Ex-wife of GOP Senate candidate alleged sex club forays
Senate Race Sex Scandal: Actress says Illinois pol sought liaisons in kinky clubs
The Republican Sex Club: Why does the GOP defend Jack Ryan?
George Will: Too good to be true, but true just the same
So who says Republicans don't know how to party??
That "boom" you just heard was likely Jack Ryan's political career imploding. Republicans, who tended to be a bit on the repressed side to begin with, are not taking kindly to a Senatorial candidate who can't keep his Johnson in it's holster.
JUNE 22--In what may prove a crippling blow to his U.S. Senate campaign, divorce records reveal that Illinois Republican Jack Ryan was accused by his former wife, actress Jeri Ryan, of pressuring her to have sex at swinger's clubs in New York, Paris, and New Orleans while other patrons watched. The bombshell allegation is contained amidst nearly 400 pages of records ordered released yesterday by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge who ruled on media requests to unseal documents from the Ryan case. The salacious charge leveled at the politician was made by Jeri Ryan, who has starred in TV's "Star Trek: Voyager" and "Boston Public," in a court filing in connection with child custody proceedings (you'll find a portion of that heavily redacted September 2000 document below). The performer alleged that she refused Ryan's requests for public sex during the excursions, which included a trip to a New York club "with cages, whips and other apparatus hanging from the ceiling." While Ryan, a former Goldman Sachs executive, confirmed the trips with the actress, he described them simply as "romantic getaways," denying her claims that he sought public sex. The politician has repeatedly claimed that his divorce file--portions of which were sealed in 2000 and 2001--contained no embarrassing information that would harm his chances against Democratic nominee Barack Obama. The Ryans were married in 1991 and, in November 1998, Jeri Ryan filed for divorce citing "irreconcilable differences."
In the end, it looks as if poor Mrs. Ryan was not to be left wondering where her next Big Mac would be coming from. She left the marriage with $20 million in Goldman-Sachs stock, and all of the bondage paraphenalia.
Personally, I could care less if Jack Ryan buggers goats in the privacy of his own home. This "scandal", if it is even worthy of the name, says more about American (especially Republican) prudishness than it does about Ryan's worthiness as a candidate. Given the prurient nature of the accusations, though, no media outlet could reasonably refuse the opportunity to use it to sell copy.