[Tacis]

Come on! Set up? Bush critic? The issue isn't that he is a Bush critic. There are lots of the from Shaun Penn to Eleanor Clift to Pat Leahy, and many, many in between. Why set Ritter up? What would be accomplished?

The only question about Ritter is why he went from a seemingly rational observer of the WMD that Sadaam has, to a Saddam supporter as willing to accept his outrageous lies as a black Congressman willing to accept Willie's lies about Lewinski.

It is the change in Ritter that is key. Why the change? HE WAS BLACKMAILED!!! By BUsh? Why?

No, Ritter was probably being blackmailed by Sadaam's people working in the US (probably, all Saudis) who probably had evidence, not for Conn., but from when Ritter was in Iraq.

Ritter did this twice over 2 months (that we know about). My bet is that he has long been a pervert.

[Just mythoughts]

I agree this is a long time problem, look at the type of people the UN hires, however, I don't see foreign fingers on this change, but democrat hands, how else could records be sealed.

Mr. Ritter got quite a chewing by the democrats when he testified before the Congress over inspections. He was saying the exact opposite of what the dems wanted to hear and in a sense got a warning, sounds like they knew something about him then and so long as he play the role they set for him they kept his secrets hidden.

[WL-law]

It is the change in Ritter that is key. Why the change? HE WAS BLACKMAILED!!! By BUsh? Why?

Blackmail is a possibility -- but there is another, as I hypothesized on a prior post at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/825985/posts, -- namely, that once caught by the police, Ritter unilaterally transformed his politics because he implicitly knew that, when he was eventually outed, that the right would reject him irrespective of his politics, but the left would embrace him as long as he was a former-conservative who had "grown", i.e. adopted the dem line. I call this the "Democrat's pet republican" syndrome outlined by Ann Coulter in "Slander".

[CharacterCounts]

It is the change in Ritter that is key. Why the change? HE WAS BLACKMAILED!!! By BUsh? Why?

Ritter isn't important enough to even appear on Bush's radar screen let alone blackmail.

Sometimes the simplest explanation is the truth. Maybe,the guy is a pervert and a careless one at that.

[helper]

I really think if we can find out who had the Juice to get this sealed, or get the Asst DA to push for it we will learn what is really going on. I can't beleive the Asst DA got fired because she forgot to inform her boss.

I'll bet she got fired because someone got to her and she didn't inform him. Hey it's New York maybe Ritter called his Senator for help, and they needed him around to be a thorne in Bush's side

[Catspaw]

If you want to have some fun, Phil Donahue is having an MSNBC chat at 3 p.m. Eastern. Let's ask him if Ritter's arrest for child enticement changes his view towards Scott.

[pinz-n-needlez]

I've wandered in and out of these threads lately, but your post came closest to my take on it....

Was Ritter found out in '98, and did that have anything to do with his fortuitous resignation at the time, where, IIRC, he was causing Clinton much discomfort with his proclamations?

Was he 'bought off' and blackmailed at the same time?

Was he exposed, in fact, by the left who can use the timing to smear Bush with their left hand as they neutralize a tranparent idiot at the same time?

If you think this is a worthy question or line of questioning, feel free to run with it. Raising children sure does interfere with my Freep time. lol

Needlez

[My back yard]

By golly I think you are right.