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The media that went wall to wall with the Ryan saga can't seem to be shielding Kerry. The media had a lot of fun with Newt's treatment of his ex wife. Kerry should get the same grief.

It's precisely because of this imbalance of scandal-power that I think someone, especially the Illinois Leader should sue for the Kerry papers. (At least the divorce papers, and what about the military and health records?)

Tearing into the most private details of candidates' pasts, using such resources as corporate money, institutional publicity, and litigation is very analogous to the problem we have had since WWI really, with weapons of mass destruction.

If one side is hideous enough to lay waste to humanity, whether through poison gas or some other means and the relative good guys are vulnerable, what is there for the good guys to do? Can they find thoroughgoing defenses? If not, is it morally right to be victimized without response, or is remaining unilaterally unarmed what is wrong?

One remembers the lesson of Ronald Reagan. In part, America and the free world won the Cold War because we built and where strategically necessary deployed WMD to outdo the Evil Empire. Peace came through forcefulness in the "marketplace" of that rather abstract war. But in that case, the idea that we would never really use The Bomb was put to rest at its very beginning. Use is what brought nuclear warfare well out of realm of mere abstraction. That very use is what ended for the world its immediately prior war.

Now, how can we counter the assaults of the Larry Flints, George Soros-es, and... Tribune Companies of the nation and win?

Which side has more to hide?

But what must be hidden, really? There is another lesson to learn here: that of The Woman at the Well, who preferred redemption to cover-up. This candidate for our attention chose to be victor rather than victim. She found her sound defense, which disarmed the scandals of her past. Her weaponry was simply the truth revealed in her own life (thanks to The Truth). She even took up the sword herself, victoriously crying out to all who would listen, "Come see a man who has told me everything I have ever done!" They might have called her "the Teflon water-server-woman," foreverafter.

I sure wish Jack Ryan had conferred with his ex-wife over a year ago and one or both had decided to prepare for a public confession, to disarm their ticking bomb as soon as its long chain reaction started. Deep in the character of America still lays appreciation for a story of confession and redemption.

unspun
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PS: Having volunteered in (the innocent) Steve Baer's second, abortive candidacy for Illinois Governor, one recalls that this is by no means the first time the Chicago Tribune has leapt at chances to spread whatever toxins of innuendo and scandal it finds and so attempt to kill a conservative candidacy