Friday, 13 February 2004 - 3:18 AM EST

Name: Sean

God bless that Drudge. I like how everything ends with an exclamation point to push it right over that credibility edge.

I believe it, of course. You just can't make up stuff like having an affair and sending the woman to Africa to save your presidential campaign.

Friday, 13 February 2004 - 4:09 AM EST

Name: Sean

I guess the presidency will once again revert to the descendants of Longshanks.

Friday, 13 February 2004 - 9:39 AM EST

Name: Tony

Marc, you read Drudge more than I do: how confident are you that there's something behind this? Didn't Drudge also report that Clinton had fathered an illegitment black child. Was that ever substantiated? I know he's gotten the scoop on a lot of stories, but I'm just uneasy relying on this guy.

Friday, 13 February 2004 - 9:57 AM EST

Name: Marc

Well, contrary to Drudge's claims, he wasn't first on this. Some blog had this on the 6th:

Rumor has it that John Kerry (D) is going to be outed by Time Magazine next week for having an affair with a 20 year old woman who remains unknown. The affair supposedly took place intermittently right up to Kerry's Fall 2002 announcement of candidacy.

He ends the post with this brag:

Note: I wanted to add that if this shows up in Time next week as my source claims (I am assuming it is the one with Kerry on the cover), WatchBlog will have scooped an incredibly big story and that you can trust us to deliver timely news that is more than just rumor and hearsay. We bring context that delves into how the campaign may take shape.

Jonah Goldberg of NR says the guy who runs the blog works for Wesley Clark. Wheels within wheels! So, in my uninformed opinion, the whole thing looks very much like a Clinton hit on Kerry. To what purpose, I can't say. Whether just to damage Kerry or to remove him from the ticket, to be replaced with Clark or... Hillary?

Meanwhile, the Sun, a British tabloid, has the name of the supposed bimbo: Alex Polier, an AP reporter.

Friday, 13 February 2004 - 10:10 AM EST

Name: Marc

Just about everybody is related to royalty. Read this article from the May 2002 Atlantic Monthly:

In other words, all Europeans alive today have among their ancestors the same man or woman who lived around 1400. Before that date, according to Chang's model, the number of ancestors common to all Europeans today increased, until, about a thousand years ago, a peculiar situation prevailed: 20 percent of the adult Europeans alive in 1000 would turn out to be the ancestors of no one living today (that is, they had no children or all their descendants eventually died childless); each of the remaining 80 percent would turn out to be a direct ancestor of every European living today.

Friday, 13 February 2004 - 10:52 AM EST

Name: Sean

Well, it hasn't broken yet farther than the Internet as far as I can see. Nothing on the Post. Nothing on the network news we get here. Just tabloid folks. And Rush, apparently. You'd think they'd latch onto this like stink on a mule.

Other than that it seems people are more concerned with the WMD thing for the moment. As for who's behind it, why not the evil genius Rove? Sure he's a catch-all blame guy, as are most evil geniuses, but hear me out.

It's perfect timing when there's no one else that can touch him in the primaries. He goes into the general painted as the new Clinton and you just go back to the late 90's playbook.

Friday, 13 February 2004 - 11:02 AM EST

Name: Marc

We had it on the local news here. I haven't seen any national coverage yet (but I am without cable).

If it was Rove, I would think it would be more advantageous to drop this in the summer - say, right after the Democratic convention. That way it would negate the bounce, plus it would look extra sleazy after watching a week's worth of Kerry in 'Nam film.

Clinton's female trouble hit him in the primaries, and it had already been absorbed by the voters by November. Kerry's people (if he makes it through this) will be saying "This is old news," by the general election. Actually, they will probably start saying it tomorrow, if they are anything like Clinton's team.

Friday, 13 February 2004 - 12:28 PM EST

Name: Tony

At the risk of sounding like Laurel to Marc's Hardy, I have to agree that this was probably not a Republican effort. Edwards is, arguably, still viable and Dean is hanging around for just such a revelation. I think it was a Democrat. I think this is someone who knows something about Kerry and wants him off the ticket before the Republicans, with this in tow, get a chance to pick him apart.

I had some hope, not much but some, that the first presidential election after 9-11 might be fought over substance. Instead, the news is being dominated with Bush's National Guard record and Kerry's sexual misconduct. And it's only February. I fear for what October's gonna look like.

Friday, 13 February 2004 - 1:40 PM EST

Name: Liz

I have to agree with Wingus & Dingus--this was the work of a Democrat.

Tony, you left out one other major issue of the 2004 campaign--Botox.