“Falsely accused of having an affair with John Kerry, the “intern” sifts through the mud and the people who threw it. ” Polier, both a political junkie and a journalist herself, writes an account combining her very personal suffering as a victim of vicious political rumormongering, her detailed public denial, and an investigation of the sources of the rumor.

“It was becoming clearer: No single person had to have engineered this. First came a rumor about Kerry, then a small-time blogger wrote about it, and his posting was read by journalists. They started looking into it, a detail that was picked up by Drudge—who, post-Monica, is taken seriously by other sites like Wonkette, which no political reporter can ignore. I was getting a better education in 21st-century reporting than I had gotten at Columbia J-school.”

In this case, she (and I) was surprised to find that the baseless rumors that she had slept with Kerry (she was actually dating his campaign finance manager for awhile) apparently arose not from the Bush team as she had expected but were at least partly attributable to the Wesley Clark campaign organization, such as it was. Of course, the Right made hay with the rumors, but neo-con zealot and former Bush speechwriter David Frum actually apologized publicly when he learned they were not true. Bottom-feeder Matt Drudge, to whose rumors the media are now indentured servants, too nervous not to listen for fear they will miss another scoop like Lewinsky, also gets quoted by Polier as regretful for his role… a little regretful at least. A good friend of Polier’s in Washington, who works inside the Republican machine, was instrumental in embellishing on Polier’s acquaintance with Kerry to further the Republican cause as well. I hope Polier has learned to choose her friends more wisely; loyalty is a cheap commodity in the political world. (New York Magazine via Richard; thanks!)