Well, the woman at the center of the alleged affair with Sen. John Kerry has now denied that anything happened. Her parents -- the same ones apparently who thought Kerry a "sleazeball" last week -- have come out with a statement claiming they love Kerry and will vote for him.

I'm sorry, but the parents' flip-flop seems odd to say the least.

I also don't know how to reconcile the young woman's claims that there's no there there with an earlier report that she gave a tell-all interview to an American TV network.

Time will tell.

On a related media note: I'm troubled by comments by The Washington Post's London correspondent Glenn Frankel to the BBC.

"We've been down this road many, many times before. We are extremely reluctant to follow this kind of thing up unless there is a really, really compelling public interest. We don't feel there is any reason to until it reaches a threshold.

"All we have at the moment is that the woman's parents, who are republicans, [sic] don't like Senator Kerry.

"In any case, nobody would be too shocked if Kerry lied about an affair. Even if someone came to us with photographs we still wouldn't run it. Lying to Don Imus [the radio host to whom Kerry gave his initial denial] is not a federal offence." [emphasis added]

The elite media may not care, but they should. We've had several years of experience on how a president can be crippled when his private peccadillos influence his public policy. Many Americans would be wary of a man who would lie not only to his wife, but to all America about his infidelity.

The Post may not be interested in it -- but that says more about the state of "elite" journalism than it does the politics of infidelity.