Convicted and imprisoned former Republican Illinois Governor George Ryan is looking for a bailout. He wants President Bush to commute his sentence, and he has Democrat Senator Dick “Turbin” Durbin advocating on his behalf.
Let’s remember why former Illinois Governor George Ryan is sitting behind bars. When he was Secretary of State of Illinois, his office sold drivers licenses for political donations. This corruption led directly to the deaths of 6 children in a single family.
The investigation into corruption in Ryan’s office began with a horrendous tragedy, while Ryan was still Illinois’ secretary of state. On Election Day 1994, a piece of a tail-light assembly fell off a semi-trailer on a Milwaukee expressway and bounced beneath a minivan, rupturing its gas tank and exploding the van into flames. Six children from the Willis family of Chicago, en route to a little getaway, were killed; their parents were severely burned.
Other motorists told police they tried to warn the driver of the truck that the piece was dangling dangerously, but he didn’t understand English. Federal law requires truckers to know and read English to get a license, and investigators were alarmed that this driver — who was from Chicago — didn’t. Wisconsin authorities notified the Illinois secretary of state’s office, which licenses drivers and was then headed by the freshly re-elected Ryan.
An internal investigation found the driver may have paid a bribe to get his license. Ryan’s response was to squash the probe and fire the investigators.
George Ryan should get a commutation the day President Bush can resurrect the dead children of the Willis family. Until then, George is right where he should be.
