Guess who won the presidency in the last Year of the Rat

This is the Year of the Rat.

In both the Chinese Zodiac and the presidential race.

Actually, the presidential Year of the Rat is just one of the three R's of this primary season.

Ryan, Rezko and Rats.

Those are the new three R's, replacing the traditional trio of reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic that seem so passe and you never hear the candidates discussing.

The First R: Ryan

Not George Ryan, the dishonored former GOP governor who recently checked into the crossbar hotel. I'm talking about Jack Ryan, the dishonored former GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate who dropped out during the campaign, clearing the way for Obama's victory and ascension to his current place on a national pedestal.

Without Jack Ryan, Barack Obama might not be vying for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. Indeed, he would probably still be a state legislator in Springfield or have quit politics and be making a fortune working for a law firm.

You may recall (how could you forget?) in 2004 that the tall, dark and handsome Jack Ryan dropped out of the race for the U.S. Senate. Ryan was considered a party wonder boy -- rich, smart and well-spoken. But then, allegations of Ryan sex club forays were disclosed in divorce documents that had been filed four years earlier by his ex-wife, the sultry actress Jeri Ryan.

ABC7 and the Tribune had sued in Los Angeles Superior Court for the release of the records. After Ryan dropped out, the GOP plugged in Alan Keyes who was considered by many Republican voters to be an ultra-conservative crackpot. Keyes ended up losing big to Obama.

Jack Ryan campaign insiders said that Mr. Ryan always thought the explosive records would remain sealed and therefore never present any political problems.

Barack Obama at the time was sympathetic for Ryan. "I feel for him actually," Obama said in a radio interview. "What he's gone through … I think, is something you wouldn't wish on anybody."

Four years later, it is Mr. Obama who is going through something from his past coming back to haunt him … and Hillary Clinton, who threw the dirt, may be wishing she hadn't.

The Second R: Rezko

There are apparently no Parisian sex shows in the scandal that links indicted Chicago real estate man Antoin "Tony" Rezko with Obama. But the Rezko allegations are certainly politically hot and sticky.

There is the Rezko legal work Obama did for one of Rezko's companies, a questionable Hyde Park land deal, and thousands in campaign donations from the Rezko, who is now facing federal charges of extortion, money laundering and fraud.

Even though Rezko's political glad-handing raised suspicion over the years and his fundraising efforts for candidates from both parties made him a green-backed powerbroker, Obama's long association with Rezko was never mentioned in the 2004 race for the U.S. Senate.

Obama was never fully "vetted" in that campaign, as all the attention went to Jack Ryan's sexcapades and then to Alan Keyes oddball politics.

The Third R: Rats

In the last Democratic debate, a fiery-eyed Sen. Hillary Clinton said Sen. Obama once did legal work for the Chicago "slum landlord," Rezko. She referred to Rezko by only one name, like you would Judas.

Mrs. Clinton was trying to rat out her fellow Democrat by linking him to an accused scoundrel in Chicago. In much the same way, Obama has been trying to rat out Clinton for the sucker punches that her husband has been throwing.

We all know that politics is a dirty business and presidential politics has the highest stakes in the dirtiest of businesses.

But just as dirty laundry can soil clean clothes, the Rezko muck has blown back in Hillary's face.

An undated picture surfaced showing Tony Rezko standing between Hillary and President Bill Clinton. She claims to know nothing about it. But in this Year of the Rat, nothing seems too low or insignificant to throw at your opponent.

Finally, for those keeping stats, before this year 1996 was the last Year of the Rat. That was also a presidential election year. A Clinton was running in that Year of the Rat. And won.