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I just heard the first hint from MSNBC on this story.

Here's how it was framed:

The blond anchor had a male reporter on the phone that has been with the Kerry campaign, and she asked him if the Senator was ready to face an onslaught he is sure to face now that he's in the lead.

The reporter said the campaign told him that Kerry has prepared himself for an attack from the republicans and he's faced them throughout his career and they don't scare him.

Of course, since they didn't address the story directly they didn't discuss (not that they necessarily would) that it was dem operatives and Clark passing the story around, and they didn't refer to what kind of "onslaught", but that was the first hint I heard from them.

Be ready: That's the tack. I saw on Imus they all agreed the Clintons were behind the story. Thank goodness they saw that right up front.

The Democrats' campaign of vitriol against Bush has been virtually non-stop since he became a candidate in 1999 (with a very brief pause after 9-11)...probably the most intense and prolonged hatefest any President has faced since Abraham Lincoln, and more of the same seems to be their strategy for the 2004 election. Therefore they need to make the public think the Republicans are just as bad or worse in this regard...this story could be the "evidence" they need (despite the fact that it was Democrats who leaked it).

If it turns out that there was no affair with this particular intern, it can help inoculate Kerry against stories of other women with whom he really did have affairs...and the Democrats can use the Alex Polier story as "proof" of Republican dirty tricks.