The Tawdry Tale of Jack Ryan

Ryan on the campaign trail -- Picture courtesy of Illinois Channel

by blogSpotter
If you believe in chaos theory, you will have good fodder with the tawdry tale of Jack Ryan. Ryan is the 49-year old ex-Senatorial candidate from Illinois who lost to Barack Obama in 2004. Ryan is a model-handsome businessman who had much of the world handed him on the proverbial silver platter. A graduate of Dartmouth and Harvard, Ryan became an investment banker at Goldman Sachs where he earned hundreds of millions of dollars. Ryan ran in 2004 on a conservative platform, emphasizing tax cuts and tort reform.

Back in the 90's, the handsome Ryan had some pretty nice arm candy in the form of his beautiful blonde then-wife Jeri. The 40-year old actress is best known for her role as Borg Seven in Star Trek: Voyager, although she had other acting credits -- notably Co-ed Call Girl. Jack and Jeri had one son named Alex. Because they were both pursuing careers and traveling constantly, the marriage suffered -- it ended in divorce after 8 years in 1999. It wasn’t a particularly acrimonious divorce and both people agreed to keep the custody papers permanently sealed for privacy reasons.

If only the Chicago Tribune and a certain LA Superior court judge Robert Schnider had shared the Ryans' feelings about privacy .... The custody records were unsealed on June 22, 2004 and it was revealed that Jack Ryan had asked his wife to act out with him sexually, in public. He took her to various sex clubs in New York, Paris and New Orleans -- some with whips and chains, others with mattresses on the floors. She wasn’t interested, and felt weirdly pressured by these requests. Thus ended the marriage in ‘99. (Mind you, these are divorce allegations and not proven facts).

The rest of this is history. Ryan dropped out of the 2004 race and was replaced by Alan Keyes -- a loud and (by some estimations) obnoxious candidate who stood no chance against the practiced and honey-smooth Obama. Obama ran with the senatorial position and used it as the foundation for his Presidential quest. Ryan was already trailing Obama by 18 points in May 2004, but this was after an email campaign (started by Obama aides?) had already hit the internet. Apparently, Jack’s shenanigans were already public lore by this time. How might this have turned out if news media hadn't pushed to unseal the records? Ryan calls it a new low, and points out that similar privacy requests were honored for John Kerry and John McCain.

So a thorny weed takes root in 1999; it bends in the wind in 2004, and we have a different President in 2008. So goes chaos theory, and so goes the tawdry tale of Jack Ryan. Some might actually see this as karma, not chaos. After all, actions may have consequences. Whatever the case, Ryan is doing fine -- he now owns a company called 22nd Century Media in Chicago that publishes newspapers. Jeri is remarried to famous French Chef Eme and lives in Los Angeles. Obama is President.

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