Politics As Usual

[Gattigap]

It was a while back, but I vaguely remember George Will splooging over Jack Ryan:

Amid the cold world's uncertainties, there is the comfort of having one incontrovertible axiom: If something seems too good to be true, it isn't true. Something, or someone.

Then along comes Jack Ryan.

Well, we've all learned that it was indeed so, though in a way that probably made Will's bow tie spin.

I imagine that Will's next effort will be an attack against the press for attacking Ryan as they have. If he does, he can crib from Christopher Hayes, who's already done a pretty good job of that in TNR. I especially like the concept of the meta-sin -- not the original sin, but the sin of lying about it.

Hayes makes the argument that even though Ryan has brought a lot of this upon himself*, that he doesn't really deserve what's happening to him now:

But the logic that impugns Ryan for the meta-sins of mishandling the files, stonewalling the press, and hiding behind his son is as tortured as it is circular. Condemning the meta-sin has become a popular way for pundits, politicians, and others to chide those embroiled in sex scandals without actually, you know, talking about sex. And while the logic of the meta-sin is always dubious, it is particularly empty in this case. That's because, unlike, say, Monicagate, the case of Ryan's divorce papers is all meta-sin and no sin. It is the reductio ad absurdum of the American fetishization of the meta-sin; if any good can come of this episode, it should be to expose the meta-sin for the hollow political tactic it is.

Amen, brudda.

Gattigap

* I especially like this part: "He managed to win the primary, but had to reassure worried GOP leaders that there was nothing "embarrassing" in the file. Meanwhile the local ABC affiliate and the Tribune sued to have the papers released, and just about everyone in the entire state except, apparently, Ryan knew they'd get out eventually. For state Republicans, watching the whole thing develop has been like seeing a pigeon get hit by an SUV in slow motion."