June 03, 2004

• She's beautiful. Read this earlier on MeFi. Loved, loved, LOVED the reactions she got from some of these smarmy "journalists" when she called them up personally. That woman's got some moxie, and she knows how to use it. Good to see she ain't afraid to fire back, even if that means giving new life to the swarming cameras.
• Yeah, I don't normally go for blondes, but she's striking. And those shoulders!... That aside, I'm glad somebody's calling these tools on their bullshit. Hopefully she won't be the last. And if it means giving new life to those swarming cameras, so be it. At least this time the truth's being told.
• With the prospect of well-educated, articulate victims of assassination-by-Sun calling re-porters up at home to discuss the smears, hopefully said re-porters will think twice about filing-without-researching stories (though no doubt they have pressures of their own to contend with). Quite excellent of her to follow all those threads up, and no doubt vaguely cathartic too. That really is a craptastic sentence, but at this late moment canna think of how to fix it. Oh, and her fiance is pretty cute too.
• She is a brave, smart woman, and I'm glad she had the courage to face down those asshats. Thanks for the link Darshon. I needed some inspiration today. :)
• Wonkette weighs in. I usually like Wonkette, but this seemed a bit too bitchy. The truth is, even if Polier had denied it outright, all of the ensuing nasty stuff still would have happened to her.
• I'm impressed by this woman. Next time I'm accused of sleeping with a presidential candidate, I'll think of her and say, WWAD?
• Next time I'm accused of sleeping with a presidential candidate, I'll milk it for tuition. I should be so lucky. With my luck it'd be Cheney.
• "...a beautiful blond can have integrity and principals in the disreputable world of politics." She can even have principles. /peeve
• Hey, she could have vice-principals, maths teachers, whatever!
• I bet you most principals would be down with that.
• even if Polier had denied it outright, all of the ensuing nasty stuff still would have happened to her Maybe, but I still find it incomprehensible that she didn't say "Completely untrue" as soon as she got the first call. I must admit when I read about the rumors her failure to deny it made me think there might well be something to it. What on earth are you risking by saying something that 1) clears your name and 2) is true? That peeve out of the way, thanks for the link. I admire the woman tremendously and hope she does well in life. And may those lazy and/or malicious reporters suffer boils, debts, and professional humiliation. Bastards. I know this is pointless to even say, but I wish people could refrain from "I'd hit it!" comments on every single story involving a good-looking woman, especially when said story is about a woman suffering from the consequences of precisely that attitude/obsession. Ah well. Carry on.
• for me, this painful experience will be hard to forget. It may be only a minor footnote to the campaign, but it has changed my life completely. She definitely has my sympathy.
• Slightly off-topic: Drudge is a poo-flinging sleazebag. I understand the reasons, yet I still find it incomprehensible that legitimate journalists actually read his "work", much less use it for anything other than wiping material.
• I got through four pages of it: does she ever come out and say that she didn't sleep with Kerry, or is it all Renaultesque shock at the sudden realization that the media is filled with liars and sensationalists? Because I think I first read about that a few years back in the special All-Lewinsky issue of DUH Magazine. In any event: this was like a two-day story. The reading public is pretty much inured to the idea that polticians sleep around, I think. Even Washintonienne's 15 minutes of anal-sex-with-staffers fame fizzled quickly, even from Wonkette. Why the screed? I mean, sure, I agree with her, and it's nice to see her throw a little pepper back, but if she just wanted it to all go away (which she seems to claim) why crank it back up with this lengthy non-denial denial?
• No, she denies it flat-out. I'm not sure the point is to clear her name (that's pretty much already been done) as much as it is to demonstrate how the machine can chew someone up, particularly if that someone is an attractive young woman who's on speaking terms with a politician. It's also a good opportunity to call these people into account, names, conversations and all. Exactly how I'd handle it, were I in her shoes.
• On those points, it succeeds. Where in the story does she deny it? I only saw once incdent, where she was quoting a conversation with a reporter who asks "Have you ever been alone with Kerry" to which she replies "No" which would lead (obviously) that she didn't do any candidatitational bootknocking. But I didn't see where she actually said "I never slept with the fool." I'm not trying to blame the victim - even if she did sleep with him, she certainly didn't deserve a press-drawn mud-drag. But like I say, we already *know* that the machine is adept at chewing up fetching young DC hangers-on. If she's as intelligent as she claims (no reason to believe she's not), she'd almost certainly have known that, too. It is a shame that it happens, and I suppose it's difficult to think that a little mild barroom flirtiness could lead to a steamrollering by Drudge and Co., but I can't help but wonder at the impetus to inject it back into the public eye. Those who sympathize sympathized beforehand, those who think she did it are unlikely to be swayed, and a dead story gets undeserved legs.
• I would imagine that it is her anger that is driving her. Putting myself in her shoes, I would want to 'return the favor' with the assholes that participate in and perpetuate this kind of bullshit. davidmsc--my apologies. A pet peeve of mine, too. I'm kicking myself for having missed that one. Grrr.