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.
I truly believe they would do just that.
I agree. There is no reason to think the blonde has anything to do with Ms. Polier.
But observe the lack of interest in the blonde. John Kerry is out pursuing relationships with a number of young women. It is not his having an affair that is the threat to his presidential candidacy which is being covered up. If he had screwed Ms. Polier, no real reason he does not admit it and drive on. Might have a problem with Mrs. Ketchup but no real impact on his presidential candidacy.
What is being covered up is something which occurred in the 2003-2004 time frame; an event which happened around the time he started the presidential campaign.
The story also includes some interesting quotes regarding the liberal media's "reluctance" to go after Kerry and pursue this story:
Mainstream media defence
The Washington Post London correspondent Glenn Frankel, a Pulitzer Prize winner and former editor of the Post's Sunday magazine, defended his newspaper's editorial judgment.
"We've been down this road many, many times before. We are extremely reluctant to follow this kind of thing up unless there is a really, really compelling public interest. We don't feel there is any reason to until it reaches a threshold.
"All we have at the moment is that the woman's parents, who are republicans, don't like Senator Kerry.
"In any case, nobody would be too shocked if Kerry lied about an affair. Even if someone came to us with photographs we still wouldn't run it. Lying to Don Imus [the radio host to whom Kerry gave his initial denial] is not a federal offence."
The early jousting holds the promise of a campaign with few holds barred. It is a delicate game because it can backfire and allegations are often floated through the undergrowth of the internet to see how far they get. Both campaigns muster big teams to counter whatever might emerge.
The only word that covers these "coincidental" 180 turnabouts in stories is Clintonesque.
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