See below for a crazy theory of what the Bush administration was up to with ANG filegate.

Now let's see if two can play that game. Take the rumour of a rumour about an affair between John Kerry and an AP reporter to be named later. Let's see how Rove would handle it.

1. Kerry says he doesn't even know her.
2. an anonymous source on Kerry's staff whispers that the reporter and Kerry were once alone in his Senate office for half an hour.
3. Kerry refuses to confirm or deny.
4. The reporter is asked if they did anything oral. She says, yes, of course, were were right there in his Senate office what do you expect.
5. Kerry refuses to speculate as to how she might have interpreted "oral".
6. an anonymous source on Kerry's staff whispers that, as the reporter left, she mentioned that she had kept her tape recorder running the whole time and Sen Kerry seemed upset.
7. The rest of the press demands to hear the tape.
8 the AP reporter refuses saying it is her private tape and she promised not to reveal its contents and this is grossly sexist.
9. The rest of the press demands that Kerry ask the AP reporter to play the tape.
10. Kerry refuses
11. the press pack speculates about what they have to hide.
12. The ap reporter plays the tape on national TV revealing that it is an off the record interview about Kerry's views on accounting standards