Sometimes you just need to

Follow the bouncing pol

As a service for those of you outside of the event horizon of Illinois politics, I offer this this layman's primer on the conviction of former governor and current convicted felon, George Ryan.

1. George Ryan is a Pol of the Old School. A scotch-in-the-back-room-while-we-cut-deals-on-Springfield-Hilton-cocktail-napkins kinda guy. And if it were possible to take him in only theory -- taken entirely in his own context – he was a Republican Governor I could actually stand. He knew how to get things done. He was not an ideologue. He instituted a moratorium on the Death Penalty in Illinois when he saw that it was unjust. He could work with Chicago, which in the Power Axis of Illinois politics is a Big Deal.

And I don't expect heroics from my hired help; I'm just delighted when they steal less than they serve.


2. But Ryan most emphatically cannot be shriven of the deaths he caused. The petty corruptions that grew like a cancer over his whole Administration until they became too numerous to count. The massive misuse of public monies he presided over. While he was Secretary of State, he knowingly engaged in and allowed other to engage in corruption for his political and personal gain that endangered the public generally, and caused the death of six children specifically.

There is a reason why Dante reserved some of the lowest regions of Hell for the betrayers of the public trust. That Ryan got only six-and-a-half years is a joke.


3. The law firm that defended him pro bono was Winston & Strawn. According to the Chicago Tribune, the price tag for this free service was (as of May of this year) roughly

“…$20 million. The tab stood at $10 million in November, the firm said. Indirect costs, such as a loss of new clients, are impossible to measure.”

4. Up until a few weeks ago, the Chairman of Winston & Strawn was former Republican Governor Jim Thompson.


5. Former Republican Governor Jim Thompson’s Leiutenant Governor from 1983-1991 was…George Ryan. Thompson came to power largely on his strength as a steely-eyed prosecutor of wrongdoers, public and private. For awhile, the terms "Governor Jim Thompson" and "Presidential timber" were often seen canoodling together in public.


6. The 600-lb. Gorilla Attorney and former prosecutor who was tasked by Winston & Strawn with defending George Ryan was Daniel Webb.


7. Webb, according to the same Tribune article, bills at $750/hour. Which someone sure as Hell had to eat given the fact that the defense of George Ryan was done pro bono.

8. On August 23rd of this year, Jim Thompson announced that he would be stepping down as Chair. The company announced that, “None of this had to do with George Ryan.”

9. Yesterday, Winston as Strawn announced:

“Dan Webb, the lead lawyer defending former Illinois Gov. George Ryan on corruption charges, has been named chairman of Winston & Strawn LLP.

Mr. Webb, 61, takes over the role from former Gov. James R. Thompson, who announced last month he was stepping down after 13 years as chairman of the Chicago-based law firm. Mr. Thompson, 70, becomes senior chairman for the firm. “

All of which proves not a blessed thing except this:

First, in Illinois, power politics and big business are two strands of the same DNA. Saint or sinner, if you don’t grasp this basic reality in your bones, you have no business playing in bigs.

Second, to succeed in either Illinois power politics and big business it is imperative to have two qualifications above all others: friends, and a long, long memory.

I hope that makes understanding Illinois politics a trifle easier.