Well, that’s what the National Enquirer is ‘reporting”. [1]
The object of his supposed affection? Web Filmaker Rielle Hunter. The angle, here, of course, is that he’s cheating on his cancer stricken wife.
Personally, I don’t figure the Breck girl has that kind of moxie. That’s just me… but I don’t believe the story for a ring tailed minute.
Like most of their stories, it seems to me to laughable too take seriously. I mean, aside from the fact that it’s a tabloid, famous for coming up constantly with stories about how Elvis showed up on the spaceship with a small mountain of peanut butter and banana sandwiches, did “Hound Dog” and left again saying he’d be back next year, the guy seems to me as someone who would never have the courage to try.
So, where’d the story come from? A mystery, to be sure.
But along comes Dale Franks who looks up the ownership of the paper, being the resourceful individual he is, and look at the article he finds: [2]
American Media, the company that owns The National Enquirer and Star, is expected to announce today that it will acquire the Globe Communications Corporation for $100 million in cash, said executives close to the deal. The price is five times Globe Communications’ annual cash flow of about $20 million.
American Media is owned by Evercore Capital Partners, which is headed by former Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger C. Altman, who is a close friend of President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton, arguably the first family not only of the country, but of the tabloid press. Mr. Altman had no comment about the deal yesterday.
So, the big guy at the Enquirer’s parent company has close ties to the Clintons.
Hmm. Yeah. Well, I guess that’s no particular surprise…. and to be blunt, I certainly wouldn’t put it past Altman. After all, SOME of the readers of that rag have to take the thing seriously. Such a story, however untrue, will cause some damage. And Hillary Clinton would certainly benefit….
Of course, Franks isn’t the only one saying stuff about this. Over at The Politico, leftie blogger Ben Smith [3] is also on the case, and got a denial out of the Enquirer, who stated for HIS record:
A spokesman for American Media, Richard Valvo, said in an email that Altman has “no involvement in editorial, ever.” He said that Evercore owns 20 percent of the company through an investment fund. Altman didn’t respond to an email seeking comment or to a message left with his secretary.
Interestingly, the plot thickens just a bit with the appearance of a couple of stories from the Huffington Post [4] which suggest that the Edwards campaign is concerned about its relationship with Hunter.
Kaus [5], too, has been in on this one, and the Man from Slate is quick to point out that the stories at Huffpo stop just short of actually suggesting a relationship between Edwards and Hunter. He goes on to suggest that the story is so dubious that even Drudge isn’t jumping on it. The other part of this, that Kaus notes is that the supposedly mainstream media, isn’t picking up on it either. Funny thing; they didn’t wait for the other shoe to drop, when similar stories were being laid against Newt Gingrich. … no pun intended.
There’s got to be some demographic information in this, as well. Something, perhaps, which suggests that the readers of that particular tabloid are overwhelmingly members of the Democrat party. Look… if you believe what the Democrat party is selling, particularly if you believe what Hillary Clinton is selling, you will clearly believe any damn thing that comes along. Including the National Enquirer.
(Grumble)
I will guarantee you that Billy Beck is throwing cigarette butts at the screen, screaming at volume 11… “Yeah, and these morons VOTE, too”. He’s correct, of course… but that’s only the half of my problem here. You watch. I’ve opened myself up for all kinds of e-mail from Hillary Clinton supporters who will claim to have tickets to Elvis doing his next concert at Red Rocks, and that Elvis would not have died, if George W Bush hadn’t vetoed SCHIP.
Running a blog is an awesome responsibility.