Gossip Central- Is Matt Drudge having breakfast this morning with egg over his face? Did the Men in Black get to Butterface Alex Polier? Is Polier in complete denial or is an imposter making statements on her behalf?. This morning The N.Y. Daily News reports the following:
A mystery woman who has been the subject of rumors linking her romantically to Sen. John Kerry broke her silence yesterday – and declared she’s no Monica Lewinsky.
“I have never had a relationship with Sen. Kerry, and the rumors in the press are completely false,” 27-year-old Columbia University journalism graduate Alexandra Polier said in a statement to The Associated Press.
“Whoever is spreading these rumors and allegations does not know me, but should know the pain they have caused me and my family,” said Polier, who is engaged to be married.
Polier – who has had reporters dogging her parents’ home in Pennsylvania and her fiance’s home in Kenya – also denied reports she’d been a Kerry intern.
“I never interned or worked for John Kerry,” Polier said in a phone call to The AP, for whom she worked briefly as an editorial assistant in New York.
Polier’s parents issued a statement yesterday praising Kerry, the Democratic front-runner for President, and vowing to vote for him.
Kerry’s campaign said last night it’s time to move on. “The issues facing this country are far too serious for the press to be marketing in these types of rumors,” said spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter.
Polier came forward three days after Kerry denied hazy reports of an affair, first reported by Internet muckraker Matt Drudge.
Drudge’s report didn’t die easily because his site has been credited with breaking the sex scandal involving Lewinsky, the White House intern whose romp with then-President Bill Clinton led to his impeachment.
As a result, Kerry’s high-flying campaign was forced to deal with the rumors – first by denying it Friday on the Don Imus radio show and later to reporters on the campaign trail
“I just deny it categorically,” Kerry said. “It’s rumor. It’s untrue.”
Until now, the Daily News had refrained from naming Polier, whose picture has run in British newspapers for days.
Polier released her statement from Nairobi, where she is visiting the parents of her fiance, Yaron Schwartzman, an Israeli raised in Kenya.
“Because these stories were false, I assumed the media would ignore them,” she said.
Her parents, Terry and Donna Polier, told the press, “We appreciate the way Senator Kerry has handled the situation and intend on voting for him for President of the United States.”
That was in sharp contrast to a British report that claimed her father – while denying an affair – had all but called Kerry a scumbag and denounced him. Yesterday, Terry Polier said he’d been misquoted.
It remains unclear how the rumor got started.
Alexandra Polier’s only known ties to Kerry are through a top aide, campaign finance director Peter Maroney.
A Columbia University classmate of Polier told The News that Maroney introduced her to Kerry in 2001 at an economic summit in Switzerland. “She met with [Kerry] again when the forum came to New York in 2002,” the classmate said.
Maroney could not be reached for comment yesterday.
A Republican political strategist said Kerry has not been hurt by the fallout. “It looks like it’s going away,” he said.
But a strategist from a rival Democratic campaign warned Kerry was not safe yet if it turns out he lied. “Bill Clinton had the charm to wiggle out of those attacks. Kerry simply doesn’t have that going for him,” the strategist said.