# Say it ain't so, Kerry. Not another intern! **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 12, 2004, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-it-aint-so-kerry-not-another-intern/228876 "2004-02-12T16:56:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![cj\_finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@cj\_finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cj_finn)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-it-aint-so-kerry-not-another-intern/228876/81 "2004-02-13T15:19:35Z")
> [@Gaudere](#): > > **Evil Captor** : > > [Moderator Hat ON] > > Evil Captor, do NOT call your fellow posters “panty-sniffers” in this forum. > > [Moderator Hat OFF] This has got to be one of the funniest lines I’ve read here in a while. Thanks. cj ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-it-aint-so-kerry-not-another-intern/228876/82 "2004-02-13T15:30:31Z")
> [@Jackknifed Juggernaut](#): > > Unless he’s an idiot, Kerry must be telling the truth. Well, he could be both. > [@Jackknifed Juggernaut](#): > > He categorically denied that it happened in Imus. If it happened, he must know that it’s going to come out. And getting caught lying to the public BEFORE the election is political suicide. Admitting an affair, or even marital infidelity, isn’t anymore. Here you are absolutely correct. Kerry has nailed his colors to the mast on this one. If it turns out he is not being completely truthful, he is dead meat. Same with Bush. If he had denied the drunk driving arrest, we would be debating the re-election of President Gore. I did not hear the Imus interview, but Kerry better not have tried any “oral sex isn’t sex” stuff or its equivalent. The last thing in the world he can afford is a chance for Republicans to label him “Slick Johnny”. This is a candidate who is not going to get away with shaking his finger in our face and saying “Ah did not have sex with that woman” if he did, and no ifs, ands, or buts about it. > [@Jackknifed Juggernaut](#): > > Clinton was completely forgiven for the affair, but lying about it may have diminished his legacy. Well, maybe just a trace. 😃 Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-it-aint-so-kerry-not-another-intern/228876/83 "2004-02-13T15:55:59Z")
Dredge is now linking to [this](http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004071162,00.html) story: > [@](#): > > PRESIDENTIAL hopeful John Kerry was branded a “sleazeball” last night by the parents of a young woman he allegedly tried to woo. > > Alex Polier, 24, was named as the woman at the centre of a scandal that threatens to damage Democrat Kerry’s bid for the White House. > > Her mother Donna claims Kerry, 60 — dubbed the new JFK — once chased Alex to be on his campaign team and was “after her”. > > There is no evidence the pair had an affair, but her father Terry, 56, said: “I think he’s a sleazeball. I did kind of wonder if my daughter didn’t get that kind of feeling herself. > > \ > > Terry, of Malvern, Pennsylvania, added: “John Kerry called my daughter and invited her down to Washington two or three years ago. > > “He invited her to be on his re-election committee. She talked to him and decided against it.” So the “scandal” is that he asked a hot chick to work on his campaign, she said no and her dad thought he was “sleazy.” It sounds like this is the same woman unless there are _two_ journalists in Kenya who won’t talk to the press. There’s is not even an allegation that he boned her just that, at most, he may have hit on her. In any case, if this woman won’t talk to the press then this story isn’t going to go anywhere even if he did bone her. Kenneth Starr isn’t going to pop up with a subpoena this time. I notice the mainstream press is still ignoring it. That says a lot, as does the fact that Kerry flatly denied it on Imus. Kerry must have learned _something_ from Clinton’s “I did not have sexual relations with that woman…” fiasco. He can’t possibly be stupid enough to repeat it. I also haven’t seen any substantiation for Grudge’s assertion that this woman went to Africa at Kerry’s prodding (heh heh “prodding”) and Wesley Clark has not confirmed anything about that “intern” remark. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-it-aint-so-kerry-not-another-intern/228876/84 "2004-02-13T16:33:13Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > Dredge is now linking to [this](http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004071162,00.html) story: > So the “scandal” is that he asked a hot chick to work on his campaign, she said no and her dad thought he was “sleazy.” Ah, but he had a PROGRAM to have sex with her. Or the INTENTION to start a PROGRAM to have sex with her. We need a pre-emptive scandal to take of this. Why wait until intercourse is imminent? ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-it-aint-so-kerry-not-another-intern/228876/85 "2004-02-13T16:53:32Z")
Those who are complaining about the sleaze of modern politics are clearly forgetting [the election of 1884](http://216.132.160.230/KoTrain/Courses/GC/GC_Campaigns_and_Elections.htm) in which Republican organizers tried to pin an accusation on Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland that he’d fathered an illegitimate child. Sample talking point: Pubbies said the choice in the election was between “the brothel and the family, between indecency and decency, between lust and law.” Cleveland, to his credit, acknowledged he couldn’t disprove his paternity, and told those on his side to “Tell the Truth.” Sample of rhetoric used in response: “We are told that Mr. Blaine has been delinquent in office but blameless in public life, while Mr. Cleveland has been a model of official integrity but culpable in personal relations. We should therefore elect Mr. Cleveland to the public office for which he is so well qualified to fill, and remand Mr. Blaine to the private station which he is admirably fitted to adorn.” The election was a squeaker, but Cleveland won. _Plus ça change_, the more the panty-sniffers stay the same. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-it-aint-so-kerry-not-another-intern/228876/86 "2004-02-13T16:56:13Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > Ah, but he had a PROGRAM to have sex with her. Or the INTENTION to start a PROGRAM to have sex with her. > > We need a pre-emptive scandal to take of this. Why wait until intercourse is imminent? > [@Revtim](#): > > Ah, but he had a PROGRAM to have sex with her. Or the INTENTION to start a PROGRAM to have sex with her. > > We need a pre-emptive scandal to take of this. Why wait until intercourse is imminent? Poonany related program activities. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-it-aint-so-kerry-not-another-intern/228876/87 "2004-02-13T17:02:35Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Same with Bush. If he had denied the drunk driving arrest, we would be debating the re-election of President Gore. Maybe you weren’t paying attention at the time. The PD arrest records showed up first, courtesy of an insider who couldn’t keep quiet any longer. How was Bush going to deny it? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-it-aint-so-kerry-not-another-intern/228876/88 "2004-02-13T17:38:20Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > Those who are complaining about the sleaze of modern politics are clearly forgetting [the election of 1884](http://216.132.160.230/KoTrain/Courses/GC/GC_Campaigns_and_Elections.htm) From your link: > [@](#): > > A popular Republican cartoon caption read: “Ma, Ma, Where’s my Pa?” And we all know the Democrats’ response after the election, “Gone to the White House, haw haw haw!” The panty sniffers lose again. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-it-aint-so-kerry-not-another-intern/228876/89 "2004-02-13T17:42:50Z")
> [@Uncommon Sense](#): > > Are you nuts?? > Name one democratic politicians’ wife that dumped him because of infidelity. In the [106th Congress](http://www.c-span.org/questions/week151.asp), 40 members (7%) were currently divorced, not including divorced and remarried. I’m going to assume that roughly half of those were Democrats, and that at least some of those divorces were caused by infidelity. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-it-aint-so-kerry-not-another-intern/228876/90 "2004-02-13T17:52:22Z")
I for one am _shocked_ that Kerry may have displayed some human frailty. Up to this point, I had assumed he was some sort of animatronic device. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-it-aint-so-kerry-not-another-intern/228876/91 "2004-02-13T18:23:20Z")
Ah HA! So we now have definitive word-of-mouth that Kerry… okay, allegedly… had an affair… okay, slept- not, okay, may have hit on or maybe not hit on _per se_ - a young woman who decided not to be on his campaign… who left the country for reasons that nobody’s actually managed to connect to him in any way. The bastard. ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-it-aint-so-kerry-not-another-intern/228876/92 "2004-02-13T18:56:34Z")
> [@skutir](#): > > Why do you assume it’s true? Maybe Kerry denies it because that’s the honest thing to do. > > This pisses me off. If some website said Bush had banged an intern, it wouldn’t be news and nobody would believe it. But since it’s a democrat, and you’ve taught by the media to believe democrats are morally weak people, you don’t hesitate to believe this and if Kerry says it ain’t so, you’ll fault him for not being honest about it. I never said I thought he`s lying. I said he`s categorically denied the allegations. IF he`s lying then he`s in for a fight. The best way to handle these things is to come out and be up front about them. You may now remove your foot from your mouth. ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-it-aint-so-kerry-not-another-intern/228876/93 "2004-02-13T19:11:21Z")
Well, at least we know the Republicans weren`t behind this. We would have waited `till the elevnth hour to surface it. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-it-aint-so-kerry-not-another-intern/228876/94 "2004-02-13T19:26:38Z")
:shrug: I’m sure most of us would be more worried about a single man who _didn’t_ indulge in weapons of mass copulation program-related activities. As for his target selection, the old saying goes “It’s just as easy to fall in love with a rich one”. Let’s hope the RW hate media keeps up this same overplaying of hands that they perfected under Clinton. That backfired then, and it will backfire now. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-it-aint-so-kerry-not-another-intern/228876/95 "2004-02-13T22:10:08Z")
Hold on just a cotton pickin’ minute. Maybe I’m reading a little too deeply into this. But check the exact quotes from Kerry. He didn’t really deny anything. He said that there’s nothing to report and that he’s not worried about it. Why wouldn’t he state for the record that nothing happened between he and an intern. Is he trying to cover his bases? Or is this a slick maneuver so that the Repubs spend time and money investigating this, embarrasing themselves in the end? The quotes kinda make me wonder. ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-it-aint-so-kerry-not-another-intern/228876/96 "2004-02-14T00:29:11Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > Those who are complaining about the sleaze of modern politics are clearly forgetting [the election of 1884](http://216.132.160.230/KoTrain/Courses/GC/GC_Campaigns_and_Elections.htm) in which Republican organizers tried to pin an accusation on Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland that he’d fathered an illegitimate child. Just to carry the parallel with the 1884 election a bit farther, Cleveland had not served in the Civil War. He had hired a substitute to serve in his stead. Some might think of that as the Civil War’s equivalent of getting a NG slot during the Late Unpleasantness in Indo-china. Up until Cleveland was elected it was just about impossible to be elected as dogcatcher if you were not a veteran. By 1884 there were a fair number of voters who were too young to have been caught up in the war and did not see it as the central event of Western Civilization. There were even more voters who were hardly sick of the economic and labor policies that had been perused by the post-war Republican administrations–labor unions were regarded, for instance, as criminal conspiracies against property rights, and periods of hard times and financial panics were frequent… ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-it-aint-so-kerry-not-another-intern/228876/97 "2004-02-14T09:05:11Z")
> [@](#): > > Hold on just a cotton pickin’ minute. Maybe I’m reading a little too deeply into this. But check the exact quotes from Kerry. He didn’t really deny anything. :rolleyes: > [@](#): > > 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.” > > After denying the report, Kerry added: “And that’s the last time I intend to.” [[Reuters](http://my.aol.com/news/news_story.psp?type=1&cat=0700&id=2004021317390002370561)] ---
**Author:** ![The\_Big\_Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@The\_Big\_Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Big_Cheese)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-it-aint-so-kerry-not-another-intern/228876/98 "2004-02-14T12:26:44Z")
Good God! Kenyans, interns, Mrs Ketchup, pantysniffers, Morgan fairchild! How did Bill Clinton keep his name out of this! I think someone asked for a photo of the alleged female in question: [http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004071781,00.html](http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004071781,00.html) You knew the Brits would get one. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-it-aint-so-kerry-not-another-intern/228876/99 "2004-02-14T16:04:27Z")
Drudge’s page is filled with lurid headlines which all link to atricles which admt that there is no evidence of an affair. A mob of reporters was camped outside the home of this girl’s parents yesterday even though the parents say they don’t believe there was an affair. These articles keep referring to “charges” and “allegations” that Kerry had an affair with this chick eventhough there _are_ no such allegations. Drudge is sliming Kerry over this with nothing but smoke. Of course the right wing radio asswipes were all over it yesterday without a shred of evidence or even a clear allegation. This smacks of Rove, despite Drudge’s attempt at misdirection with an unconfirmed Clark remark and the specious reference to Dean’s remaining in the race. It’s an attempt to drive up Kerry’s negatives, create an impression that he’s immoral without ever really saying it and take up the media’s attention with a non-story. Making a guy publicly deny a sex scandal always makes him look guilty no matter how bogus the allegations are. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-it-aint-so-kerry-not-another-intern/228876/100 "2004-02-14T18:54:15Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > Making a guy publicly deny a sex scandal always makes him look guilty no matter how bogus the allegations are. I disagree. This is one area where the American people are a lot wiser than the America media are. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-it-aint-so-kerry-not-another-intern/228876.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-it-aint-so-kerry-not-another-intern/228876.md?page=6)