Jonah Goldberg Blames the Woman

Jonah Goldberg plays blame the woman. In this case actress Jeri Ryan.

I blame Jerri Ryan and Mike Ditka for all of America's problems. If she only lightened up, her husband would have beat Obama in '04.

Ryan's ex-husband Jack Ryan was to be the Republican nominee for the Illinois 2004 U.S. Senate race. Goldberg somehow believes an untarnished Ryan would succeed where John McCain and Hillary Clinton failed. That is laughable. Only Ryan wasn't untarnished. Jeri Ryan accused him of requesting her to perform public sex acts. Jack Ryan is also accused of taking Jeri to sex clubs in New Orleans, New York City, and Paris.

"It was a bizarre club with cages, whips and other apparatus hanging from the ceiling," she said in the court document, adding that her husband "wanted me to have sex with him there, with another couple watching. I refused."

I wasn't a Ryan supporter. I am not comfortable with public figures having their sex lives put under a microscope. Politicians that commit legally questionable behavior, such as Mark Foley, are fair game. The Ryans wanted to keep the divorce records private for both political and personal reasons. Considering how things turned out, I don't blame them.

Jack Ryan knew the divorce records were embarrassing. Illinois Republican Party chair Judy Baar Topinka accused Ryan of misleading her.

During his radio appearances and later at the rally, Ryan denied that he told Topinka prior to the March primary that there was nothing embarrassing to him or the GOP in the documents. Instead, he said on WGN radio: "I remember her asking me whether there was anything in the documents that would preclude me from being a U.S. Senator, and, no, there isn't. So, in my recollection, that was the conversation that I had."

Topinka challenged that explanation.

"It was a two-part question and very clear cut--I don't believe it would be subject to mischaracterization or misunderstanding," Topinka said. "I said, very specifically, twice, so that I would hear it twice, `Is there anything in your divorce document that would be personally embarrassing to you or to the Republican Party?' He said `no' both times."

Jack Ryan ran against then rising star Barack Obama and was less than candid about his divorce records. Jeri Ryan attempted to keep the divorce records sealed and described Jack Ryan as a "friend" during the campaign. This is not a woman bent on destroying her ex-huband's political ambitions. Yet Jonah Goldberg blames Jeri Ryan for Obama's rise to the White House. There is no logic to Goldberg's reasoning. The Corner served as a real time forum for Goldberg to write stupid nonsense. Twitter is Goldberg's The Corner posts on speed.