George Ryan has served time in Federal Prisons -in Oxford, Wisconsin and Terra Haute, Indiana -because people wanted him to be guilty and Federal Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was specifically tasked with putting George Ryan in Federal Prison.
It seems to me that that was his job description and mission statement - later nuanced into 'giving the citizens what they were told to want.'
The Media tried Ryan and Judge Pallmayer seemed to follow their script.
I like and admire George Ryan as a man and I love his wife Lura Lynn.
I never voted for George Ryan, as I tend to vote Democrat.
George Ryan served his time - much more than too many much more larcenous villains and sneaks. His Party was defeated by the wildly corrupt Blagojevich who made Illinois the National Poster Child of political corruption. George Ryan, as pointed out in his trial, never took a nickel. He was convicted of being an 'old time politician.'
Dollar for tax-wasted dollar give me that old time corruption, because the Reform Version represented by Blago and his troops is a Tsunami compared to a fart in a bathtub.
Governor Jim Thompson, for whom I never cast a vote, is a good friend to the Ryans and he is hammering at George Ryan's cell door, until a right-minded person swings it open. Godd for you Big Jim!
"Frankly, I think, there's nothing gained by requiring him to stay in jail," said Thompson. "He's been there for almost two years now. He's been punished. He's lost his office. He's lost all his means of support. He's not a completely well man. ... A merciful president would let him come home."
"President Obama knows Governor Ryan, worked with Governor Ryan when the president was in the General Assembly, and my hope is that this fall if we file a petition to ask the president to commute the sentence to time served, that we could get a favorable answer," said Thompson.
1998 - Illinois Governor
George Ryan (R) 51%
Glenn Poshard (D) 47.5%
Lawrence Redmond (Reform) 1.5%
1994 - Illinois Secretary of State
George Ryan (R) 61.5%
Patrick Quinn (D) 38.5%
1990 - Illinois Secretary of State
George Ryan (R) 53.5%
Jerry Cosentino (D) 46.5%
