[Byron_the_Aussie]

...we had a man in our country recently who outranked a marine captain, had a hell of a lot more to lose, but had sex with a white house intern anyway. His name was Bill Clinton. You've heard of heard of him??....

Yes, but he was a long-time serial offender, and that behaviour fit the profile. Plus, he had a political and media network who had always protected him before, and he was emboldened by that.

Ritter, on the other hand, was being hunted by everyone. You couldn't count the number of enemies he'd made, and the people who wanted to get a lever on him. Plus, he was already aware of the risk of being compromised in this way- witness his early comments, posted on FR, about the risk of being set up by some young girl working for Sov intelligence.

So we have a bloke who is aware some very sophisticated and hardball people want to compromise him, and who walks into a Burger King to meet some kid he's arranged to masturbate in front of, on the Internet? I just think FR's collective hatred* of Ritter is blinding us to the questions that should be asked about such a bizarre scenario.

*That syndrome's occurred here before, btw.

[billhilly]

Well, bloke, maybe this just isn't your day. I was involved with The American Spectator when it broke the story about Clinton's sexual history, and that was in 1993. He didn't get caught doing his thing with Ms. Lewenski until January, 1998.

That pretty well obviates your thesis that he had, and expected to continue to have, protection from the press on the issue of his brutish sexual behavior.