DIRTY POLITICS

There is a popular belief that once you decide to run for public office, your life becomes an open book. Look at Jack Ryan of Illinois. In his bid to fill a seat left vacant by Peter G. Fitzgerald, a republican who is retiring this year, Mr. Ryan was asked to unseal the records of his divorce from Actress Jeri Ryan.



According to Stephen Kinzer of the NY Times (June 23, 2004), Jack Ryan took his wife Jeri to sex clubs in New York, New, Orleans, and Paris. Some of these clubs were S and M clubs and clubs where couples had sex in front of others. When she refused, he would become angry, yelling at her for not wanting to participate. It was these events that lead to their divorce and now that its public knowledge Jack Ryan is dropping out of the race.



Now if he had never decided to run for office, his deviant lifestyle would never have come to light. And even if he did have this kind of lifestyle, it doesn�t say what kind of senator he would have been.



Talk show host Jerry Springer, ran for city counsel of Cincinnati

back in 1974 and in 1977 was arrested on a vice charges. He had paid a prostitute with a check. So he resigned from city counsel. But in 1977, he ran for and won the Mayoral election.



And as for scandals, let's not forget Marion Berry. He was elected Mayor of Washington DC in 1978 and held that job until his drug bust in 1990. He served a 6 month sentence and was reelected to the mayor�s office in 1994. In 1995, congress stripped Berry of most of his power. So, even though he had been convicted on drug charges, he was still able to get reelected as mayor.



Instead of worrying about a person�s personal life, they should evaluate a man�s job performance.



Which makes me think of Clinton but that�s another article.