Reporters: Last one in John Kerry's pants is a rotten egg!

XXXX DRUDGE RETORT XXXX 10:53:19 EST FEB 13 2004 XXXX

Democratic front-runner John Kerry flatly denied rumors of an extra-marital affair that were drudged up Thursday by America's most trusted newsman.

"Well, there is nothing to report," Kerry told Don Imus on his morning radio show, also broadcast by MSNBC. "So there is nothing to talk about."

Spoilsport.

For those who are scoring at home, the mainstream press only took a few hours to follow serious newsman Matt Drudge on an undercover mission into Kerry's pants.

Thursday morning, Drudge pulled out the flashing siren with a giddy claim that Time Magazine and other media organizations were looking for a young woman who privately caucused last year with the Democratic presidential front-runner.

Reported Drudge: "Intrigue surrounds a woman who recently fled the country, reportedly at the prodding of Kerry, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned."

That wouldn't be the only prodding she received from Kerry, according to the completely unsourced story, which has been gleefully picked up by Rush Limbaugh, the Wall Street Journal, foreign newspapers and a handful of U.S. press outlets.

Some members of the press weren't as enthusiastic about letting Drudge set the nation's news agenda. Asked Joe Conason: "Is American politics suddenly returning to the bad old days, when Washington journalism became frenzied with sheet sniffing and keyhole peeping? That seems to be the default program of the right-wing media machine whenever Republican poll numbers sink into the red zone."

The tail tale first appeared in WatchBlog, a non-partisan political weblog that offers space to liberal, conservative, and moderate authors.

A Feb. 6 item in WatchBlog claimed that Time Magazine was looking for a "bimbo eruption" in John Kerry's past and would be going to press with it this week:

"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. At present, this is nothing more than a rumor ..."

During the day Thursday, Matt Drudge added and removed details about the unnamed woman leaving to Germany and/or Africa, leading to our completely baseless accusation that Sen. Kerry strayed from his marraige with Carmen San Diego.

The unsourced rumor about Kerry is remarkably similar to a false accusation in 1992 linking Bill Clinton to a wire service reporter, as described by political reporter Walter Mears on C-SPAN:

C-SPAN HOST BRIAN LAMB: Former Congressman Guy Vanderjack (ph) did something you thought was a slanderous lie.
MEARS: In the final -- absolute final phase of the 1992 campaign when Bush was going down the tubes, he with -- with, I think some push from some of the people around the Bush operation, he was at the time -- he'd been defeated in his primary but he was still the chairman of the House Campaign Committee in him name, and using a statement that he put out at a press conference that he had. They accused Clinton of having an affair with a woman wire service reporter covering his campaign, which was not so. There was only one woman wire service reporter covering his campaign, a very hard working and very attractive and talented reporter. And I thought it was just slanderous.
LAMB: And working for AP?
MEARS: An AP reporter, and so I would have thought it was slanderous if she worked for UPI, but because I knew a good bit about this woman and her work, I thought demeaning her journalism that way just was totally unfair. And I seldom got angry at politicians, but I remember being very angry that time.

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