EXTRA: Jack Ryan is Number 15

The E! cable television network is getting into political reporting. Yet forget about position papers or economic development proposals from the channel whose programming includes the latest antics of Hugh Hefner’s three live-in girlfriends.

The channel Monday night came up with a new special program – one that likely will become a staple of the station that gives us all the tawdry celebrity trivia we could ever want. Entitled “15 Political Sex Scandals,” it tells us who the most scandalous politicos truly are.

ILLINOIS’ VERY OWN Jack Ryan made the list at Number 15. We get to relive the saga of the Chicago investment banker-turned-inner city schoolteacher-turned suburban newspaper publisher’s demise as a U.S. senate candidate when details of his divorce from actress Jeri Ryan became public.

After telling us how Ryan liked the thought of he and his wife together at sex clubs, they described Jack as, “the most important politician no one remembers.”

The program tried to create the image of how a Ryan candidacy was a shoo-in to win come November 2004, and would have prevented the concept of Obama-mania from ever taking place.

Admittedly, a competitive Ryan candidacy would have given Barack Obama a close fight (not the 70 percent to 27 percent blowout that GOP replacement Alan Keyes put forth) for the U.S. Senate seat from Illinois being abandoned by Peter Fitzgerald.

BUT LET’S NOT forget that the beginnings of Obama’s fandom had already started in Illinois after he won the Democratic primary, and he had his moment of national glory at the ’04 Democratic convention that would have given him a boost for the general election.

For what it is worth, Ryan was the only Illinois-tied politico to make the celebrity channel’s Sex Scandals program.

Oddly enough, former President Bill Clinton messing around with intern Monica Lewinsky only made the list at Number 3. Number 1 on the list of top political “dogs” went to former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer for his use of high-priced call girls.

-30-

EDITOR’S NOTES: Conservative pundits seem to think John Edwards’ conduct deserves the same revilement (http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGE0OGE1YjljZmE2YWYzMzNjM2Q0MmFkZGMyYmJkNmY=) that Jack Ryan gets in political circles. Considering that both have no future in electoral politics (and Edwards made the E! list at Number 2), I’d say they are getting identical treatment.

The heavily blacked-out documents that ended a political career before it could ever (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0622041ryans1.html) begin.