Speak up, Governor Ryan

From The Chicago Tribune:

Speak up, Governor Ryan

Published May 22, 2002

Last month, federal prosecutors needed 80 pages to lay out charges against Gov. George Ryan's campaign fund and two of his political allies whose alleged crimes helped elect him. The list ran to racketeering, mail fraud, conspiracy to obstruct justice, theft of government funds, perjury before a federal grand jury, and filing false federal income tax returns.

On Tuesday yet another indictment--this one 63 pages in heft--detailed charges no less astonishing about a companion realm: the corrupt conduct of the public's business during Ryan's sorry years as secretary of state. When Ryan's office arranged contracts and leases worth huge amounts of state money, said U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, "the fix was in--for a price."

Even for a state as steeped in political sleaze as is Illinois, these are remarkable accusations. The feds allege that Ryan crony Lawrence Warner, acting as a private citizen yet with the consent and authorization of one or more unnamed high-ranking officials in the secretary of state's office, "directly and substantially participated in the affairs of the SOS Office" from early 1991 to early 1999--the years in which Ryan was secretary of state. Warner allegedly attended internal policy meetings, directed Ryan's staff on the awarding of state contracts and leases, and even helped draft contract specifications that made it easier for him to steer state business to certain vendors. And, said Fitzgerald: "To get those contracts, you had to pay Larry Warner fees."

Warner's alleged misconduct went beyond running roughshod over a state office. Warner's extortion of vendors and other tactics allegedly netted him an illicit $2.8 million, part of which he shared with Illinois State Medical Society lobbyist Donald Udstuen, a fellow indictee who soon will plead guilty to tax fraud conspiracy. Even more intriguing, the feds say Warner also was sharing his ill-gotten booty with an unnamed, high-ranking official of the secretary of state's office. The indictment mysteriously identifies this person only as SOS Official A.

And where was George Ryan while all of this chicanery was afoot? Maybe the same place he was when his employees were taking bribes to issue drivers' licenses and funneling some of the money to his campaign coffers--a despicable pattern that cost at least nine highway crash victims their lives. Maybe the same place he was when his employees were squeezing co-workers to buy tickets to political fundraisers. Maybe the same place he was while his campaign fund allegedly flourished as a criminal enterprise.

Ryan has said since before he became governor that he knew nothing about nothing. Beyond that, he has, in essence, nobly blustered that he can't comment; the probe must take its course.

In other words, Ryan has gotten away with not giving the people of Illinois any real explanation for how he could have been as blindly clueless as he insists he was to the alleged crimes of so many friends and so many top aides for all his years as secretary of state.

If that avoidance ever was acceptable, it is not today. The scandal at Ryan's feet thus far has produced 51 defendants, 43 convictions--and a death toll of nine. Public fury has forced Ryan not to seek re-election. In the eyes of those he supposedly serves, he increasingly is a man who huddles with his lawyers, a man who cannot or will not rise above worries about his own potential liability to level with the people of Illinois.

For lack of candor from Ryan, it's up to Fitzgerald and others to explain how, year after year, citizens and taxpayers got swindled.

That's unfortunate. Ryan plainly cares about how he will be remembered. If only he could understand that--indictment by indictment, trial by trial, conviction by conviction--federal prosecutors, FBI agents and other sworn enemies of public corruption are writing that legacy for him.