My take on this:
(1) Much of the public is going to roll their eyes when they hear "Drudge" and "sex scandal" and "Democrat" yet again.
(2) This may actually help Kerry. Consider that Clinton was never more popular than when Monicagate was being investigated by the Republicans. It may humanize him, and earn him sympathy -- paradoxically.
(3) Though I'm a Dean supporter, I suspect that if it *does* somehow get serious for Kerry, Edwards would get more of a bounce than Dean -- given who is supporting Kerry, and why.
(4) I suspect that Kerry's people will succeed at mostly containing this story (a) among the right-wing media, where he wasn't getting support anyway, (b) by getting the mainstream press to focus on process and the fact that an "irresponsible" website made the allegations.
So far tonight, the story is only being picked up on blogs, on foreign news sites, and on far-right newswires. We'll see what tomorrow brings.
I have a roundup of early reactions at my site:
http://hudson.typepad.com/line/2004/02/ker...s_been_dru.html
I'm personally more interested in a more serious topic -- the 9/11 widows' attempts to force a true investigation of what happened that day:
http://hudson.typepad.com/line/2004/02/911...vidence_hi.html