I wonder if Bush plays chess?

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17850

By Don Hazen, AlterNet

February 13, 2004

Take cover; political ugly season is upon us, and the mud is being
slung far and wide.

Take the imbroglio bubbling up around presidential candidate John
Kerry's alleged extramarital affair with a young Associate Press
employee.

The unsourced allegation, surfaced by the conservative website, the
Drudge Report, comes just as George Bush is feeling the heat on many
fronts and is literally plummeting in the polls; a new Washington Post
ABC News poll shows him losing to John Kerry 52 percent to 43 percent,
and a majority of Americans (54 percent) say he fudged or lied about
Iraq.

The real story of the hour, of course, is that the Bush team can't
find a single soul who ever saw Bush in the National Guard in Alabama.

"Years of Searching for Guard Cohorts Produces no Results," reads the
Feb 13 New York Times headline (and that's despite a $1000 reward for
anyone who had a Bush sighting).

The Drudge Report's timing seems to be an attempt to blunt the Bush
AWOL story and turn the press's attention to something more current
and salacious.

As Joe Conason writes on Salon, Drudge surfaced with a "world
exclusive" smudge of personal dirt.

Vague and unsourced, yet hyped to the maximum, the brief item sounded
disturbingly familiar.

It accuses 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."

Drudge warned that major news organizations from ABC News to the
Associated Press were all over the story.

But none of them has yet reported on it.

No doubt this is the first of a number of "bombs" that will rock the
Democratic presidential campaign.

One immediate effect of the rumor is that it cast the first dark cloud
on the cherished hope for an electable Democratic candidate in
November.

Poll after poll has shown that more than anything else, voters want
someone who can beat George Bush.

But Drudge's story -- a powerful older man having an affair with a
young intern -- carries such strong echoes of recent political history
that it may turn out to be irresistible to the tabloid media that has
come to heavily influence American discourse.

What will that do to Kerry's electability quotient?

Only time will tell.

Despite the attendant buzz, Drudge's accusation is unsubstantiated;
and whether or not it is true, the personal lives of political figures
should remain private.

The national media in the U.S. have so far ignored the Drudge report,
although a number of local television newscasts mentioned it, as have
the Philadelphia Daily News and the Chicago Sun-Times.

However, the Kerry story has legs on the internet; it dominates
discussion on a host of political blogs, is all the talk of the
candidate's campaign blogs, and is getting feature treatment in some
of the foreign press.

MSNBC talk show host Don Imus became the first major media figure to
ask Kerry about the report, although he softened his inquiry with,
"There's probably nothing to it."

"There is nothing to report, nothing to talk about. There's nothing
there," Kerry said.

"There's no story."

On the campaign trail in Wisconsin, Kerry tried to put the rumors to
rest, replying to questions from reporters, "I just deny it
categorically. It's rumor. It's untrue. Period."

Struggling to add fuel to a sputtering fire, radio talk-show host Rush
Limbaugh speculated during his Thursday broadcast that the rumor could
have been leaked to Drudge by Bill or Hillary Clinton.

Drudge first leaked the allegations about Monica Lewinsky which led to
Clinton's impeachment.

On the GOP side of the fence, rumors are circulating about dropping
Dick Cheney as Vice Presidential candidate on the Bush ticket and
replacing him, perhaps with Rudy Giuliani.

There has also been conjecture about the potential timing of capturing
or killing Osama bin Laden -- a la the October surprise, when Ronald
Reagan announced the release of the hostages in Iran.

Voters and campaign activists had better buckle their seatbelts.

It's going to be a bumpy ride until November.
--

On Sat, 14 Feb 2004 1748 -0500 (EST), "Oklahoma Joe"
wrote:

>
>Take the imbroglio bubbling up around presidential candidate John
>Kerry's alleged extramarital affair with a young Associate Press
>employee.
>

Ahh, the tale told by Clinton's boy, Gen Clark.

Matt Osborn wrote:
>
> On Sat, 14 Feb 2004 1748 -0500 (EST), "Oklahoma Joe"
> wrote:
>
> >
> >Take the imbroglio bubbling up around presidential candidate John
> >Kerry's alleged extramarital affair with a young Associate Press
> >employee.
> >
>
> Ahh, the tale told by Clinton's boy, Gen Clark.

Ahh, the tale told by Clinton's boy, Gen Clark, the one that after
he told the story of John Kerry's extramaritial affair, said to
John Kerry he was "reporting aboard".

Why don't these people make each other sick?

It's like watching drunken catty sluts stab each other in the back
all evening long at a party then end up puking all over each other.