Posted on 02/16/2004 4:08:44 PM PST by ambrose
Tuesday, February 17, 2004
Kerry lover holed up in city house
By Nixon Ng'ang'a
The woman who could end Senator John Kerry's chances of becoming president of the United States remained holed up in a Lavington house in Nairobi amid claims that she had confessed her affair to a US TV station.
The gate to the house where twenty four-year old Alexandra Polier, who allegedly had a two-year affair with the Senator favoured to clinch the Democratic Party nomination stays, was closed yesterday.
Local and international journalists camped at the gate for hours but were denied access to house no 909 on James Gichuru Road, next to the Spring Garden Chinese Restaurant.
A guard at the gate said he had firm instructions not to open the gate to journalists " or any strange people."
Two cars, a Range Rover and white Toyota , stood next to a solitary basketball rim in the compound tucked under a canopy of giant blue gums and fenced in by a 12-feet stone wall.
The house belongs to Mr Joseph Scwartzman, a wealthy businessman of Jewish origin and a director of H and Young Company who is the father to Alex's fiancee, Yaron.
Neighbours described Alex, a former intern in the House of Parliament in London and a journalist with the Associated Press, as "an extremely good-looking but aloof slim lady with long hair."
"I have seen her a couple of times driving with the young Scwartzman, " said a guard who did not want to be named. "They rarely socialise with their immediate neighbours but they are normally seen driving out on weekends."
Neighbours claimed to have been seeing Alex and her boyfriend from the beginning of this year.
The claim seems to reinforce US-sourced accounts that Alex "ran" to Kenya last December on prompting from Kerry ostensibly to put a distance between her and investigators probing his past sex life.
But at Film Studios, where Yaron was reported to be working, the managing director, Mr Charles Simpson denied any knowledge of the man.
Said Simpson: "I would not want to be so categorical that he has never been here... we continuously give short-time jobs to several people. But again, we are a close-knit community. If he ever worked here, we would know him."
At H and Young Company on Funzi Road in Nairobi's Industrial Area, journalists were restricted to talking through the intercom to a man who curtly said the senior Schwartzman never worked from the premises.
Yesterday, US newspapers reported that the brunette described as having "the perkiness of a cheerleader and the ambition of a Hollywood starlet" had given a kiss-and-tell story to a TV station in December.
The station has however been reluctant to air the story apparently because it was not credible.
The TV executive was quoted as saying: "She wants to tell her story. She is claiming this is a two-year affair. The problem is that no one is believing her."
Kerry, 60, who is twice-married is said to have asked Alex to join his campaign team but she declined.
He has dismissed the allegations first floated by private web page owner Matt Drudge as a smear campaign orchestrated by his Republican opponents and vowed to fight on.
"I promise you that when the Republican smear machine trots out the same old attacks in this election, this is one Democrat who will fight back. I've fought for my country my entire life, and I'm not about to back down now, he said."
If proved, the sex scandal could put paid to the Massachusetts senator's dream to replace incumbent George Bush in the November elections.
Family "correctness" and moral probity play a crucial role in US presidential elections. Bill Clinton's indiscretion with White House intern Monica Lewinsky is believed to have cost last election's Democratic candidate Al Gore-Clinton's Vice President- the presidency.
Currently, Kerry is leading Bush with nearly ten percent in opinion polls but the Republicans will likely pick on his sex scandal hoping to roll back his advantage.
Oh ... let's say 10,000 shares of Heinz stock to both her and her parents ... would that work?
One of the British stories about this today said her dad was a Republican; how does that jibe with this guy now voting for Kerry?
I agree with Rush; this reply brings up more questions than answers...
After all that's been reported here and in the overseas press, do the Democrats really expect that they can just issue a denial, get the woman to retract, and then move on as if nothing ever happened?
-PJ
Further, the factual outline here is incomplete and readers generally are not picking up on the nuances of what is being said.
The affair in question happened while she was at Clark College in Massachusetts. About 1998-2000. The possibility exists that the affair was with Kerry's local fund raiser, not Kerry. That is not what is being covered up. Even if Kerry had an affair with her in that time period, he could confess and the problem would go away--two consenting adults (etc.); a problem with Mrs. Katsup maybe but not a fatal problem for his campaign.
Then, in 2003 or 2004, something else happens: He solicits her to work on his campaign for president; end of the discussions has her turning him down. In that time interval happened the event that is being covered up.
Result of the event is that her parents conclude Kerry is a scumbag (he is). She is first angry; then, later in 2004 concerned about her neck. Her friends learn about the "nasty"; the story starts to get legs among the political insiders and many think Kerry is done for that reason. Kerry does not respond to her; and she is increasingly concerned about her neck.
So she makes a video of her story of the affair; ABC has a copy; so do others including her lawyer in London. If anything bad happens to her, it gets published.
General Clark (and maybe his friends Hilly and Billy from the Ozarks) has a big mouth. Kerry now becomes concerned. He pays her off and tells her to leave town. Probably a big check; maybe with a big holdback also (if the story comes out, you lose). Her parents now decide Kerry would make a great president and endorse him.
This problem is not going away. Too many people are in the know and shortly we will all hear what really happened. If it is really as bad as reported, it should bring Kerry down, even if he and the media continue to deny. Voters are skeptical of Dems on this issue because of Slick Bill, and the bad suggestion may be enough to stop Kerry. Maybe if enough people in Wisconsin are on line, Drudge may dent Kerry without any confirmation.
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