push from Sen. Dick Durbin(Wonder what he's hiding?-IL):
Durbin couldn't recall writing a president asking him to step into a case.
The former lead prosecutor in Ryan's trial, Patrick Collins, said a commutation is supposed to be an extraordinary measure in an extraordinary circumstance.
"To me, what is extraordinary is his defiance," Collins said, citing Lura Lynn Ryan's comments to the Sun-Times last week. She said if her husband had to do it over, "he would govern the same way as he did before."
Collins said the severity of Ryan's crime and lack of remorse were reasons he should serve out his sentence.
"This state of all states doesn't need the message that commutation might send," Collins said.
Yeah, it's not like IL is known for honest politicians and lack of corruption.
The former GOP governor was convicted in 2006 in a racketeering fraud scheme that included his efforts as secretary of state to quash a probe into a crash that killed six children of the Willis family in 1994. Durbin called on Ryan to apologize to the public and to the Willises.
A lawyer for the Rev. Scott and Janet Willis said the couple opposes any leniency for Ryan.
"There has not been one single expression of remorse in any way," said attorney Joe Power. "They're very much opposed to any type of pardon or commutation, especially in light of what George Ryan's wife quotes him as saying, that he has a clear conscience and would do the same things over again. I mean that's absurd."
Let me note this from 'Best of the Web' yesterday:
Ryan would later insist--angrily and often--that the trucker, Ricardo Guzman, had been legally licensed. No problem here in Illinois. In 1998, George Ryan was elected governor of Illinois on the strength of that lie about the Willis case. An internal memo later established that, just eight days after the Willis tragedy, at least four officials in Ryan's office were aware that "there is a strong possibility that this individual obtained his [commercial driver's license] illegally." Elsewhere at least three other people died in crashes involving truckers improperly licensed by Ryan's staff. . . .
Bad enough that Ryan's minions sold driver's licenses to bribers--some of that blood money wound up in Ryan's campaign coffers. Bad enough that Ryan gave his pals illicit influence over the conduct of state business--according to prosecutors, the cronies themselves pocketed a combined $4.77 million in sweetheart deals. Bad enough they rewarded Ryan with gifts and favors--some of that lucre went to Ryan's family members, spreading a now indelible stain from the discredited governor to his loved ones.
Ryan has claimed all along that he did nothing wrong and that he knew nothing about the crimes of his compatriots. His evident attitude toward his own corrupt acts mirrored the phrase his lawyer frequently used during the trial's closing arguments: "Who cares?"
While it's possible that Durbin is actually showing compassion, it's also possible, and more likely, that this is part of some deal with somebody. Either case, the answer to this pardon request should be "HELL no!"
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