John Baer: It's the Guv's behavior that fuels the rumor mill

ED, THIS IS all you.

Whatever anger, distraction or embarrassment long-rampant speculation about an affair with your beauty-queen employee causes you, your marriage, focus on work or even life after leaving office, it's self-inflicted.

This is not the act of some political enemy. This is not a gotcha moment, despite your comments to Harrisburg's Patriot-News that you've "had it with the media."

No male in high-profile public office, especially one with a history of seen-in-public "friendships" with attractive women, can expect to be seen repeatedly in public with an attractive woman and not fuel eyebrow-raising rumors.

And anyone with a modicum of media savvy understands that, right or wrong, fair or not, the longer that such rumors simmer, the better the odds that they will get reported.

You understand, too.

So the Philadelphia magazine piece, "The Governor, the Blonde and the Rumor Mill," that hit newsstands last Friday - and dozens of news stories across the state about it - is because of you.

Heck, "the Blonde," 40-year-old former Miss Pennsylvania, Mrs. Pennsylvania and, more recently, Mrs. American Dream 2007, Kirstin Snow, chief of your Commonwealth Media Services, is surprised it took so long for rumors to rise.

No wonder. For a year, your 66-year-old married self and twice-divorced Snow have been spotted in restaurants, especially Harrisburg's Bella Mundo (described on its Web site as "a warm and intimate bistro where you can retreat after work"), at Snow's son's soccer games in suburban Harrisburg and on Snow's pontoon boat (think oversize raft with a motor and canvas top) on the Susquehanna River.

You introduced her at your $5,000-a-head Philly fundraiser in March, and she was famously photographed with you by this newspaper at Famous Deli on primary Election Day.

That photo brought complaints that two others were at the table but not in the shot. But it's clear, seated beside Snow, you're talking with someone across from you. And, hey, who brought Snow to Famous on a day when pols and media pack the place for lunch?

Your excuse? She was "managing" your TV appearances. Isn't that a press secretary's job?