Sen. Durbin gives new reason to hate politics
Senator's ridiculous move boils down to fact he knew Ryans :mj07:
December 2, 2008
BY MARK BROWN Sun-Times Columnist
Showing the courage of his convictions -- along with the confidence that comes from not having to face voters for another six years -- Sen. Dick Durbin went "all in" Monday on behalf of former Gov. George Ryan.
If we're lucky, President Bush isn't any more interested in Durbin's opinion that Ryan should be released from prison immediately than he would be if Durbin suggested how the president might spend his retirement years.
Unfortunately, though, if Bush were already inclined to listen to the entreaties of Ryan's other Illinois backers, the support of the state's senior Democratic senator certainly helps give him cover to do the dirty deed.
Wow. I know I shouldn't have been surprised. Durbin didn't leave himself a lot of room to back down after what might be best described as thinking out loud on Ryan's behalf during a Springfield press conference last week.
But on Monday when Durbin's aides handed out to reporters the senator's letter to Bush, I couldn't help but let out a pained yelp when I read the pertinent sections.
After a week of getting pounded by the public and the press, Durbin thought it over and decided that George Ryan has suffered enough, no matter that the people of Illinois informed him they believe otherwise.
Durbin conceded to reporters that his sympathetic remarks last week toward Ryan were met with an "outpouring of emotion" from across the state and that it had been "overwhelmingly negative."
New bipartisanship? Count me out
Despite that, the senator decided to plow ahead because he thinks this is a situation that calls for mercy.
It's hard to be against mercy. We all should strive to be merciful and compassionate.
But we also ought to have some standards as to when we show mercy, and the line doesn't start with crooked politicians who fight, stall and postpone their convictions until they're old enough to be considered more sympathetic.
Let me preface anything else I say with this: I've always liked Durbin. I respect him. I think he tries to be a decent public servant. But I think he's so wrong on this one it's ridiculous, as was his attempt at justifying his decision.
Basically, it all boils down to the fact he knows the Ryans personally and is therefore familiar with what a hardship the ex-governor's prison sentence has been on Mrs. Ryan in particular.
He explained his decision in the context of spending his entire public life trying to correct government injustices of one sort or another that have been brought to his attention by members of the public. He chalked up the Ryan clemency bid as just one more example of that.
When pressed, though, Durbin said he couldn't remember ever seeking clemency on behalf of anybody else. And he also backpedaled from the notion that Ryan was the victim of any injustice.
Still, I would encourage anyone with a loved one in prison to seek out Durbin personally and explain your situation to him. As long as he's being so merciful, I think he deserves to be inundated with clemency requests, not that I expect them to get very far.
It was easier to take when this was just something the Republicans were scheming up behind closed doors. There wasn't any sense in the rest of us getting worked up, because we don't have a say in this anyway. If Bush decides Ryan gets out of prison, he gets out of prison.
But for Democratic elected officials to get involved and ignore the public is beyond galling. If this is the new spirit of bipartisanship in Washington, count me out.
Got $800,000 from pension
I haven't been one to press the issue of Ryan and the six dead Willis children. Ryan was convicted in an old-fashioned political corruption case. He illegally steered business to his buddies. They took care of him.
But if we're now being called upon to consider Ryan's political life in a larger context than his crimes, theoretically looking at the good he did, then the Willis children have to be part of that equation. It was Ryan who authorized the dismantling of his own inspector general's office to keep its investigators from exposing the licenses-for-bribes scheme that had been the indirect cause of their death.
Let's also look at one of the main assertions on Ryan's behalf, that he's been punished enough in part because his government pension has already been taken away.
What they fail to mention is that he had already collected about $800,000 from his ridiculous $197,000-a-year pension before he was sent off to prison. How many of you can expect to collect $800,000 from a pension in your entire lifetime? Not many. It's not our fault if he spent it all. :mj07:
Over the weekend, Ryan's lawyers made public a carefully parsed statement of remorse from Ryan to the president that didn't square with any of his prior denials nor Mrs. Ryan's very clear statement to a Sun-Times reporter last week that her husband has no regrets for how he governed.
You can't blame people for being cynical about politics when they see something like this.
Senator's ridiculous move boils down to fact he knew Ryans :mj07:
December 2, 2008
BY MARK BROWN Sun-Times Columnist
Showing the courage of his convictions -- along with the confidence that comes from not having to face voters for another six years -- Sen. Dick Durbin went "all in" Monday on behalf of former Gov. George Ryan.
If we're lucky, President Bush isn't any more interested in Durbin's opinion that Ryan should be released from prison immediately than he would be if Durbin suggested how the president might spend his retirement years.
Unfortunately, though, if Bush were already inclined to listen to the entreaties of Ryan's other Illinois backers, the support of the state's senior Democratic senator certainly helps give him cover to do the dirty deed.
Wow. I know I shouldn't have been surprised. Durbin didn't leave himself a lot of room to back down after what might be best described as thinking out loud on Ryan's behalf during a Springfield press conference last week.
But on Monday when Durbin's aides handed out to reporters the senator's letter to Bush, I couldn't help but let out a pained yelp when I read the pertinent sections.
After a week of getting pounded by the public and the press, Durbin thought it over and decided that George Ryan has suffered enough, no matter that the people of Illinois informed him they believe otherwise.
Durbin conceded to reporters that his sympathetic remarks last week toward Ryan were met with an "outpouring of emotion" from across the state and that it had been "overwhelmingly negative."
New bipartisanship? Count me out
Despite that, the senator decided to plow ahead because he thinks this is a situation that calls for mercy.
It's hard to be against mercy. We all should strive to be merciful and compassionate.
But we also ought to have some standards as to when we show mercy, and the line doesn't start with crooked politicians who fight, stall and postpone their convictions until they're old enough to be considered more sympathetic.
Let me preface anything else I say with this: I've always liked Durbin. I respect him. I think he tries to be a decent public servant. But I think he's so wrong on this one it's ridiculous, as was his attempt at justifying his decision.
Basically, it all boils down to the fact he knows the Ryans personally and is therefore familiar with what a hardship the ex-governor's prison sentence has been on Mrs. Ryan in particular.
He explained his decision in the context of spending his entire public life trying to correct government injustices of one sort or another that have been brought to his attention by members of the public. He chalked up the Ryan clemency bid as just one more example of that.
When pressed, though, Durbin said he couldn't remember ever seeking clemency on behalf of anybody else. And he also backpedaled from the notion that Ryan was the victim of any injustice.
Still, I would encourage anyone with a loved one in prison to seek out Durbin personally and explain your situation to him. As long as he's being so merciful, I think he deserves to be inundated with clemency requests, not that I expect them to get very far.
It was easier to take when this was just something the Republicans were scheming up behind closed doors. There wasn't any sense in the rest of us getting worked up, because we don't have a say in this anyway. If Bush decides Ryan gets out of prison, he gets out of prison.
But for Democratic elected officials to get involved and ignore the public is beyond galling. If this is the new spirit of bipartisanship in Washington, count me out.
Got $800,000 from pension
I haven't been one to press the issue of Ryan and the six dead Willis children. Ryan was convicted in an old-fashioned political corruption case. He illegally steered business to his buddies. They took care of him.
But if we're now being called upon to consider Ryan's political life in a larger context than his crimes, theoretically looking at the good he did, then the Willis children have to be part of that equation. It was Ryan who authorized the dismantling of his own inspector general's office to keep its investigators from exposing the licenses-for-bribes scheme that had been the indirect cause of their death.
Let's also look at one of the main assertions on Ryan's behalf, that he's been punished enough in part because his government pension has already been taken away.
What they fail to mention is that he had already collected about $800,000 from his ridiculous $197,000-a-year pension before he was sent off to prison. How many of you can expect to collect $800,000 from a pension in your entire lifetime? Not many. It's not our fault if he spent it all. :mj07:
Over the weekend, Ryan's lawyers made public a carefully parsed statement of remorse from Ryan to the president that didn't square with any of his prior denials nor Mrs. Ryan's very clear statement to a Sun-Times reporter last week that her husband has no regrets for how he governed.
You can't blame people for being cynical about politics when they see something like this.
