This is what Illinois Republicans are down toFollow

Since Illinois Republican Senate hopeful Jack Ryan dropped out of the race after divorce records containing embarassments about his sex life with Jeri Ryan were opened, the Illinois GOP can't field a new candidate. Multiple people have said no, they don't want the one guy who says yes because he's not a tool for Bush, and so...

"The vacuum created by the lack of a candidate has led to a fanciful guessing game, with some GOP hangers-on trying to mount draft movements for Republican-leaning celebrities, including former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka." -- Chicago Tribune

"Ok, so Da Bears against.... the National Democratic Party?"
"Do da Dems get a lead?"
"Ermm... yeah, fourty-nine yards, but Da Bears got Ditka."
"DA BEARS!"

Now that the Ryan's private divorce papers have been made public do you think those same papers should be made public regarding john kerrys divorce from his first wife?

varus

"Should"? Not necessarily, but then again I wasn't campaigning for Ryan's to be opened either prior to the fact.

But if they were, I wouldn't rail against it. As I said in the Ryan case, court divorce proceedings are public record. Before Ryan, Democratic Senate hopeful Jack Hull had his records opened and it was shown he had hit his wife. Information worth knowing about a guy before voting for him, in my opinion.

Ryan's issue wasn't that his records were unsealed, it was that he sealed them to prevent embarassment to himself, lied to his party about it and belonged to a party trained to believe that everyone's sex life is everyone else's business. Republican voters didn't turn away from him because he made Jeri cry, they did so because they thought going to sex clubs made him unsuitable in a party preaching "family values", homophobia and catering to the Religious Right.

Actually, he originally planned to stay in the race. He dropped out when the Illinois GOP effectively told him he'd have to fund his own campaign out of pocket from here on out if he chose to stay in. Since he was already elected through the primaries, the GOP had no way of forcefully ejecting him so this was the next best way to tell him to hit the road.

Edited, Fri Jul 9 12:30:51 2004 by Jophiel

Now that the Ryan's private divorce papers have been made public do you think those same papers should be made public regarding john kerrys divorce from his first wife?


Nope, and I think that'll be a tough argument for the White House to make considering the massive amount of damaging material that's in private records that they refuse to release.

Are they not public now? I'm asking because I really don't know.

But if they are sealed, sure, I'm all for opening them. Not because I agree with making divorce records public, but in the interest of fairness.

It'd be right on topic if you said you'd do it at a Sex Club.

FTFY. Wink-wink, nudge-nudge.

Keep in mind, just to clarifiy, when I say divorce proceedings are "public records", you can't really just waltz into the district courthouse, go down to the basement and start pawing through their stuff. You have to file a Freedom of Information Act request and have a legitimate reason for wanting access to the information. Nosiness and boredom probably don't apply

I'm not saying this applies to the Kerry thing, just that "public record" is a somewhat misleading term here.

I thought the divorce papers were "public" though?


Not if they're sealed. Bush's drunk driving nolo contendre pleas are sealed. Do the Republican's really want to go down this road? Somehow I think it'll vanish as an issue in very short order. Breaking the gentelmen's agreement not to persue sealed records is squarely in the intrest of the Bush camp.

Ryan's records were unsealed BY a court order. The Chicago Tribune and CBS filed to have them unsealed. The judge agreed, leading the Pubbies to once again bemoan the liberal court system.

The "Dems" didn't do this to Ryan. Again, it was the Chicago Tribune and WLS (I mistakenly said CBS before) who went to court to have the records unsealed.

Even if you wanted to blame some liberal media Democrat conspiracy, once again I mention that Democrat Blair Hull has his records opened prior to Ryan which probably cost Hull the spot on the Democratic Senate ticket. Why did he unseal them? Because of pressure, both from the public and from the Republicans.

Stop making Ryan out to be a martyr on this issue. The GOP themselves wanted the records unsealed because they knew it was an albatross around the party's neck as long as they stayed sealed. They even asked Ryan to let them view the records so they could assure the public there was nothing embarassing in there without making the records public and Ryan refused. All the while lying through his teeth and saying there wasn't a thing in there that'd jepordize the GOP's chances of winning the Senate race.

The Democrats didn't need to wage a campaign to open the records. Barrack was already well ahead in the polls, partly because of Ryan's refusal to let anyone view them.

Edited, Sun Jul 11 05:00:20 2004 by Jophiel

I don't know. If the Tribune had gone to court to open files about mercury being poured into the ground water, leading to arrests and fines within the company, it'd be called investigative jouralism.