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A Kerry Affair: Infidelelectability

12 Feb 2004 by Jason Fried

Drudge drops a bomb: CAMPAIGN DRAMA ROCKS DEMOCRATS: KERRY FIGHTS OFF MEDIA PROBE OF RECENT ALLEGED INFIDELITY, RIVALS PREDICT RUIN.

42 comments so far (Post a Comment)

12 Feb 2004 | One of several Steves said...

We'll see. It wouldn't be the first time that Drugde has passed off hopeful rumour as news. But if it's accurate, given recent history with Democratic presidents, Kerry would be toast.

12 Feb 2004 | Steve from Denver said...

So he got a little nooky on the side, isn't that par for JFK? Oh, wait, that was another JFK.

12 Feb 2004 | The Lorax is Dead said...

Did Clark drop out too soon? Boy, these darn Democrats can't keep it in their pants to save their lives ;)

12 Feb 2004 | Justin said...

Oops, the link has no href

12 Feb 2004 | honest abe said...

Does fidelity matter? After Clinton, it seemed like the attitudes changed - people seemed willing to accept that men in power need some strange on the side.

12 Feb 2004 | Benjy said...

WatchBlog mentioned this story last week. I also heard an interview on NPR about this last night... seems like it was somewhat well known around DC.

Move along, nothing to see here...

12 Feb 2004 | Typo Police said...

Darn democrats and all their "strange on the side."

12 Feb 2004 | Benjy said...

Vote Kucinich! No way he's getting any from 20 year old interns and he's single even if he were.

12 Feb 2004 | pek said...

Can you drop out and then drop back in? I guess if the money is there you could. I don't know if that would do it for Clark though. He did too little too late - he avoided a few of the debates early on and was pretty late to the dance in general when he announced his intent on running. I like him - maybe a little wary of some of the stuff that his bosses said of him during the Yugoslav war. My bet is still on Edwards - he's a good looking guy with what seems to be a good heart and good politics.

12 Feb 2004 | slim said...

Funny Benjy - but why is it you think they call him the "Cooch" for short.

12 Feb 2004 | S.A. Miller said...

Hmmm, Methinks this has the fingerprints of Bill Clinton all over it...

12 Feb 2004 | Darrel said...

How did out country get to the point where the biggest issues in the land are naked boobs, gay marriage, and politicians getting some on the side?

12 Feb 2004 | Eamon said...

Clearly, Darrel, it's the Republicans' fault.

12 Feb 2004 | Noah said...

DailyKos has a lot to say on the matter... it's worth the read.

12 Feb 2004 | Mark Fusco said...

Getting some "strange" on the side is one thing - however, allegedly prodding (good word to use here I guess) the strange to leave the country is quite another.

I would agree that I think this has fingerprints all over it. Purposely lose 04 and make a strong race in 08 where there is no incumbent.

12 Feb 2004 | Chris from Scottsdale said...

Typically, a lot of people don't see it as an issue of whether the person had an affair, it's about whether they've lied about the matter and how they deal with it. In Clinton's situation he lied about it until the end and for many people that was the issue, not that something happened.

12 Feb 2004 | Joe Cynic said...

Vote Libertarian Party, I tell you!

They stand up for YOU.

12 Feb 2004 | Stuart Fried said...

If this had any credibility, why, with the "implosion" imminent would Clark come out - at this time- and endorse Kerry?? Where is Karl Rove, is he sharing a bunker with Dick Cheney??

15 Feb 2004 | mvpg said...

I think the real issue is the quality of the debate -- true or not this sort of thing is in the same category as Bush I's Flag Burning Theme or ACLU positioning, not to mention the recent flap over Bush II's military service. Unfortunately this type of derisive debate, while fair game in politics, distracts the media, voters and candidates from a real issues orieted debate. We would be much better served with a debate on the important domestic and foreign policy issues. Of course, Gore tried this approach back in 2000 and managed to give both his and Clinton's home states to the Republicans.

15 Feb 2004 | mvpg said...

I think the real issue is the quality of the debate -- true or not this sort of thing is in the same category as Bush I's Flag Burning Theme or ACLU positioning, not to mention the recent flap over Bush II's military service. Unfortunately this type of derisive debate, while fair game in politics, distracts the media, voters and candidates from a real issues orieted debate. We would be much better served with a debate on the important domestic and foreign policy issues. Of course, Gore tried this approach back in 2000 and managed to give both his and Clinton's home states to the Republicans.

15 Feb 2004 | mvpg said...

I think the real issue is the quality of the debate -- true or not this sort of thing is in the same category as Bush I's Flag Burning Theme or ACLU positioning, not to mention the recent flap over Bush II's military service. Unfortunately this type of derisive debate, while fair game in politics, distracts the media, voters and candidates from a real issues orieted debate. We would be much better served with a debate on the important domestic and foreign policy issues. Of course, Gore tried this approach back in 2000 and managed to give both his and Clinton's home states to the Republicans.

15 Feb 2004 | Jaz Ismo said...

GARY HART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

15 Feb 2004 | James L. Clagett said...

Why do we continue to hear day after day about Bush's military lapse with no changes in content of material, yet the media has not reported beyond one day the Kerry infidelity? Seems clear to me who's got an agenda to to wield their power to keep the election on track for their purpose.

15 Feb 2004 | Kildeer said...

Kerry is scum. His political dogma is to lie first and tell the truth only as a last resort. Much like Clinton. No! Wait -- exactly like Clinton.

15 Feb 2004 | Michael H said...

Three Thoughts:
1) Democrats' Curse - petty to be sure, but unfortunately republicans generally have proven to be so, er, un-sexy that usually they would not have the "opportunity" to have an extra-marital affair... (I do believe that affairs happen largely "opportunistic-ly" as opposed to "strategically"...) Women seem to like Democrats more and we are generally known as far superior lovers.

2) Importance of Issue - the affair is meaningless, as compared to either Bush's or Kerry's various positions, history, other flaws, etc. But that wont derail the issue, if more facts come to light.

3) Dishonesty on this issue will overrule Bush's dishonesty on other more important issues - It will come down ultimately to if Kerry wass honest in answering this question. Regardless that Bush, and many other politicians (on both sides of the aisle) are unbelievably dishonest on so many issues including matters that frequeently have involved the loss of life. HOWEVER, I do think that marital fidelity, or lack therof, is the ONE THING a person should lie about - ask any priest! It's just one of those things that should stay out of the debate, but too late for that now in American political discourse...

15 Feb 2004 | Michael H said...

Three Thoughts:
1) Democrats' Curse - petty to be sure, but unfortunately republicans generally have proven to be so, er, un-sexy that usually they would not have the "opportunity" to have an extra-marital affair... (I do believe that affairs happen largely "opportunistic-ly" as opposed to "strategically"...) Women seem to like Democrats more and we are generally known as far superior lovers.

2) Importance of Issue - the affair is meaningless, as compared to either Bush's or Kerry's various positions, history, other flaws, etc. But that wont derail the issue, if more facts come to light.

3) Dishonesty on this issue will overrule Bush's dishonesty on other more important issues - It will come down ultimately to if Kerry wass honest in answering this question. Regardless that Bush, and many other politicians (on both sides of the aisle) are unbelievably dishonest on so many issues including matters that frequeently have involved the loss of life. HOWEVER, I do think that marital fidelity, or lack therof, is the ONE THING a person should lie about - ask any priest! It's just one of those things that should stay out of the debate, but too late for that now in American political discourse...

16 Feb 2004 | Howard Dean said...

Drudge IS usually right! Here we go with it all depends how you define IS or how do you define infidellity.

16 Feb 2004 | David Barrett said...

Or how we define "right".

16 Feb 2004 | Jonathan said...

Two words, Bob Livingston. Let's try to stick to the issues.

17 Feb 2004 | spk said...

fried tries his hand at politics again ... and in the process shows which slop bucket he gets his sensational headlines from.

for future reference leave politics to one of the many who actually have a clue.

17 Feb 2004 | spk said...

speaking of clues ... there are few that our president would rather none of us ask any questions about... like why the only people flying on 9/13/2001 were bin ladens.

17 Feb 2004 | Don Schenck said...

This is all speculation and rumor ... what's known as a "whisper campaign".

Kerry's the one, I only WISH I could tell you more.

But I won't give up on Kucinich; he's my pick.

17 Feb 2004 | spk said...

since drudge is our source for "information" in this thread ... here's a little gem about our "pro-life" (never mind the 10,000 + innocent iraqis killed in his wild goose chase for non-existent weapons of mass destruction, or the woman he laughed and joked about before putting her to death as governor of texas) president, larry flynt is working on.

17 Feb 2004 | Deepest throat said...

Why Does George W. Bush Fly in Drug Smuggler Barry Seal's Airplane?

"It has all the makings of a major box office thriller: Texas Governor and Republican Presidential contender George W. Bush and his brother Jeb, allegedly caught on videotape in 1985 picking up kilos of cocaine at a Florida airport in a DEA sting set up by Barry Seal...

An ensuing murderous cover-up featuring Seal's public assassination less than a year later by a hit team...the members of which, when caught, reveal to their attorneys during trial that their actions were being directed by then, National Security Council (NSC) staffer - Lt. Colonel Oliver North...

And a private turboprop King Air 200 supposedly caught on tape in the sting with FAA ownership records leading directly to the CIA and some of the perpetrators of the most notorious (and never punished) major financial frauds of the '80s..

Add to this mix the now irrefutable proof, some of it from the CIA itself, that then Vice President George H.W. Bush was a decision maker in illegal Contra support operations connected to the "unusual" acquisition of aircraft and that his staff participated in key financial, operational and political decisions.

All these events lead inexorably to one unanswered question: How did this one plane go from being controlled by Barry Seal, the biggest drug smuggler in American history, to becoming, according to state officials, a favored airplane of Texas Governor George W. Bush?"

17 Feb 2004 | Don Schenck said...

You're linking to "From The Wilderness" as a news source?

Check out their conspiracy-based book list! Sheesh ... the only things missing are the Illuminati and The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion.

17 Feb 2004 | Roger said...

Curious isn't it? Three days ago the parents were upset - supposedly today that was a misunderstanding, they are voting for Kerry (even though they were reported to be Republicans).

Where is mainstream media?? Would this be ignored if this were Bush???? I doubt it!!

17 Feb 2004 | Deepest throat said...

Barry Seal and Lee Harvey Oswald were recruited by David Ferrie (played bij Joe Pesci in JFK) who was an instructor in the Civil Air Patrol .
Barry was part of operation 40/ zr-rifle: The Plot to Kill Kennedy and Castro. As were Felix Rodriguez, of Watergate and iran/contra fame and good friend of Bush sr and Cuban terrorist Orlando Bosch, another good friend of the bushes.

Barry Seal's C123 military cargo plane figured prominently in two of the biggest and least-understood events of the decade, the Sandinista 'drug- sting' operation, designed to be the 'Gulf of Tonkin Incident' in a US- Nicaragua war, and the downing, six months after Seal's assassination, of his beloved Fat Lady cargo plane over Nicaragua, with Eugene Hasenfus onboard, precipitating what came to be known, mistakenly, as Iran/Contra.
On October 5, 1986 in Nicaragua, a CK123 Cargo plane, with weapons and CIA employees on board crashed. This was the start of the Iran-Contra affair. It was proven that the weapons were supplied by the CIA and destined for the Nicaraguan Contras in of the Congressional Poland amendments. Special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh spent six years determining who in the Reagan administration was involved in the operation. Among those that were involved in this operation were George Bush, Oliver North, Dewey Clarridge, John Pointdexter and Caspar Weinberger.

In July 1984, the CIA attempted to link the Nicaraguan government to the drug trade. The Agency installed a hidden camera in a C-130 cargo plane owned by Seal. Seal took a famous blurry photograph, which purported to show himself with a high-ranking Sandinista official named Federico Vaughan and a Colombian drug baron unloading bags of cocaine at an airstrip in Nicaragua. President Reagan displayed the photo in a nationally televised speech in March 1986, as proof that the Sandinistas were involved in drug running and terrorism.
But the media showed much less interest when Congressman William Hughes, chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, disclosed evidence that the entire Sandinista connection was a U.S. intelligence fabrication. Federico Vaughan turned out to have been a CIA agent all along. DEA officials also testified that Oliver North had suggested to them that the $1.5 million in drug money carried aboard Seal's plane be provided to the Contras.

However, lets go to Mena, Arkansas during this time where the training of pilots and loading of weapons and drugs was taking place. Who was the governor of Arkansas at the time and why is is that Kenneth Starr would not touch this area?

Former CIA operative Terry Reed had worked closely with Barry Seal. In his book, Compromised, Reed describes a conversation he had with Seal about his 'insurance", in case the Bush Family would try to double-cross him.
"Ever hear the old expression, it's not what ya know, it's who ya know? Well, whoever said that just hadn't caught the Vice President's [George Bush's] kids in the dope business, 'cause I can tell ya for sure what ya know can definitely be more important than who ya know," bragged Seal to his buddy.
Reed was incredulous. "... Barry, are you telling me George Bush's kids are in the drug business?" he asked.
"Yup,. that's what I'm tellin ya. A guy in Florida who flipped for the DEA has got the goods on the Bush boys. Now I heard this from a reliable source in Colombia, but I just sat on it then, waiting to use it as a trump card if I ever needed it. Well I need to use it now. I got names, dates, places, even got some tape recordings. I even got surveillance. videos catchin' the Bush boys redhanded. I consider this stuff my insurance policy " said Seal.

Seal was supposedly murdered by Medellin cartel members, but a 6-month investigation by Sam Dalton, attorney for three of the accused murderers, into Mr. Seal's life and death uncovered the personal telephone number of George H. W. Bush was found in the trunk of Mr. Seal's car.

18 Feb 2004 | Paul said...

Democrats are better lovers? You're off on that one. Kerry's own wife loved her previous Republican husband much more than she loves him. The truth is that democrat women tend to sleep around more.

18 Feb 2004 | Joy Frank said...

Regardless, Kerry will win the Democratic nomination. While his infidelity is certainly an eye-opener, it proves he's still human. The media also tend to make issues bigger than they really are... Does that make him the best candidate? Who knows? Let's not forget that Kerry is also a Bonesman.

19 Feb 2004 | Anonymous Coward said...

Women seem to like Democrats more and we are generally known as far superior lovers.

Thanks for the laugh, that was great. I'd love to see your evidence.

03 Mar 2004 | Michael H said...

To "Anonymous Coward" ( an apropos Republican name if ever I heard one :) )

e-mail me your wife's name and number - then you can ask her after she comes down off her "high"...

another source would be the famous lover, Newt Gingrich's modus operandi... he only liked to get oral from women on the theory that most women would be hesitant to "boast" about performing that act, rather than saying "Newt slept w/ me"... of course this was pre-Monica days

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