(George Ryan, R) Former Illinois Governor Is Freed From Prison

[alp227]

Source: NYT

George Ryan was released from a federal prison in the dark on Wednesday morning, and Illinois became a state with only one former governor behind bars.

By daybreak, news cameramen were already taking down their equipment in front of a Chicago halfway house, where Mr. Ryan made a brief stop before being placed under house arrest. Mr. Ryan is only allowed to leave his home in Kankakee, Ill., for approved outings like medical appointments until his sentence officially ends in July.

It was a morning not too unusual for people living in a state that has grown familiar with the sight of convicted politicians.

“I think they’re used to it,” said Don Rose, a longtime political consultant in Chicago. “They barely pay any attention to that.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/us/illinois-ex-governor-ryan-released-from-prison.html

[murielm99]

1. Other states' governors become

lobbyists or consultants. Some teach. Ours become convicts.

[loudsue]

2. We have a new republican governor that I wish was already behind bars...

he has decided to base tax dollars given to colleges on how many graduated students get jobs. Like...colleges are somehow responsible for the mess corporations have gotten us into?

[murielm99]

4. Where do you live? n/t

[loudsue]

7. North Carolina.

In 2010, for the first time in over 100 years, we had republicans take over the legislature. Then in 2012 the corporations bought a republican governor to match the legislature they had already purchased. It's all the fashion to elect republicans in North Carolina these days.

[alp227]

12. Do you think NC is creeping right after decades as a purple state?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_party_strength_in_North_Carolina

This decade, Republicans have taken over the legislature and governor's office.

But you're right, for much of the 20th century Democrats dominated the state gov and Congressional delegation in the Tarheel state.

NC voted for every Dem presidential candidate from '32 (FDR) to '64 (LBJ).

However, both its Dixiecrat senators (Everett Jordan and Sam Ervin...hell Ervin even was "defense lawyer" for segregationist policy!) voted against the Civil Rights Act...and the Southern Strategy succeeded in the state, which voted for Nixon in '68, then re-elected Nixon AND elected new senator Jesse Helms that same year.

The state re-elected the far-right icon Helms in 1978 just two years after going for Jimmy Carter for president in '76.

NC was pretty much purple in the '80s, '90s, and '00s, voting every Republican presidential candidate from '80 (Reagan) to '04 (Bush). However at that era the state elected both Dem and Rep governors and while re-electing Helms until he retired for the '02 election NC elected a bunch of senators of both parties (including VP candidate John Edwards) to serve alongside Helms.

[loudsue]

17. NC is by nature conservative. But the Koch brothers are targeting states like this for

pouring their billions into our down-line elections, targeting even off-campaign season ads (which we're seeing right now against Chuck Hagel), and their pressure on the politicians they have bought to bring up tea party agendas.

My fear is that Koch is going to take one or two states at a time and turn them so red that gerrymandered voting districts will forever turn every possible county red.

[obamanut2012]

21. NC is by nature populist, not conservative

And, is creeping more blue every single year, not more red. It has, literally, some of the most liberal towns and cities in the whole US.

The GOP have broken laws to get in charge and pass laws,including Amendment 1. It was voted on ILLEGALLY. They had to do this to get in charge, which speaks volumes. They couldn't go it without cheating. They threatened Bev and her family, which is why she didn't run for governor again. They knew she would win.

Every state has red yahoos, and NC is no different.

[loudsue]

26. I beg to differ. A state that has a republican house, republican senate, and republican governor

is prolly not what you'd call populist.

If you think Chapel Hill and Asheville are enough to turn North Carolina blue, you've been spending your time with people I'd rather be spending time with. Instead, I'm surrounded with gun nuts and freepers who are ready to have a revolution against Obama.

Bev Perdue was a really unpopular governor, even among democrats in at least 3 counties that I know of. She never would have gotten a second term, which is at least part of why she didn't run. I don't doubt she was threatened, as well, but that wouldn't have changed much.

The Koch brothers have spent a fortune in NC and it is working.

[Ian Iam]

6. Four of the last seven?

Is that correct? If so, !

[murielm99]

9. Yes.

Stratton and Small were acquitted. My dad swore that Stratton was a guilty as hell, and that someone else took the fall for him. There was a guy here named Powell, who was found to have shoeboxes of cash in his closet when he died. He took all sorts of bribes, but did not live high. He had a crappy old car. I don't remember his position, I will have to look it up. He may have been comptroller. Everyone in Illinois still jokes about his shoeboxes, though.

[Rincewind]

15. He was Secretary of State.

Same position that got Ryan sent to prison.

[murielm99]

10. I looked up Powell.

He was speaker of the state house of representatives, and secretary of state in Illinois.

We really know how to pick them. It does not seem to matter which party. We are equal opportunity when it comes to criminals.

[47of74]

16. And some buy their ways back into office and double dip...

....talkin about you, Terry!

[davsand]

20. I guess we can say prison is the Illinois version of a retirement home for our Governors. n/t

[Dont call me Shirley]

3. Now Don Seigelman needs to be set free.

[LiberalEsto]

5. +100!

He's a political prisoner

[FiveGoodMen]

25. And considering that no one in the current government is willing to look into it

You have to ask: Whose political prisoner is he now?

[loudsue]

8. Amen to that!

He never should have been jailed.

[Jack Rabbit]

11. . . . and the prosecutors and judge put in his place

[amandabeech]

13. Congratulations!

Personally, I can't wait for Blago to get out and start talking again.

My Illinois relatives had some really wild tales about the local polls in the Chicago area. Blago was no surprise to me.

Their tales enabled me to enjoy the Blago theater.

Your new governor seems okay, and I hope that Illinois and Chicago are headed in the right direction. Goodness knows the credit rating needs improvement.

Chicago's a great town, though. An Olympics in Chicago would have been a great time!

I hope you folks bid again.

[AngryAmish]

19. Quinn isn't a crook, just useless

Mike Madigan is speaker of the house. He runs the state. His daughter is attorney general and never does anything without checking with daddy first.

[amandabeech]

22. I recall hearing about the Madigans during some of the Blago madness.

Is there any hope for Speaker Madigan?

I hate to see Illinois in such trouble. It's an important state nationally, but much more important to the Midwest, where I grew up and where I hope to retire (well, for most of the year). And that's not including my cousins and friends and their children.

[AngryAmish]

23. No, he is irredeemably corrupt

Illinois is done for a long, long time. We have not been putting money into the government employee pensions for decades. Pensions will soon be 40% of the budget. Services have to be cut like the prisons have been cut. Medicaid is already been cut - no money for dental or podiatry. It will be cut again until the poor will not have access to medical care. We just cancelled a half billion bond sale for roads because we have to worst credit rating in the nation.

The choices for Illinois are hard and must be made. Yet they will not be made. What is actually being prayed for is to have the other 49 bail us out somehow. So either we screw the public employees or screw the poor.

Illinois will recover. Once the baby boomer pensions are over (ie the boomers are mostly dead) we should be in a saner place financially. That is about thirty years out. I'm not paying for it so we are moving when I can retire in five years.

[amandabeech]

27. Thanks for the post.

Except for the last paragraph, which was rather gratuitous.

Good day.

[murielm99]

24. In what way do you mean?

What sort of hope?

Madigan is happy right where he is, doing what he is doing. He has a law firm in Chicago that has a great deal of clout. His family is talented, and powerful. He could well be the most powerful Democrat in the country. He is what Rove would like to be. Rove lost much of his effectiveness when his name became a household word. In fact, Rove did not come to this state to do his dirty tricks when Kerry ran for President. He knew he would not get away with it here.

Most people don't know much about Madigan, unless they live in Illinois, and are involved in Illinois politics. Like Sauron, Madigan watches everything: every county organization, every county chairman, every member of the state central committee. If there is too much change and turmoil, he steps in. He sends people and money to help with local elections if he thinks they are important or winnable.

As much as I sometimes deplore him, I would hate to see a power vacuum created by his absence, or filled by a repubbie. He keeps our state reliably blue.

Many things here are run by powerful political families, on both sides of the aisle. Blago married into one of them: the Mells. It did not help. Much of his trouble came when he tried to tangle with the Madigans. They got rid of him. I think they came down too hard on him. His prison sentence was too harsh.

If Madigan is dishonest, I don't see it. No one else does, either. If they did, they would be trying to get him into jail also. Illinois has interesting politics. I just happen to live in a very red county that most of the political organization writes off as hopeless. So be it.

[timdog44]

14. George Ryan

Yes hes should have been in jail. But, we still have plenty of other ex govs to make license plates.

[obamanut2012]

18. He put a mortatorium on the death penalty before he went to prison

I give him props for that.