chasing the Kerry/intern story

The Philadelphia Daily News - The People Paper

Media mayhem in Malvern Reporters camp outside home of woman believed key to Kerry rumors By WILLIAM BUNCH bunchw@phillynews.com A global media scrum descended on the Chester County suburb of Malvern yesterday because of a furor over a rumored romantic link between a 1995 Great Valley High School grad and presidential hopeful John Kerry. Despite the frenzy, little information was forthcoming yesterday, and there was no confirmation of any relationship between Kerry and the woman. Several news trucks and assorted gawkers loitered outside the home of the parents of 27-year-old Alexandra Polier after her dad was quoted in a British tabloid that Kerry was "a sleazeball" who'd shown an interest in his daughter. Polier, who was a cross-country star in high school and who has worked as a reporter for the Associated Press, is said to be on an assignment in Kenya, half a world away from the furor touched off by an article on the popular Web site the Drudge Report. Kerry, a Massachusetts senator who is the overwhelming favorite to grab the Democratic nomination, addressed the rumors yesterday in a radio appearance on the Don Imus show and said there was nothing to them. "Well, there is nothing to report," Kerry told the outspoken radio host when asked if the suggestions that an involvement with a young woman would derail his campaign. "So there is nothing to talk about. I'm not worried about it. No." The irreverent Imus later told his listeners that Kerry, who has won 12 out of 14 primaries and caucuses so far, "is dead" if a sex scandal involving him were to come out. Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran who later protested the war, has been married since 1996 to his second wife - Teresa Heinz Kerry, the millionaire widow of former Pennsylvania Senator John Heinz. Heinz famously told an interviewer that she threatened to "maim" her first husband if he ever cheated on her. So far, no hard evidence has surfaced that Kerry cheated with Polier, or with anyone else. Even her parents, Terry and Donna Polier, told the London Sun that they had no evidence that their daughter had had an affair with Kerry, although they claimed he had asked her to join his campaign staff a couple of years ago but that she declined. "I think he's a sleazeball," Terry Polier was quoted as saying. "I did kind of wonder if my daughter didn't get that kind of feeling herself...He's not the sort of guy I would choose to be with my daughter." The comments in the British tabloid raised more questions than it answered, but little more information was forthcoming yesterday. About 20 reporters and cameramen lurked outside the Poliers' ranch home in a middle-class section of the Chester County suburb, but the parents were reportedly not home and their son did not speak with reporters. Alexandra Polier, a tall blonde known to friends as Alex, went on from Malvern to Clark University in Worcester, Mass., where she earned a degree in 2000 with a double major in philosophy and government. She then studied journalism at the prestigious Columbia Journalism School in New York, and landed a job with the Associated Press, working for a time for the New York bureau. Despite the huge media crush, there were few stories in the mainstream media about the Kerry controversy - not surprising considering the lack of hard details. The Drudge Report became well-known in 1998 after becoming the first outlet to report on then-President Bill Clinton's involvement with Monica Lewinsky.