I do not agree with the politics of personal destruction. While some on the right are now speculating about the damage that making Ryan’s divorce papers public could cause (e.g. see OneMan), I think the mistake Ryan made is in what he said during the primaries. They lay it out in last Friday’s Chicago Tribune:
“Shortly before the March election, when he was asked by reporters whether the GOP should be worried about anything under seal in the divorce file, Ryan replied: ‘I don’t think so. I’ve been very open about everything that voters could possibly have interest in.’”
The mistake, it seems to me, is in saying “everything that voters could possibly have interest in” instead of “everything that voters should have interest in.” Of course, this assumes that whatever may be in the papers is of no legitimate interest to voters. There is a big difference between “could” and “should have interest in.” It is the difference between Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, and the Bush Administration and Iraq. Mark Twain may have said it best.
In 1884 the Republican candidate James G. Blaine was found to have written a letter involving the taking of a bribe from railroad interests for legislation. The letter ended with the words “Burn this letter” - it never got burnt. His Democratic opponent, Cleveland, who was a bachelor, had fathered an illegitimate child. These two events, one public, the other private, became the source of campaign slogans. The Democrats chanted: “Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, Continental liar from the State of Main, BURN THAT LETTER”, while Republicans shouted: “Hey Maw, Where’s my paw? Going to the White House, Haw, Haw, Haw.”
Their contemporary Republican Mark Twain observed of the Democrat Cleveland
“To see grown men, apparently in their right mind, seriously arguing against a bachelor’s fitness for President because he has had private intercourse with a consenting widow! Those grown men know what the bachelor’s other alternative was - & tacitly they seem to prefer that to the widow. Isn’t human nature the most consummate sham & lie that was ever invented?”
Since Blaine’s private life was, so far as it was known, unimpeachable, while his public life was corrupt; and since Cleveland’s private life may have been immoral, but his public life had been good, Twain believed the right thing to do was to send Blaine home and Cleveland to the White House. Twain made the right call.
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