Remind me...

didn't Kerry have prostate surgery so when did this alleged affair take place?

[ithacan]

10. plus the timing

it just happens to come out as there is mounting evidence from actual people that the White House is lying through its teeth about Shrub's AWOL...