Kenyan-Born Obama All Set for Senate...

[LordLindsey]

http://web.archive.org/web/200406271427 ... 060403.htm

Sunday, June 27, 2004
 
 
Kenyan-born Obama all set for US Senate
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Kenyan-born US Senate hopeful, Barrack Obama, appeared set to take over the Illinois Senate seat after his main rival, Jack Ryan, dropped out of the race on Friday night amid a furor over lurid sex club allegations.

The allegations that horrified fellow Republicans and caused his once-promising candidacy to implode in four short days have given Obama a clear lead as Republicans struggled to fetch an alternative.

Ryan's campaign began to crumble on Monday following the release of embarrassing records from his divorce. In the records, his ex-wife, Boston Public actress Jeri Ryan, said her former husband took her to kinky sex clubs in Paris, New York and New Orleans.
   
Barrack Obama
 

"It's clear to me that a vigorous debate on the issues most likely could not take place if I remain in the race," Ryan, 44, said in a statement. "What would take place, rather, is a brutal, scorched-earth campaign – the kind of campaign that has turned off so many voters, the kind of politics I refuse to play."

Although Ryan disputed the allegations, saying he and his wife went to one 'avant-garde' club in Paris and left because they felt uncomfortable, lashed out at the media and said it was "truly outrageous" that the Chicago Tribune got a judge to unseal the records.

The Republican choice will become an instant underdog in the campaign for the seat of retiring Republican Senator Peter Fitzgerald, since Obama held a wide lead even before the scandal broke.

"I feel for him actually," Obama told a Chicago TV station. "What he's gone through over the last three days I think is something you wouldn't wish on anybody."

The Republican state committee must now choose a replacement for Ryan, who had won in the primaries against seven contenders. Its task is complicated by the fact that Obama holds a comfortable lead in the polls and is widely regarded as a rising Democratic star.

The chairwoman of the Illinois Republican Party, Judy Topinka, said at a news conference, after Ryan withdrew, that Republicans would probably take several weeks to settle on a new candidate.

"Obviously, this is a bad week for our party and our state," she said.

As recently as Thursday, spokesmen for the Ryan campaign still insisted that Ryan would remain in the race. Ryan had defended himself saying, "There's no breaking of any laws. There's no breaking of any marriage laws. There's no breaking of the Ten Commandments anywhere."
 

—AP

Is there any hope for the future of the human-race if we can not open our collective eyes and face the painful and ugly reality(IES) of the world in which we live?

This is an honest question.

LINDSEY

[Christopher Marlowe]

I don't know if the editors in Kenya knew something we don't, but apparently the Kenyan newspaper, the Sunday Standard, added the first paragraph reference to Obummer's being "Kenyan born" to an AP release.  They also misspelled BHC's name.

I wonder what would have happened if Ryan had made Obama prove that he was a US citizen.  After [former Goldman Sachs of crap director] Ryan's divorce records unsealed [by judge Robert Schnider of Los Angeles, the situs of the Ryan divorce], Obama could hardly claim that his birth certificate was a private matter.  

Here is the AP story as it was published in the San Diego Union Tribune:

http://legacy.utsandiego.com/news/politics/20040625-1644-illinoissenate.html
Ryan drops out of race for Illinois Senate amid damaging sex club allegations

By Maura Kelly Lannan
ASSOCIATED PRESS

4:44 p.m. June 25, 2004

Associated Press
Illinois Senate candidate Jack Ryan drops out of the race amid a furor over lurid sex club allegations that horrified fellow Republicans and caused his once-promising candidacy to implode in four short days.
CHICAGO – Illinois Senate candidate Jack Ryan dropped out of the race Friday amid a furor over lurid sex club allegations that horrified fellow Republicans and caused his once-promising candidacy to implode in four short days.

"It's clear to me that a vigorous debate on the issues most likely could not take place if I remain in the race," Ryan, 44, said in a statement. "What would take place, rather, is a brutal, scorched-earth campaign – the kind of campaign that has turned off so many voters, the kind of politics I refuse to play."

The campaign began to come apart Monday following the release of embarrassing records from Ryan's divorce. In those records, his ex-wife, "Boston Public" actress Jeri Ryan, said Ryan took her to kinky sex clubs in Paris, New York and New Orleans and tried to get her to perform sex acts with him while others watched.

Ryan disputed the allegations, saying he and his wife went to one "avant-garde" club in Paris and left because they felt uncomfortable.

In quitting the race, Ryan lashed out at the media and said it was "truly outrageous" that the Chicago Tribune got a judge to unseal the records.

"The media has gotten out of control," he said.

Top Illinois Republicans immediately began the work of selecting a new candidate. Their choice will become an instant underdog against Democratic state Sen. Barack Obama in the campaign for the seat of retiring GOP Sen. Peter Fitzgerald. Obama held a wide lead even before the scandal broke.

"I feel for him actually," Obama said on WLS-AM. "What he's gone through over the last three days I think is something you wouldn't wish on anybody. Unfortunately, I think our politics has gotten so personalized and cutthroat that it's very difficult for people to want to get in the business."

Ryan had faced mounting pressure to quit from party leaders, who met several times in Washington this week to discuss whether the campaign could survive.

"He really was a dead man walking," Gary MacDougal, former Illinois Republican Party chairman.

Ryan conducted an overnight poll to gauge his support. After reviewing the results, Ryan's advisers told the candidate that the only way to survive would be wage an extremely negative and expensive response.

"Jack Ryan made the right decision. I know it must have been a difficult one," said House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois, who made his feelings known by canceling a fund-raising event scheduled for Thursday with Ryan.

Ryan was a political neophyte when he got into the race – a millionaire investment banker who had left business four years ago to teach at an all-boys parochial school in Chicago. He spent $3 million of his own fortune to win the primary.

With his good looks and Harvard background, Ryan was seen by many as the party's best hope for revitalizing the Illinois GOP. The party lost control of the governor's office and nearly every statewide office two years ago in the wake of a corruption scandal involving then-Gov. George Ryan, who has since been indicted. He is not related to Jack Ryan.

During the primary, Ryan waved off rumors of damaging sex allegations in his sealed divorce records, assuring state officials there was nothing in the file to worry about.

But the Tribune and Chicago TV station WLS sued for the records' release, and a California judge ordered them unsealed. The couple fought to keep the records sealed, saying the release could harm their 9-year-old son.

"The fact that the Chicago Tribune sues for access to sealed custody documents and then takes unto itself the right to public details of a custody dispute – over the objections of two parents who agree that the re-airing of their arguments will hurt their ability to co-parent their child and hurt their child – is truly outrageous," he said.

Although most party leaders abandoned Ryan, Fitzgerald said Friday that he had encouraged him to stay in the race. "I think the public stoning of Jack Ryan is one of the most grotesque things I've seen in politics," the senator said.

He said the party's bigwigs pushed Ryan out: "It was like piranhas. They smelled blood in the water and they just devoured him."

Ryan won the GOP primary by more than 10 percentage points over his two closest rivals, dairy owner James Oberweis and state Sen. Steve Rauschenberger.

Both Oberweis and Rauschenberger said this week that they would step in as Ryan's replacement if party leaders asked. Other possible candidates mentioned include U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, former Gov. Jim Edgar and Sen. Fitzgerald, though all three say they were not interested.

And here is the Seattle Times version of the story:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001966048_cdig26.html
Campaign Notebook
Ryan ends Senate bid

Jack Ryan has disputed the sex-club allegations.

CHICAGO — Illinois Senate candidate Jack Ryan dropped out of the race yesterday amid a furor over lurid sex-club allegations that horrified fellow Republicans and caused his once-promising candidacy to implode in four short days.

"It's clear to me that a vigorous debate on the issues most likely could not take place if I remain in the race," Ryan, 44, said in a statement. "What would take place, rather, is a brutal, scorched-earth campaign — the kind of campaign that has turned off so many voters, the kind of politics I refuse to play."

The campaign began to come apart Monday after the release of embarrassing records from Ryan's divorce. In those records, his ex-wife, "Boston Public" actress Jeri Ryan, said Ryan took her to kinky sex clubs in Paris, New York and New Orleans and tried to get her to perform sex acts with him while others watched. Ryan disputed the allegations, saying he and his wife went to one "avant-garde" club in Paris and left because they felt uncomfortable.

Ryan lashed out at the media yesterday and said it was "truly outrageous" that the Chicago Tribune persuaded a judge to unseal the records.

Top Illinois Republicans immediately began the work of selecting a new candidate. Their choice will become an instant underdog against Democratic state Sen. Barack Obama in the campaign for the seat of retiring GOP Sen. Peter Fitzgerald. Obama had a wide lead even before the scandal broke.

Democrat to speak at GOP convention

WASHINGTON — Georgia Sen. Zell Miller, the highest-profile Democrat to endorse President Bush for re-election, will speak at the Republican National Convention in New York this summer, a congressional aide said yesterday.

Miller drew a sharp rebuke from the dean of the state's congressional delegation, Democratic Rep. John Lewis, who called the senator's decision "a shame and a disgrace."

"I think he has sold his soul for a mess of pottage," Lewis said, in a reference to a speech Miller gave as a congressional candidate 40 years ago in which he argued that President Johnson was "a Southerner who sold his birthright for a mess of dark pottage" because of his support for the Civil Rights Act.

Pottage is defined as a thick soup or stew of vegetables.
 
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According to the congressional aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Miller will give his address on Wednesday night of the four-day convention that begins Aug. 30. The Bush-Cheney campaign was expected to make an announcement Monday, the aide said.

Kerry does marathon campaigning

MASSILLON, Ohio — Comedian Billy Crystal teased Sen. John Kerry, "If you're having a good time, tell your face," but the dour-looking Democrat had an excuse for looking drawn yesterday after scheduling 36 hours of nearly nonstop campaigning on both coasts, plus a Midwest stop.

Kerry's marathon itinerary included campaigning in down-and-out Stark County, Ohio, sandwiched between swanky fund-raisers in New York and Los Angeles. The Los Angeles event, which ended at 11 p.m. Thursday, was an A-list concert with artists such as Crystal, Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, Leonardo DiCaprio and Ben Affleck.

Kerry two hours later left on a four-hour redeye flight to Ohio, where he stumped in a bellwether community that chose Republican George W. Bush four years ago.

Kerry then swung by the Pro Football Hall of Fame before he boarded his plane for the third time in 24 hours, this time to New York for a fund-raiser with lesbian, gay, transgendered and bisexual supporters.

Less than three hours later, he boarded the plane for a flight to his Washington home and an end to his day-and-a-half tour.