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Dick Durbin misses the point about Ryan
John Kass
9:47 PM CST, November 29, 2008
Just before Thanksgiving, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) moistened his finger and, as he has done so many times in his career, held the digit aloft to check the prevailing winds.
This time, when he figured the winds were just right, Durbin lofted his trial balloon that carried with it the hopes and dreams of the corrupt bipartisan Combine that runs this state.
Durbin said he was considering writing a letter asking Republican President Bush to commute the prison sentence of the corrupt and unrepentant former Republican Gov. George Ryan....
It was as if the Combine reached out and grabbed the people of Illinois and slapped us hard with a backhand across the mouth, letting us know who runs things, the sting of the knuckles on our nose to remind us that Illinois is not Camelot.
Ryan betrayed the people, who have a right to expect honest service from their government. His corruption also left a body count. Nine people, including the six Willis children, were killed in crashes with truck drivers who paid bribes for licenses when Ryan was Illinois secretary of state.
Dozens of others in his office went to prison before him, convicted of selling licenses for bribes, with much of the money going into Ryan's campaign fund so he could be elected governor. And others were ruined.
And now his allies want to redeem him, though Ryan refuses to acknowledge his specific crimes? In what universe does redemption come without cost, where cynicism so casually dresses itself up as mercy and compassion?
Here. In this place. In Illinois.....
