Handsome Jack Ryan looks like a U.S. senator--rich, tall, with nice teeth and an Ivy League education.
But he's much too delusional for the Senate.
Some of us have seen this in him for a long time. Others became aroused only recently.
I figured Ryan was delusional last March, when the Democratic political consultants began whispering about Blair Hull's divorce files and Hull's files became public, killing off Hull's campaign.
The politics were a natural extension, from Hull to Ryan. Yet Ryan persisted in thinking that his own divorce files would remain sealed. He chirped and flashed those teeth, a mannequin of a political candidate animated only by his own narcissism.
It takes great ego to run for high public office, to withstand competing agendas and their agents, and constant criticism, both valid and spiteful. But persisting in the belief that the information in those files wouldn't come out suggests a mind unwilling to face reality.
The U.S. Senate is not a place for people like this.
And a man who still thinks he can win political office after being accused by his wife of having taken her to sex clubs and asking her to have sex in front of strangers has a serious wattage deficiency.
I don't care about his sex life. It's his judgment that worries me.
If the files had remained sealed, he had a slim chance of winning the election. Voters wouldn't have known. But his ex-wife would have known, and her friends and lawyers, and a few others in Hollywood.
And I'm not comfortable with only a select few holding what amounts to blackmail material over a senator who has the important task of recommending federal prosecutors and federal judges in Illinois, particularly in Chicago.
So Ryan should remove himself from the ballot immediately and spare Illinois the pain of having to deal with him until November. Unfortunately, even after the disclosures about the sexcapades Parisienne with his ex-wife, TV actress Jeri Ryan, he wants to play politics.
Meanwhile, Illinois Republican establishment types are wringing their hands over Ryan. They're whining that Ryan has destroyed their party. They're almost right.
Unfortunately, it's the wrong Ryan.
They destroyed their party themselves, by cozying up to the sleaze of then-Gov. George Ryan.
They ignored that sleaze in his secretary of state's office when a family burned to death in a crash with a bribe-paying unqualified trucker. They ignored the innocent dead because George Ryan promised them a taste of billions in tax-funded projects.
They let their party ultimately stand for nothing but state asphalt contracts and other deals. They tried to stop outgoing U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, a fellow Republican, from appointing politically independent U.S. attorneys.
And they didn't have the brains or the guts to distance themselves from George Ryan, who has since been indicted, along with his pals, including the dealmaker Larry Warner.
This week's conviction of Near North Insurance boss Michael Segal, now ordered to pay $30 million and facing up to 20 years in prison, , has Warner worried, according to those who know him well.
And if Warner is worried, then other top Republicans and Democrats are worried. Because, like Segal, Warner knows much.
That's another reason why the Segal conviction--not the Ryan sexcapades--was the important political story of the week.
Republican bosses are terribly upset, complaining that Jack Ryan didn't tell them the truth about the files. In other words, the Republican establishment is upset that he lied about the sex.
Many of my colleagues who've opined on this matter are also extremely upset. This is confusing. Ryan wasn't under oath. He hadn't been elected.
I remember writing a column years ago about President Bill Clinton. He was in the White House, in the Oval Office, being entertained by a groupie while talking to an Alabama congressman about sending American soldiers to face death in the Balkans, then denying, denying, denying.
That's really lying about sex.
I thought it was a big deal then. But many pundits didn't. Now, though, lying about sex is a big deal again, with Ryan being a conservative Republican.
All that doesn't change a thing. Ryan is done.
But he didn't start crisping with the release of his divorce files the other day. He was toast in March, weeks before the state party primaries, when the whispering about Hull began.
Questions about the Hull files leached onto Ryan. And right then he lost the election to Democrat Barack Obama, because Ryan's own supporters had their enthusiasm curbed and never regained it.
Voters who supported Ryan's political positions developed a hesitancy about their candidate. It was over.
Then, not this week, but then.
John Kass, Chicago Daily Tribune
But he's much too delusional for the Senate.
Some of us have seen this in him for a long time. Others became aroused only recently.
I figured Ryan was delusional last March, when the Democratic political consultants began whispering about Blair Hull's divorce files and Hull's files became public, killing off Hull's campaign.
The politics were a natural extension, from Hull to Ryan. Yet Ryan persisted in thinking that his own divorce files would remain sealed. He chirped and flashed those teeth, a mannequin of a political candidate animated only by his own narcissism.
It takes great ego to run for high public office, to withstand competing agendas and their agents, and constant criticism, both valid and spiteful. But persisting in the belief that the information in those files wouldn't come out suggests a mind unwilling to face reality.
The U.S. Senate is not a place for people like this.
And a man who still thinks he can win political office after being accused by his wife of having taken her to sex clubs and asking her to have sex in front of strangers has a serious wattage deficiency.
I don't care about his sex life. It's his judgment that worries me.
If the files had remained sealed, he had a slim chance of winning the election. Voters wouldn't have known. But his ex-wife would have known, and her friends and lawyers, and a few others in Hollywood.
And I'm not comfortable with only a select few holding what amounts to blackmail material over a senator who has the important task of recommending federal prosecutors and federal judges in Illinois, particularly in Chicago.
So Ryan should remove himself from the ballot immediately and spare Illinois the pain of having to deal with him until November. Unfortunately, even after the disclosures about the sexcapades Parisienne with his ex-wife, TV actress Jeri Ryan, he wants to play politics.
Meanwhile, Illinois Republican establishment types are wringing their hands over Ryan. They're whining that Ryan has destroyed their party. They're almost right.
Unfortunately, it's the wrong Ryan.
They destroyed their party themselves, by cozying up to the sleaze of then-Gov. George Ryan.
They ignored that sleaze in his secretary of state's office when a family burned to death in a crash with a bribe-paying unqualified trucker. They ignored the innocent dead because George Ryan promised them a taste of billions in tax-funded projects.
They let their party ultimately stand for nothing but state asphalt contracts and other deals. They tried to stop outgoing U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, a fellow Republican, from appointing politically independent U.S. attorneys.
And they didn't have the brains or the guts to distance themselves from George Ryan, who has since been indicted, along with his pals, including the dealmaker Larry Warner.
This week's conviction of Near North Insurance boss Michael Segal, now ordered to pay $30 million and facing up to 20 years in prison, , has Warner worried, according to those who know him well.
And if Warner is worried, then other top Republicans and Democrats are worried. Because, like Segal, Warner knows much.
That's another reason why the Segal conviction--not the Ryan sexcapades--was the important political story of the week.
Republican bosses are terribly upset, complaining that Jack Ryan didn't tell them the truth about the files. In other words, the Republican establishment is upset that he lied about the sex.
Many of my colleagues who've opined on this matter are also extremely upset. This is confusing. Ryan wasn't under oath. He hadn't been elected.
I remember writing a column years ago about President Bill Clinton. He was in the White House, in the Oval Office, being entertained by a groupie while talking to an Alabama congressman about sending American soldiers to face death in the Balkans, then denying, denying, denying.
That's really lying about sex.
I thought it was a big deal then. But many pundits didn't. Now, though, lying about sex is a big deal again, with Ryan being a conservative Republican.
All that doesn't change a thing. Ryan is done.
But he didn't start crisping with the release of his divorce files the other day. He was toast in March, weeks before the state party primaries, when the whispering about Hull began.
Questions about the Hull files leached onto Ryan. And right then he lost the election to Democrat Barack Obama, because Ryan's own supporters had their enthusiasm curbed and never regained it.
Voters who supported Ryan's political positions developed a hesitancy about their candidate. It was over.
Then, not this week, but then.
John Kass, Chicago Daily Tribune
