New Tabloid fodder: Major presidential candidate sex scandal about to break?

[wyldwolf]

Here we go...

So I was down in DC this past weekend and happened to run into a well-connected media person, who told me flatly, unequivocally that “everyone knows” The LA Times was sitting on a story, all wrapped up and ready to go about what is a potentially devastating sexual scandal involving a leading Presidential candidate. “Everyone knows” meaning everyone in the DC mainstream media political reporting world. “Sitting on it” because the paper couldn’t decide the complex ethics of whether and when to run it. The way I heard it they’d had it for a while but don’t know what to do. The person who told me )not an LAT person) knows I write and didn’t say “don’t write about this”.

If it’s true, I don’t envy the LAT. I respect their hesitation, their dilemma, deciding to run or not to run it raises a lot of difficult journalism ethics questions and they’re likely to be attacked, when it comes out—the story or their suppression of the story—whatever they do.


I’ve been sensing hints that something’s going on, something’s going unspoken in certain insider coverage of the campaign (and by the way this rumor the LA Times is supposedly sitting on is one I never heard in this specific form before. By the way, t’s not the Edwards rumor, it’s something else.

http://pajamasmedia.com/xpress/ronrosenbaum/2007/10/29/shocking_inside_dc_scandal_rum.php

...and....

Do you ever sense there is some large mass of dark matter, an unseen Scandal Star, the gravitational pull of which is warping the coverage of what seems, on the surface, a pretty dull presidential race? I do. So does Ron Rosenbaum. I thought the Dark Star was the Edwards affair allegation. But Rosenbaum says "everyone in the elite Mainstream media" knows about another juicy scandal that the LAT is supposedly sitting on. I guess this is proof that I'm not in the elite, because I don't know what he's talking about. ... My vestigial Limbaugh gland tells me it must involve a Democrat, or else the Times would have found a reason to print it. ...

http://www.slate.com/id/2176954/nav/fix#darkstar

...to...

My guess is that it involved Obama. The betting market Intrade gives him only a 12.3% chance of winning the Democratic nomination. This seems very low given that he is even with Hillary in the polls to win Iowa and he has lots of cash and that many Dems are worried about Hillary's chance of winning in a general election. It almost seems as if people with inside knowledge are betting against Obama. Perhaps reporters are sitting on their information so they can continue to make Intrade bets.

http://jamesdmiller.blogspot.com/2007/10/political-speculation.html

I guess it could be the same Edwards rumor being recycled. You'd think if there was anything to it, or if it were Obama, the Clinton camp would already be on it... unless it's Hillary! Now that would set tongues wagging!

Of course, I'm not taking someone's theory that it must be Democrat as fact. So it could be Julie. The fact he can't stay married to one woman could mean he really doesn't like women... :)

[Bullet1987]

1. If it's true...it could be anybody

[iconoclastic cat]

2. Black hole sun, won't you come...nt

[Colobo]

3. What are they gonna come up with?

Obama's bi? Had an affair? Likes underage kids? Had sex with prostitutes?

Hillary's lesbian? Had an affair? Likes underage kids? Had sex a threesome with Monica and Bill?


Maybe Slick Willie is back in action?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

10. "Maybe Slick Willie is back in action?"

You're better than that...

[Colobo]

11. Read the title of my post: "What are they gonna come up with?"

They being the MSM trying to trash our candidates.

[jefferson_dem]

13. Oh, come on.

I love the Big Dawg but let's be real, ok?

[Colobo]

14. He obviously ignored the title of my post: "What are they gonna come up with?"

[AtomicKitten]

40. "My GUESS is that it involves Obama."

I guess Hillary is trying to change the subject.

[jmp]

4. If it's not a holier than thou Republican ...

I don't care.

[zulchzulu]

5. I knew there was a reason why Gravel always had a smile on his face...

:sarcasm:

[BrklynLib at work]

6. How could you say, Ghouliani does not like women...?

He seems to wish he was one....

[rurallib]

7. Were it a Dem it would have been on Fux months ago

True or not. Honestly, when did Fux ever give a shit about truth or timing when it came to a Dem. Ergo, my guess is that it is the old story about Rudith's girlfriend in Houston. Starr Shepard as I recall. Geez Fux could have reported it months ago were it not Rudith:

http://wonkette.com/politics/dept'-of-the-person-of-the-year-is-you/rudy-myspace-shocker-is-this-his-new-gal-pal-264644.php
http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2007/05/rudys-alleged-mistress-has-cyber-love-nest.php

In its new issue, the National Enquirer reports that Starr Shephard, a 36-year-old motivational speaker from Houston, "is being accused of telling friends that she is Rudy's new lover." There are some caveats: Giuliani denies it, and Shephard herself says it's not true and that she's only met the former New York mayor and would-be president at campaign events.

[Czolgosz]

8. Dear Shameless Rumormonger: You say "it could be the same Edwards rumor being recycled," but the

source you link confirms "By the way, it’s not the Edwards rumor, it’s something else."

Do you not even bother to read the foul crap you impose on others?

It's pretty douchebaggy of you to be repeating right-wing rumors from unreliable partisan sources, and it it's especially douchebaggy of you to try to connect the right-wing rumor to Edwards when the right-wing source you site expressly denies that connection.

You should be ashamed, but you almost certainly won't be.

[wyldwolf]

12. dear shameless reactionary

Since every source cited is based completely on hearsay, ANYTHING theory, misunderstanding, etc. is possible, don't you think? :eyes:

It's pretty douchebaggy of you to be repeating right-wing rumors from unreliable partisan sources

Oh, that's rich coming from someone here... but which souces are "right-wing and unreliable partisan?"

All I have left for you is :rofl:

[geek tragedy]

16. "I’m placing my money on the lesbian-Hillary angle."

http://lukeford.net/blog/?p=1031

While you're swimming in the gutter and throwing sewage at Edwards and Obama, might as well get some on 'your girl' too.

[Colobo]

17. Huma Abedin? She's hot as hell.

If Hillary's doing her, then she is my new hero! :)

[closeupready]

32. Yes, she is.

Stunning, actually. If so, Hillary has good taste. :D

[wyldwolf]

18. Since this is all hearsay, that is certainly fair game.

:)

[Colobo]

20. I know one thing: I'd be all over Huma if I was her.

[Stop Cornyn]

37. Agreed! That was bullshit.

[Dhalgren]

9. I don't really know and I don't care. A person's sex life means nothing to me.

However, I do disagree with you on this: "if it were Obama, the Clinton camp would already be on it". If anything can be said about Clinton, it is that she knows how to handle power. And information like this is power. Her campaign would notify Obama's campaign (in the strictest secrecy) of the bomb they possessed. The rest would happen in a clearly understood sequence of events. Clinton would never let on that she knew anything at all...

[geek tragedy]

15. Rightwing lie debunked by another righwinger:

http://hotair.com/archives/2007/10/31/la-times-editor-denies-having-heard-about-the-sex-scandal-story-and-i-believe-him/

[wyldwolf]

19. no, actually, he's defusing a rumor.

[Catherine Vincent]

21. Well it can't be Sen. Clinton.

She knocked off Vince Foster years ago. :) May he rest in peace.

[Colobo]

24. Who's Vince Foster?

[ElizabethDC]

25. Seriously? n/t

[Colobo]

26. I lived in Puerto Rico when Bill was president.

Also, I was a pre-teen/teen then. Who's Vince Foster?

[ElizabethDC]

27. Well, I'm even younger than you are,

but this was a major story line from the Clinton presidency.

Here's wikipedia on him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vince_foster

[Colobo]

28. In Puerto Rico, it wasn't. Over there

one hardly knows anything about American political scandals.

[ElizabethDC]

29. That would surprise me very much

because people I know from other parts of the world (Europe, Asia) seem to know all about our presidents and their scandals. Regardless, maybe you should do some reading on recent political history - due to the fact that I'm so young, I've had to educate myself about a lot of the particulars of the Clinton years. I find it very interesting, I think you would, too.

[Catherine Vincent]

30. He was a childhood friend of President Clinton from Arkansas.

He ended up having him in his administration. I forgot what role. He was involved in the bogus Whitewater scandal and the FBI files non scandal that the republicans and media cooked up. The man ended up committing suicide after some wall street journal hit job on him. I guess he couldn't take all the criticism, so he ended his life. Republicans immediately circulated that Hillary and Bill had him killed. Congressman "Scumbag" Burton even bought a few watermelons and shot them up to prove that it was not a suicide but a murder. Freepers will forever believe the man was murdered. :eyes:

The way the republicans behaved toward the Clinton's back then was pure rabid and that is what got me interested in politics in the first place.

[ElizabethDC]

31. It should be added that

a lot of the allegations that the Clintons had him murdered were accompanied by rumors that it was because Hillary had had an affair with him . . . or that he killed himself because Hillary had ended their affair. Fun stuff like that.

[Catherine Vincent]

34. Yes.

Although they continuously say she is a lesbian. Which is why President Clinton had all those affairs. :eyes:

[ecstatic]

39. Mitt or Rudy nt

[CK_John]

22. IMO,It may not be the candidate but a wife. n/t

[DrDan]

23. has to be Mitt - and has to be related to Mormon underwear . . . . . . . n/t

[gasperc]

33. Since when do they sit on this shit

if it's being sat on it's because the conservatives are urging the press to sit on it. Who ever is involved should force it NOW. These things have proven to be recoverable time and time again.

[Basileus Basileon]

35. "Now that would set tongues wagging!"

Since the Hillary rumors revolve around lesbian affairs, was that, um...intentional?

[wyldwolf]

36. ha ha. No, not intentional

[bunnies]

38. I wonder if this is connected to the upcoming Larry Flynt thing. n/t