Thursday, 24 June 2004

The difference in a nutshell: Hardcore Democrats over at Daily Kos are wringing their hands about whether it's proper to make a political issue out of GOP candidate Jack Ryan's sexual habits.

Hardcore Republicans would have subpoenaed his ex-wife by now. And then threatened her with perjury charges unless she gave them a damning statement.

- Posted by Scott Forbes at 11:39 pm. comments.

Thursday, 24 June 2004

And the war-horse you rode in on: As part of his ongoing mandate to restore honor and dignity to the Executive Branch, Vice-President Dick Cheney made an obscene suggestion (parental discretion advised) to Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy at this week's taking of the annual Senate class photo.

I guess Cheney is a little touchy about being accused of war profiteering.

- Posted by Scott Forbes at 11:29 pm. comments.

Thursday, 24 June 2004

Sex, lies, Star Trek, and the GOP: Speaking of my home state — if you haven't been following the meltdown of Jack Ryan, the GOP Senate candidate in Illinois (as opposed to Jack Ryan, the protagonist in several Tom Clancy novels), then you're missing an absolute classic. It seems that our man Jack had a messy divorce back in 2000, and had the court records sealed because (he claimed) they contained information that would be damaging to his young son, who has "special needs."

Apparently the younger Ryan really does have a learning disability, poor fellow, but his son had nothing to do with Ryan's reason for wanting to keep those records out of the public eye: According to the testimony of his ex-wife — actress Jeri Ryan, who played "Seven of Nine" on TV's Star Trek: Voyager — the reason for their divorce was that Jack repeatedly took her to swinger's clubs and pressured her to have sex in front of other people.

And, to make matters worse, Jack Ryan swore to his GOP colleagues there was nothing in his divorce papers that could cause him embarrassment — while knowing perfectly well that this bombshell was in there!

Ryan's campaign was already a lost cause: He was down by 22 points to rising Democratic star Barack Obama, in a solidly Blue state where the previous Republican governor was indicted for fraud and corruption. But since George W. Bush is currently not on the ballot in Illinois, a problem caused by the GOP decision to hold their convention in New York on September 11th — twelve days after the Illinois filing deadline — Ryan could end up at the top of the GOP ticket in Illinois, and his implosion could take down a number of GOP incumbents in the House.

Meanwhile, the pundits are having an absolute field day with this one. Some screamingly funny quotes from blogs and Chicago Tribune readers, many of them courtesy of the Tribune's Eric Zorn:

• Dan Johnson-Weinberger: "You have to really question the judgment of anyone who at one time was married to Jeri Ryan, and now, for whatever reason, is not."
• Gen. JC Christian, patriot: "On the surface, the Jack Ryan scandal looks like a simple case of a man taking his wife to sex clubs and then pressuring her to have sex with him while everyone else watches, but I think there is more to this story."
• The Peoria Journal-Star: "'There's no breaking of marriage laws' or the Ten Commandments, (Ryan) said in an interview on WLS-AM. If the worst people can say is that over eight years of marriage he took his wife to places 'she felt uncomfortable … then I think people will say, gosh, that guy's lived a pretty clean life.' Some people may say that, but probably not many in central Illinois, where the average resident is not accustomed to using 'sex' and 'club' in the same sentence and following it with the phrase 'pretty clean life.'"
• Mark Konkol, Red Streak: "Watching the public flogging of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jack Ryan on Channel 11 Monday was pleasantly disturbing. According to his divorce papers, that's how he likes it."
• Bob M.: "My only outrage is this: I am a Democrat. We normally back the sex candidate."
• Dave: "Jack Ryan has issued literature talking about his support for 'family values.' Is asking your wife to have sex in front of other people a family value?"

And, in my personal favorite, the Chicagoist blog draws a picture for you.

Now, normally I'd support the principle that a politician's private life should remain private — but the GOP did spend several million dollars poking the taxpayers' nose into Bill Clinton's sex life, they're trying to make an issue out of whether Kerry takes communion or not, they do make a lot of noise about being the party of morality and family values, Ryan's the guy who was sending a campaign flunky to follow his opponent into the bathroom last month, this particular "private life" is both on the public record and in a public place, and Ryan did lie to his colleagues about the potential damage his divorce papers could do.

And, more importantly, this is laugh-out-loud hilarious.

- Posted by Scott Forbes at 8:50 am. comments.