Kerry's response to Drudge story: "There's nothing to it"

[YouMustBeKiddingMe]

Kerry is no fool. He wouldn't say there is nothing to it if it could come back and bite him in the ass.

That will be all.

edit: I just watched it on Imus. No link. Heard it with my own ears.

[greatauntoftriplets]

1. Link, please?

.

[La_Serpiente]

3. this was on Imus just now

n/t

[littlejoe]

45. Here's your link. I heard it on Imus also.

[in_cog_ni_to]

2. You're kidding, right?

The repukes have probably already scheduled a huge press conference with the intern who will now come out of hiding and say it's true. This will not end here.

[YouMustBeKiddingMe]

4. Sorry to disappoint you

[Dookus]

5. that's one opinion

I listened to him. He sounded pretty confident. I also think he's smart enough not to get himself into a Clintonian "I did not have sex with that woman" situation.

[in_cog_ni_to]

8. I listened to it too.

We'll see. I expect to see the intern in the next few days. If Kerry's so smart...why the hell did he vote for the IWR and the Patriot Act? Those votes are NOT indicative of a very intelligent person.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Dookus]

27. he coughed twice

in quick sequence.

That's the kind of cough my cats used to do when they had an itchy throat.

[littlejoe]

46. Did he fart also?

[molly]

6. They will make total fools out of themselves

:think:

[NNN0LHI]

9. A lot of people already have made fools of themselves over this n/t

[ShaneGR]

7. If it isn't true you're right, but that wasn't exactly a strong denial

By "strong" denial, I mean that I expected something a lot more aggressive than that. In fact, I really thought he'd come out of the gate swinging, perhaps saying something like "more proof that the GOP will sink to any depths, including fabrications, to re-elect GWB." Instead we got "there's nothing to it" with nervous laughter.

[in_cog_ni_to]

10. BINGO! n/t

[flpoljunkie]

12. Going on and on about it would look defensive, would it not?

Instead, Kerry gave a simple, straightforward denial.

[robsul82]

14. Say "It's a damn lie and not true!" is NOT going on and on about it...

...and was what was required of him in this situation. NOT "heh heh heh" and "It was nothing!"

Later.

RJS

[59millionmorons]

22. Not even a sex scandle is going to save Dean

But you can hope.

[flpoljunkie]

32. Sorry, robsul82, your suggestion would only come across as defensive

[YouMustBeKiddingMe]

13. There was no "nervous laughter"

He said "There's nothing to it" That sounds pretty definitive to me.

And those who are just dying to see this story grow legs aren't going to be happy no matter what he says. If he had gone further as you suggest, they would just say he was lying anyway. He chose not to take the bait. A wise choice.

Finished - end of story.

Now it's up to accusers to prove it's true. There is no credible evidence of an affair - only evidence of a right-wing smear campaign.

[ShaneGR]

16. Hopefully you're right, but there are some problems....

#1: The parents of the intern are now calling Kerry a "sleazebag." Why? Are they registered Republicans who are part of the conspiracy?

#2: The british press has picked this up in full force, and it's about 1/2 inch away from going mainstream. Hopefully it won't.

Look, if this is true it does just as much damage to the party as it does to John Kerry, so I'm REALLY hoping this has no legs. But if it is true, woh to the day Kerry became the front-runner.

[KamaAina]

43. Considering the woman is said to have worked for AP,

both she AND her parents could very well be registered Republicans who are part of the conspiracy.

AP these days is just a notch below Faux as a right-bent cog in the "lib'rul media" machine.

As for the British press, it was not all that long ago that their obsession du jour was those rumo(u)rs about Prince Charles being gay. Their press is even more salacious than ours.

[robsul82]

11. Clinton, Clinton, Clinton...

Enough with this "Kerry is too smart for this!" BS. Clinton was a friggin' RHODES SCHOLAR! That makes him smarter and more intelligent than ANY of us here, and he wasn't able to CONTROL himself. Cheating like that isn't a question of intelligence, it's self-control.

And mealy-mouthed "There's nothing to it, heh heh..." DEFINITELY isn't gonna help. Are you kidding me? No "Bring it on!"? No "That's a damn lie!"? EVERYONE is gonna be questioning now. You blewwwwwwwwwwwww it, Senator.

Later.

RJS

[YouMustBeKiddingMe]

17. Only those that are wishing it to be true, whether it is or not

He did exactly the right thing. He flatly denied it. Sorry you are disappointed.

[59millionmorons]

25. You have to remember this story is the last chance for these anti/Kerry pe

They need this story to be true, there candidates have no chance of winning otherwise. It's an act of desperation.

[Cuban_Liberal]

26. Wrong!

This story is about Sen. Kerry's widely-touted 'electability'. I don't not intend to spend the next 8 1/2 months trying to defend a candidate against 'Clinton's Cock: The Sequel'.

[NNN0LHI]

28. I think you may be on to something. And it is rather pathetic n/t

[NewYorkerfromMass]

36. I'm pretty sure Dean pushed it.

Pretty close to certain.

[NNN0LHI]

38. I have seen NO evidence of that. Have you? n/t

[polmaven]

42. I've seen as much evidence of that

as I have that this is a story any more damning than a man who called a young woman and invited her to become a member of his re-election campaign, and her father doesn't like him.

Anything beyond that is, as far as evidence, is apparently as fabricated as that statement. Taken out of thin air. If you like, I can send a news tip to Drudge, and he can report it, and then both will have equal credence.

[polmaven]

19. Do the Dean supporters think

the Republicans don't have a bimbo waiting out there on the payroll learning her lines to reveal that she and the Governor were involved in some sordid affair or event?

Oh, - wait...I forgot....If that happened it would be Kerry's fault, and the media would be to blame. Sorry!!

[formernaderite]

24. I love how the Kerry people keep saying....

..it's a right wing conspiracy. As if that will discount any story that does come out. I turned Imus on too, it was a rather broad dismissal of the issue. So I remain open minded enough to wait and see. The Kerry campaign has been sleazy regarding supporting "republican like" ad strategies against Dean...somehow this too, wouldn't surprise me.

[Corgigal]

18. At least he didn't say

Prove it like Gary Hart. I think all these men cheat HOWEVER if I was a Kerry supporter I would demand from his organization some type of retort, in writing, why this is a lie and what he plans to do about it. I really hope it's not true because again, Dems look like we can't find a candidate who doesn't have lots of sexual baggage. It's the only thing in America the "regular" folks follow, sexual BS stories. Been this way since our Puritan days, which doesn't appear to have ended lately, till today.

[Cuban_Liberal]

20. Not everyone 'cheats'.

Just off-hand, I can't recall even a hint of a rumor about. Sen. Edwards, Sen. Lieberman, Cong. Kucinich, Dr. Dean, etc., so that is a very broad over-generalization.

[mmonk]

21. Yes

he said there was nothing to the Drudge report. No "intern" problem. So that absolutely means intern and also ANY woman problem, right?

[snippy]

23. While Congress and the FBI investigated semen stains, they could have

been investigating bin Laden and exercising oversight over the CIA. If this story has legs, Kerry should demand that Bush state whether the republican party again intends to spend several years and hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money investigating someone's sex life. Nearly all decent Americans were disgusted by the crotch sniffing republicans during the republican impeachment of president Clinton.

[seventhson]

29. CAREFUL FOLKS Kerry did NOT say "There's Nothing to it"

Imus said that.

Kerry said "There's Nothing to report. There is no story. I'm not worried about it."


That is what he said.

That on its FACE is untrue and indicates prevarication from my perspective.

of COURSE there is a story. Of COURSE there is something to report.

Let's not be blinded by fancy dancing with words.

Kerry did NOT deny this story.

[Cuban_Liberal]

It WAS a highly 'nuanced' response, I thought.

Sorry, Sen. Kerry, you've got to be VERY plain-spoken about this, or it will never go away.

[Snivi Yllom]

40. well of course it was nuanced

He probably rehearsed this for an hour with his presws secretary and campaign manager. There is no room for error on this.

Thus a very nuanced denial/non-denial/does-not-resemble-a-denial denial.

[Guaranteed]

31. But then Imus said something like "Sooo...the answer is..."

and then Kerry said, "The answer is 'no.'"

[Name removed]

33. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[yellowcanine]

39. Exactly. What part of "nothing to it" do people not understand?

In my mind this is the strongest of denials. "Nothing to it" means there was no affair with anyone, intern or not. Maybe Kerry did ask this person to work on his campaign and she is now in Kenya. He would be a complete idiot making this flat a denial knowing that if he had an affair it could easily be confirmed by the woman. Notice that even Drudge hasn't had the cojones to claim there was an affair - the only thing he would "confirm" was that the woman had "fled to Africa". And knowing Drudge - simply getting on a plane to go and take up a new job assignment or take a vacation would qualify as "fleeing" so I am not putting very much stock in that.

[WiseMen]

34. There is nothing to it. The usual BS from certain sources.

[Tinoire]

35. Give it 4 - 5 days. That's what it took for Lewsinsky to appear

and even then, months later, Clinton was wagging his finger on TV saying "I did not have sex with that woman".

Some men think they are immune to being judged and that morals are for little people.

Sorry to DUers for being old-fashioned but marital fidelity, fidelity in any established relationship, is important to me.

I want no part of men who think they're too clever and will fold at the first sight of a thong after having sworn they would not.

If you can lie to your wife, you can lie to me.

If his wife allows this, then it is a different matter but I don't think she does.

--
She was reported as fidgeting while Senator Kerry made speeches, of interrupting him, of failing to gaze at him adoringly in the accepted manner. On the subject of marital fidelity, she said: 'I used to say to my husband, my late husband, "If you ever get something, I'll maim you. I won't kill you. I'll maim you".'

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,1130604,00.html

[yellowcanine]

41. Fine - But don't act like it is true just because it was on Drudge.

It is not fair to discuss this as if it were true. That is rumor mongering which is just as bad as infidelity in my book.

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[NewYorkerfromMass]

37. Well somebody showed up....

you again!

[DoNotRefill]

44. Did Kerry actually say he didn't have an affair?

because what I read was basically that he said it wasn't an issue, and there was nothing to report. That is emphatically NOT a denial of wrongdoing, it's a statement that what happened is not an issue, and what happened is not newsworthy, couched to SOUND like a denial.

If it comes out later that Kerry DID have a relationship with the girl, he's absolutely, positively toast.

Who cares if politicians are horn-dogs? I sure as hell don't. Clinton could have screwed everything that moved, and it wouldn't have meant anything to me or most Americans outside of the far religious right. However, he got into trouble not because of the affair, but because he lied about it in both court and the press, and it turned out to NOT be a "he said-she said" kind of thing.

Please, God, not another campaign season and 4 years of trying to parse the meaning of "is"...

[redqueen]

47. Correct, not a denial

"There's Nothing to report. There is no story. I'm not worried about it."

He should have said something more along the lines of what others have suggested - put it back on republicans, or flatly state it is false. The statements above would not reassure me if I supported him. Not in the least.