Ryan Lizza, The New Yorker

July 14, 2008

Ryan Lizza
The New Yorker
4 Times Square
New York, New York 10036

RE: What’s the rest of the story?

Mr. Lizza,

First things first.

That was one Hell of a cover. Do you suppose Senator B. Hussein Obama would countenance the stoning of his wife if she were to sashay over to the wild side and do the horizontal tango with…with…I know!…Mel Reynolds. She may be too old.

I couldn’t get past the first paragraph of your article on Senator Bambi. The sinkhole I could neither leap over nor go around was

“Mel Reynolds, a local congressman, was facing charges of
sexual assault of a 16 year old campaign volunteer.
[He eventually resigned his seat]”

Reynolds was convicted of a dozen or so felonies including mail fraud and pedophilia. He “resigned” his seat because he was sentenced to Federal prison. The story ends well because he was pardoned by Big Bill Clinton and was hired by Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. as a teenage counselor.

You failed to mention the part about Federal Marshalls putting him in shackles and taking him to prison.

In the investment business “failure to disclose a material fact” is fraud.

You committed journalistic fraud by not telling your readers the whole story up front.

Should Bambi gets to a second term won’t his oldest daughter be about 16? Where is Mel Reynolds these days?