By Steve Rhodes
The conviction of former Gov. George Ryan for racketeering and fraud caps a political career that could best be described as Illinois Personified. Has there ever been a pol who better embodies all that is Illinois politics than George Ryan?
From the bare-knuckle Kankakee Machine that he grew up on to his tenure as speaker of the Illinois House, George Ryan ascended the political ladder as a hardcore semi-Downstate conservative who was always more Cook County than Cairo. He patiently served two terms as lieutenant governor and two terms as secretary of state – 16 years! – awaiting his chance to be the boss man. And even then, he only beat congressman Glenn Poshard by a 51-47 percent margin, by running to the left of his Democratic opponent.
Ryan’s steadfast conservatism morphed into a willingness to tack whichever way best served his friends and his own political opportunities. As governor, he reneged on campaign promises on such issues as taxes and the expansion of O’Hare airport, and then insisted he had the right to change his mind despite what he told voters. He plunged the state into precarious financial straits and tarnished the most courageous and noble act of his political career when he enacted a moratorium on the death penalty in a hamhanded way and later tried to use the action for sympathy before the jury that convicted him.
A federal investigation that began as a probe into the selling of drivers licenses in exchange for cash that state employees could then donate to Ryan’s campaign fund turned led to a full-scale unraveling of a Secretary of State’s office deemed “a criminal enterprise” by authorities and a governorship that doled out favorable contracts to friends and contributors. Ryan’s way of doing business was Illinois’s way of doing business writ large, taken to a level that even shocked longtime wheeler-dealers, with the help of right-hand man and fellow felon Scott Fawell.
Who George Ryan is is not a mystery. How he was able to operate with impunity all these years is more so. Some of the more interesting punditry offers some clues.
Posted on April 21, 2006