SUPPOSED KERRY INTERN STRIKES BACK

Alexandra Polier, at the center of a rumor linking her to John Kerry, tells her story in a New York magazine story. In it, she relates being hounded by the media and having her e-mail account compromised.

CNN’s Zain Verjee wrote beseeching notes, slipping them under the front gate. It was like a horror movie where the zombies are on the other side of the door and then an arm comes through the window. ...

More alarmingly, my Hotmail account had been broken into, and I couldn’t access my e-mail. Random people in my in-box whom I hadn’t spoken to in months suddenly started getting calls from reporters. My father called to tell me someone had tried the same thing with his account, but that his security software had intercepted them and tracked them back to a rogue computer address in Washington, D.C. When I finally got back into my account, assuming the hacker was a Republican, I changed my password to "Bushsucksdick."

After silence failed to thward the media, Polier and her parents separately issued statements.

My father, in spite of his Republican leanings, suspected a right-wing conspiracy, so at my suggestion he concluded his statement: "We appreciate the way Senator Kerry has handled the situation and intend on voting for him for President of the United States."

The media, in its feeding frenzy fed by gossipmonger Matt Drudge, initially missed that Polier had never worked for Kerry in any capacity. She was an editorial assistant at The Associated Press in New York.

Winston Churchill was on to something when he said, "A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on."