A garish parade of ravaged female interns, scandalized soldiers and communist-sympathizing starlets marched across the American political stage this week — a surprising spectacle, since both George W. Bush and his leading Democrat opponent claimed that they are only interested in campaigning on serious issues such as tax cuts and job losses.
The combination of dirt and denial is the result of a new, lower form of political campaigning, in which Republican Party affiliates leak damaging personal information about Democrat rivals to grassroots conservative news sources, while claiming the higher ground in statements to more respectable official outlets.
It has proved amazingly successful. With the presidential election more than eight months away and the Democrats still at least six weeks away from settling on a candidate, the U.S. media are already consumed with chasing down decades-old personal rumours about Mr. Bush and shady tales of sexual impropriety about John Kerry, the Boston senator who leads the Democrats' pack.
Yesterday, a nadir was reached as many of the major U.S. media outlets spent the day chasing a Clintonesque rumour, planted on websites of dubious journalistic merit, involving allegations that Mr. Kerry had a dalliance with a female intern.
While there was no evidence that it was true, or reason to believe it was important, the gossip on the Internet and on conservative talk-radio shows had reached such a heated pitch that respectable newspapers and TV networks felt obligated to expend major resources chasing it down. American newspaper and TV correspondents in South Africa were heading en masse to Kenya, where the alleged intern was said to be hiding.
Mr. Kerry, who yesterday won the endorsement of former rival Wesley Clark, refused to dignify the rumour, telling a talk-radio show that there is "nothing to talk about."
He added that he was prepared to have his personal life put on display: "I've been pretty well, you know, vetted and examined from one side to the other. And I think that they're in for a surprise. I'm going to fight back.''
Later, on the campaign trail in Madison, Wis., Mr. Kerry told reporters: "I just deny it categorically. It's rumour. It's untrue. Period." Mr. Kerry, who is married to multimillionaire Teresa Heinz Kerry, said it was the last time he intended to speak about the matter.
Bush re-election campaign officials claimed that they too were interested only in talking about serious political issues.
It is not clear exactly where the intern-affair rumour originated — the Drudge Report web site, which first reported it, claimed that a friend of the intern had come forward — but yesterday a few major U.S. newspapers mentioned it, though only in stories about the mud-slinging nature of the campaign or the effect of the Internet on journalism. British papers were less discreet:
The Times of London and the Sun tabloid, both owned by Rupert Murdoch, put the story on their front pages.
"This is part of an overall slime-and-defend strategy," said Max Cleland, a former Georgia senator who campaigns for Mr. Kerry.
Dirty rumours are nothing new in presidential elections. But it's unusual for this sort of personal innuendo to fill the air so early in the campaign year.
This week, Mr. Bush's popularity rating reached an all-time low of 50 per cent, and his re-election team responded by tarring Mr. Kerry before he had an opportunity to tar Mr. Bush.
The Republicans released TV advertisements claiming that the Democrat is beholden to wealthy corporations who supported his campaign, a charge frequently levelled against Mr. Bush. "Kerry— brought to you by the special interests," says the announcer. "Millions from executives from HMOs, telecoms, drug companies, Ka-ching [Net lingo for the sound of a cash register]. Unprincipled?"
Meanwhile, Mr. Bush has gone on the offensive to fend off criticisms about his own past behaviour. Knowing that Democrats were certain to use the election to attack his Vietnam War record — including criticisms that he used family ties to gain access to the Texas Air National Guard, a comfortable elite posting that avoided any combat — his officials took action by broaching the topic themselves.
This week, White House officials released his National Guard records in an effort to answer charges that he shirked his duty.
"The President felt everything should be made public," spokesman Scott McClellan said yesterday.
"There were some who sought to leave a wrong impression that there was something to hide when there is not."
Republican officials said the release of the documents could end up helping Mr. Bush: By putting them into media spotlight at this early date, they are likely to be old and forgotten news by the time the election heats up in the fall. Of course, the same could be said of Mr. Kerry and his supposed female friend.
