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06/24/2004 Archived Entry: "GOP Sex Club"

Posted by antle @ 12:21 AM EST [Link]

REPUBLICANS HAVE SEX TOO: William Saletan has an interesting piece in Slate about the hypocrisy of Republicans who defend Jack Ryan (leaving aside whether wanting to have weird, kinky sex with your wife is equivalent to having weird, kinky sex with an intern while you are married and then lying under oath about it when it comes up under questioning in a sexual harrassment lawsuit).

But I think Saletan overstates the extent to which Republicans actually are defending Ryan. A major story is how Jim Edgar, Ray LaHood and other leading Illinois Republicans are dropping Mr. Sex Club like a hot potato in light of the allegations and what they claim to be his dishonesty about them. Although the GOP has not yet totally abandoned him, he is being far more widely criticized by Republicans than Clinton was by Democrats at this point in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. There are top Republicans calling for Ryan to drop out of the Senate race. Where were the leading Democrats calling on Clinton to resign the presidency?

In my homestate of Massachusetts during the 2000 election cycle, once Ted Kennedy's Republican challenger Jack E. Robinson disclosed the extent of his wide array of personal scandals and baggage the state GOP and then Gov. Paul Cellucci disavowed him. I personally did not vote for him, opting instead for Constitution Party candidate Phillip Lawler (though the Libertarian Carla Howell, who only ran 1 percentage point behind Robinson, was also an excellent choice).

Nice effort, Will. Better luck next time.