New governor to live in Springfield, while family remains in Chicago

Excuse me for thinking it a non-issue in terms of recent reports that Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker says he intends to live in the Illinois capital city while serving in office.

PRITZKER: Moving to Springfield

The state does, after all, provide an official residence for the governor – the Executive Mansion, located one block away from the Capitol building in Springfield.

IN FACT, THE state in recent years performed significant renovations on the governor’s mansion, with some people going so far as to point out rather sarcastically that soon-to-be former Gov. Bruce Rauner kicked in some of his own money for the project, just to improve a house for his successor.

As though that makes the current governor the ultimate sucker!

But Pritzker says he’ll move to Springfield, although he admits his wife and two sons will remain in Chicago – they’re still in school and he doesn’t want to disrupt their lives, he says. Besides, the mansion is actually a series of formal ballrooms, with a private quarters on the top floor. Basically, it’s an over-glorified apartment.

Which is a fact I’m sure will manage to offend many of the people whom Pritzker was probably hoping to pacify with his residential announcement. Because there are people who are going to think anything short of the entire Pritzker family loading up the moving van to haul their belongings to Springfield is nothing more than a snub of the Illinois capital.

A Lincoln Park resident while governor

IT IS ONE of the laughable issues I recall from my days as a Springfield-based correspondent – downstate people convinced that everything had to be based downstate, and who resented those state agencies that maintained significant Chicago presences.

These are the people who were bothered by former Govs. James Thompson living with his wife and kid in a Lincoln Park neighborhood mansion, Rod Blagojevich eventually trying to run the entire state from a private office he maintained in his Ravenswood Manor neighborhood home, and Pat Quinn only occasionally staying in the mansion when not at home in the Austin neighborhood.

He rarely left Ravenswood Manor

Of course, even Jim Edgar wound up having a home in the Springfield suburbs (the “log house,” a home done up in a log cabin motif), while also maintaining an apartment in downtown Chicago for those days when his work brought him to the city.

If anything, George Ryan may have been the recent governor who made the best effort to get around the state – living in a Chicago apartment, the mansion in Springfield and spending weekends at his family home in Kankakee.

A West Sider (Austin neighborhood)

MEANING HE’D MAKE a complete circle around Illinois every single week!

As for Pritzker, he’ll use the mansion as a job-related residence, although we probably should expect he’ll be making many back-and-forth trips between Chicago and Springfield.

Which will bother those who want to think Illinois centers around Springfield – even though I’d argue the realities of the modern world mean we probably should have governors who are mobile and traveling about the state. The idea that he’s supposed to sit behind a desk inside the Capitol and never leave Springfield would be evidence of a governor not doing his job.

RAUNER: Helped renovate the mansion

Just as it can be argued that having a governor like Blagojevich who would have preferred never to have left his house was evidence alone that the job was not being done properly back in his gubernatorial era.

WHAT AMAZES ME is that some people will be willing to make an issue of all this – either that the governor never spends time in Springfield, or else is there far too often and neglecting the rest of the state’s needs.

RYAN: Actually lived around Ill.

You’d think with all the issues, financial and social, that confront Illinois government these days, there’d be far more important things for people to concern them about.

But then again, some people will want to find something to gripe about – no matter what.

Just as they’ll want to move along to the other statewide constitutional officers, who are required by law to maintain a residence in Springfield – even though the state makes no provision for their own housing. Just think how they’d moan if the state budget also included provisions for, say, an Illinois attorney general mansion?

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Who will prevail March 20, Nov. 6? How long ‘til we speculate about ’19?

We’re now in the new year, and the election cycles that seem to have been ongoing forever have actually now begun.

Will it be Rauner who fades into obscurity ...

Yet as far as who’s going to prevail come the March 20 primary, along with the general election come Nov. 6? That’s a crapshoot. I’m sure everybody amongst the occupants of political geekdom is convinced their side will prevail.

BECAUSE HOW COULD anybody with any common sense possibly side with the opposition? Are they mad!!!

... or will Pritzker wind up ultimate '18 failure

There are those who are convinced that the public’s regard for Donald Trump is so low that they will cast their ballots in ways meant to take out their hostility for the president on anybody perceived to be his ally.

Then again, the people who were inclined to support Trump back when he won the presidency in 2016 are most likely enjoying the fact that the people who oppose Trump are so infuriated by his presence. That thought may motivate them to turn out in great numbers to vote so as to ensure the Trump critics don’t make any political gains.

For the record, the Gallup Organization had Trump at a 40 percent approval rating as of Sunday – which is fairly stable for him. A solid majority of our society (or at least those who were actually contacted by Gallup) does not think much of this Age of Trump in which our society is now engaged.

Trump enjoys thought '18 will be all about him

WHICH MAY BE why Gov. Bruce Rauner is engaged in a battle royale for his own political fate – he desperately wants to distance himself from Trump’s most nonsensical acts.

Yet the fact that he won’t develop a tight bond with the president is considered one of the reasons why the conservative element of Illinois’ population is speaking out against him, and why the Republican primary campaign of Jeanne Ives isn’t being totally dismissed.

Could Rauner wind up being the equivalent of Dan Walker – that 1970’s era governor who in 1976 couldn’t even win his party’s nomination for re-election? Yes, then-Mayor Richard J. Daley despised Walker to the point where he backed -then Secretary of State Michael J. Howlett against him.

One lesson to Republican partisans who are inclined to back Ives/dump Rauner (however they choose to view it); the split amongst Democrats that year resulted in James R. Thompson winning the general election – and was the beginning of a 26-year run of Republican governors.

Will Rauner be compared to '76 Walker?

WHICH MEANS THE GOP may be wary of provoking a similar streak against themselves and may wind up holding their noses in voting for Bruce.

What actually makes me not totally disregard the chances of a second term of “Gov. Rauner” is the fact that I question the Democratic candidates. Thus far, it seems J.B, Pritzker of the incredibly-wealthy and politically-connected Pritzker family is the favorite to win the nomination come March.

But I don’t get any sense that his candidacy is beloved by anybody. It seems more a matter of people accepting the inevitability of a Pritzker win, rather than thinking he has any ideas that capture their fancy.

This could really wind up being the year that two self-funding billionaires blow their family fortunes to win election to a post that pays a salary of just over $177,000 – along with access to a mansion in Springfield that (by all accounts) is in serious need of repair.

IT MAY WIND up being that whichever candidate winds up taking the oath of office as Illinois governor come January 2019 will be taking on a massive headache, with the financial compensation hardly seeming worth the hassle.

Then again, it’s all about the ego for some people. Perhaps it is rewarding, in and of itself, to be able to walk around calling oneself “governor” and occasionally have commentaries written about speculation that you could someday become president.

Once Rauner/Pritzker is history, it'll be all about Rahm

Then again, it’s not like Trump ever went through the hassle of running for a government post to gain experience for a presidential run – and an experience that likely has three years remaining.

2018 has arrived, and about the only thing we can say for certain is that a year from now, either Pritzker or Rauner will be history. That, and we’ll be asked almost immediately whether we want Rahm Emanuel for a third term as the city’s “Man on Five.”

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Overloaded with symbolism, but will future generations “get” Quinn portrait?

It has been a gimmick of recent men who have served as governors that when they pose for their official portraits that hang in the Hall of Governors in Springfield that there are background details meant to distinguish them.

Quinn making a statement? Or just a political hoarder?

Former Gov. James R. Thompson is posed sitting in front of a portrait of Abraham Lincoln – making it a portrait within a portrait. He also wore an Elgin Watch in his portrait, and made sure to point that detail out.

WHILE IN THE case of former Gov. Jim Edgar, he’s sitting in front of a painting from one of the famed Lincoln/Douglas debates – in fact, the debate that was held in what later became his hometown of Charleston, Ill.

Considering that Edgar, when he was governor, actually had that painting hanging in his office at the Statehouse, it seemed somewhat appropriate.

Even in the case of Thompson, the Lincoln inclusion seemed kind of cute – although I wonder if anyone ever notices the Elgin-brand watch or finds it relevant.

Yet now we move ahead to former Gov. Pat Quinn, who on Monday (a little more than two years after he stepped down from the post) presented the portrait of himself that will hang in the Statehouse halls for generations to come.

THE OFFICIAL WAY we’ll be asked to remember “the Mighty Quinn.”

Which seems like it’s overload.

Quinn had a Lincoln portrait included in the background of his own portrait, along with several objects meant to be symbolic of his time in office.

There’s the photograph of Quinn surrounded by people who happen to be black – which Quinn wants us to know makes them the first non-white individuals whose images will be part of the Hall of Governors; right near Shadrach Bond (the first governor), Joel A. Matteson (whose name pronunciation is now routinely butchered by all the people who live in the south suburb entitled in his honor) and John P. Altgeld (probably now remembered by most as a public housing complex).

OF COURSE, THERE also are illustrations of a wedding photograph of Quinn’s parents, photographs of his sons and other relatives and several specifically-titled books – one of which touts the “Illinois Jobs Now!” program that the former governor would like to believe will be the keystone of his legacy.

If anything, the actual depiction of Quinn seems kind of bland – as though more attention were paid to including items in the background. As it turns out, 44 items to be exact.

Truly a case of the details overcoming the reality of the man.

It makes me wonder if this portrait will ultimately be remembered as a failure. For so many are included that there’s too much to process. Plus the fact that future generations may remember so little of Quinn the details won’t make much sense.

I DID FIND it interesting to learn that William T. Chambers was commissioned to do this portrait. For he’s the same man who gave us the aforementioned portraits of Thompson and Edgar. Which makes him now a politically bipartisan artist.

And yes, Quinn made sure to point out that no taxpayer monies were used to make this portrait. He handled the fundraising himself, which perhaps is why it took just over two years for the work to be finished.

Also ensuring that the only gap we’re going to have for the time being is that of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich – who has been preoccupied with his incarceration at federal facilities in Colorado to be able to pose for a portrait.

Which makes me think it too bad that Quinn couldn’t have included a Blagojevich head shot in the background of his official portrait – since Quinn’s term-and-a-half as governor did start when he was called upon to finish two years of Blagojevich’s term following impeachment.

BLAGOJEVICH CERTAINLY WOULD have fit in with the clutter of Quinn’s portrait. It also would be a blow to the Blagojevich ego since he, in his own self-delusional state-of-mind, thought HE and not Barack Obama, ought to be Illinois’ contribution to the national political fabric.

For those who want to see Rod reduced to nothingness, how much lower could he go than to be merely remembered as a bit player in “the Quinn Years?”

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EXTRA: Ryan released, sort of. His reputation is still on trial

“He has paid a severe price. The loss of his wife and brother while he was in the penitentiary, the loss of his pension, his office, his good name and 5 ½ years of imprisonment. Now near 80 years old, that is a significant punishment.”

Former Gov. James R. Thompson, speaking about former Gov. George Ryan

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RYAN: His freedom will infuriate some

Why do I suspect that Gov. Thompson, now a high-priced attorney who has devoted a significant amount of his professional life in recent years trying to cleanse the reputation of his one-time running mate, is going to take more than his share of ridicule for that comment he espoused Wednesday morning?

Not that Thompson isn’t correct when it comes to the life of George Ryan, who has spent five-plus years in a federal corrections center, but was released to a half-way house in Chicago early Wednesday.

THE EARLINESS OF the hour of release was done most likely to avoid the circus of television cameras trying to capture the exact moment of release from prison for posterity.

So instead, what we’re going to get to see all day on television is the moment that Ryan surrendered himself Wednesday morning to the half-way house, a Salvation Army-type facility that is supposed to help prison inmates adapt back to life on the outside -- although Ryan himself was later released the same day; which is likely the ultimate evidence that he is NOT a hardened criminal element the way some people want to believe.

Of course, there will be those who will note that the official release date for Ryan is July 4, and they’re going to wish that he could spend every possible second in a prison cell.

There also will be others who will complain that even that date is too early for Ryan’s release. In short, there are some people who are just determined to be malcontents when the name of “George Ryan” is mentioned.

THOSE PEOPLE ARE the ones that Thompson was trying to get through to when he made his comment – which was the only spoken word Wednesday morning, since Ryan insisted on walking into the half-way house, accompanied by son George H., Jr., without saying  a word on his own behalf.

That’s probably to be expected. I don’t expect Ryan to be all that talkative in the near future. Certainly not as much as his gruff-spoken style when he was governor – where I secretly suspect he enjoyed the public attention that would swarm around him even though he would throw out the “grouchy grandpa” routine.

I write this particular commentary now to put myself on the record, of sorts, in opposition to all of the political trash talk that we’re going to read and hear on Wednesday and in future days.

For I’m sure there are those who will devote significant amounts of time to trying to ensure that Ryan’s reputation is never rehabilitated.

THEY HAVE THEIR own reasons, most of which I suspect are politically partisan, for needing Ryan to be the arch-villain of their lives. Even though I’d like to believe most people will see through this and grow tired of constantly being reminded how “venal” the former governor is.

Because no matter what the bulk of us believe about Ryan or his actions or whether they crossed over the line into criminal behavior, I’d really like to believe that we have our own lives to worry about.

And that the people who are going to persist in trashing George Ryan are probably telling us more about what is lacking in their own lives, rather than anything that is flawed about Ryan.

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This is a Tiger-free news zone – Just let George Ryan out of prison already!!!!!

George Ryan turns 76 on Wednesday. Should he manage to survive the physical and mental strain of being an inmate of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, he will be 79 turning on 80 when he is scheduled for release (ironically enough, on Independence Day of 2013).

Not that any of this means a thing to those people whose partisanship makes them detest Ryan to the point where the only thing that will appease them is the word that he died while in prison.

OF COURSE, THOSE cranks will then resort to complaining that Ryan likely will get some sort of private burial, instead of just some sort of pauper’s grave in a prison burial ground. In short, I don’t think there’s anything that will ever appease the people who are so bitter that all they want to think about in conjunction with Ryan’s name is pain and suffering.

This is a sentiment I have long felt. A part of me has always felt that the people who most get outraged about Ryan are lacking something in their own lives, so they take it out on him.

And that is what they did en masse, with a pair of reports this week that put Ryan (a.k.a., inmate number 16627-424) back in the news – which as far as I’m concerned makes him much more worthy of mention here than any of the babble spouted out Friday by golfer Tiger Woods.

First, columnist Mike Sneed reiterated what those people who have paid close attention already knew – one-time first lady Lura Lynn Ryan is seriously ill. That actually has the Ryan family stepping up efforts to try to get some sort of clemency for George, who remains at the federal prison near Terre Haute, Ind.

THEY SEEM TO think that Barack Obama has more of a sense of compassion (Obama was the state senator from the Hyde Park neighborhood when Ryan was governor) than did George W. Bush, who seemed to view rejecting pardon requests as the part of the job he enjoyed the most (that, and throwing out the “first pitch” at professional baseball games).

Although there are those legal observers who note that Obama has become so obsessed with the big issues such as health care reform that he hasn’t done anything to grant clemency for anyone in the federal corrections system.

Lura Lynn has actually had a brief meeting with the president, where Obama apparently said the kind of polite statements one makes when they want to appear sympathetic but don’t want to commit themselves to anything.

The other story involves Ryan’s pension from his more than three decades of public service.

RYAN’S ATTORNEYS (INCLUDING another former governor, James R. Thompson) had argued he was still entitled to part of his government pension – totalling about $70,000 annually (it would have been more than double that had Ryan never been convicted of a felony). The Illinois Supreme Court on Friday rejected that concept overwhelmingly.

Of the seven justices, only Anne Burke dissented from the ruling that was written by a DuPage County Republican (although most people like to remember Bob Thomas more as a one-time Chicago Bear from back in the era before their ’86 Super Bowl appearance when the Bears stunk).

All of this material has brought out the hard-hearted partisans. Even the court ruling, with some people noting that Justice Burke is the wife of Chicago alderman Edward Burke (leading to jokes about how her husband will someday suffer Ryan’s fate – although no one can say what he has done that would warrant a criminal conviction).

Perhaps it is a stretch that Ryan should get any pension following a public corruption conviction. I realize the spirit of the law would say he shouldn’t. But there is a part of me that thinks Thompson found a legitimate loophole in the law, and the court has decided to not care.

THEY’RE WILLING TO ignore the letter of the law in order to achieve the outcome that they realize the hard-hearted people will demand. That concept bothers me more than anything that Ryan himself is alleged to have done (which mostly amounts to looking the other way when learning that his low-level secretary of state staffers were soliciting bribes from unqualified motorists).

Then again, how serious should we take the health conditions of Ryan’s wife?

I have no problem with his release, because I think his time served (just over two years; 28 months, to be exact in the way that the feds themselves think of prison terms) has been an adequate prison term. I can think of a lot of government officials convicted of corruption charges who have served less time and in better conditions.

Ryan didn’t get the minimum-security “Oxford education” in Wisconsin. He got his time at a work camp that helps service a maximum-security prison that also holds the “death row” for federal offenses.

CONSIDERING THAT HE’S broken and broke and his family realizes that a pardon is out of the question (they’re just asking for a commutation to “time served”), I don’t see what is lost by letting him go free. Although I noticed the anonymous buffoon who used an Internet comment section to say that if Ryan’s children really cared about their mother’s health, they’d take care of her themselves, rather than try asking for their father’s release.

As far as I’m concerned, that release is a compassionate thing to do. Even if you’re hard-hearted enough to feel no compassion for Ryan, consider that letting him go would mean he would disappear from the system and likely wither away.

It is the continued dragging out of his prison sentence and all the appeals to presidential officials that will keep him name continually popping up in the news.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: The Chicago Sun-Times seems most responsible for resurrecting George Ryan’s name (http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/2058647,ryan-pension-supreme-021910.article) into (http://www.suntimes.com/news/sneed/2056287,CST-NWS-ryan18.article) the news this week.

Is it a pipe dream of the Ryan family that Barack Obama will be any more sympathetic than George W. Bush (http://www.theagitator.com/2010/02/11/obamas-pardon-drought-continues/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+radleybalko+%28The+Agitator%29) when it comes to considering clemency petitions for Ryan?

I will confess that my opinion of Ryan hasn’t changed significantly (http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2003/01/12/Analysis-Death-row-dead-kids-for-Ryan/UPI-35281042388100/) since the day in 2003 that he left the Illinois state government payroll.

Barnich brought Chicago vision to Iraq

It strikes me as ironic that one of the the Iraq casualties to occur on Memorial Day this year was a fellow Chicagoan. By now, we’re getting the reports of how one-time Illinois Commerce Commission chairman Terry Barnich was killed by an explosion while working in Iraq.

It has been several years since I last saw Terry Barnich (it was back in the late 1990s when I was a reporter-type at the Statehouse in Springfield and he’d be hanging around the building working as a lobbyist for various interests).

YET THE STRONGEST memories I have of him go back to the days when I worked for the now-defunct City News Bureau of Chicago. I was the reporter for the local wire service based at the Thompson Center state government building.

As things worked out, the press room in that grandiose government building that sprung from architect Helmut Jahn’s vision was located on the same floor as the Illinois Commerce Commission offices. In fact, the press room was near an obscure back door that one could take to get past the ICC’s front desk and go directly to the chairman’s office.

I know, because there were times I managed to get statements directly from Terry Barnich by making the roughly 25-step walk from my desk to his.

Some people might think that was presumptuous of me. But security in that building back in the early 1990s wasn’t as rigid as it is these days, and a reporter usually comes to appreciate any time he (or she) can get direct access to political people – rather than having to rely on the canned statements put out by their press people.

BARNICH ALSO WASN’T exactly the type whose first response would be to call security and have me removed.

In fact, Barnich was usually the type who would spend his spare moments making the same walk in reverse – popping into the press room to shoot the breeze with reporter-types for City News, the Chicago Tribune and the Illinois Radio Network (which back then were the only news organizations that thought the state building worthy of staffing).

Now I’m not going to start nominating Terry Barnich for sainthood just because he was a little easier to talk to than some government officials (I’m talking about the types who want you to think they’re doing you a favor by acknowledging your existence).

Part of what came from his mouth was pure political spin (he was a Republican of the James R. Thompson mold). He was just as interested in getting his perspective included prominently in any stories written about him as any other political person.

BUT I HAVE to admit that part of the practical knowledge I have accumulated from some two decades of observing the Chicago and Illinois political scenes came from Terry Barnich – both in terms of watching him and listening to him when he worked.

There also were the moments when he’d tell us the little anecdotes of what it was really like to work for Jim Thompson – who by that time was approaching the end of his record-length 14-year run as Illinois governor.

Barnich was a guy who literally started out at the bottom of Illinois government (I recall him telling stories of what it was like to be a young law school graduate who held the governor’s coat or took the gubernatorial dogs for a walk), but worked his way up and ultimately became head of a state agency.

I’m sure on a certain level, he viewed those trips to the press room as being a part of the job to try to keep us reporter-types under control. I’m sure he had that attitude because I can remember a couple of times he would storm into that press room in anger – acting almost as though he thought we had betrayed him.

BETRAYAL, OF COURSE, isn’t the right word, even though there were stories that would paint the Illinois Commerce Commission (which regulates utility companies and any other business interests such as railroads that cross through Illinois and other states) in a negative light.

That is part of a reporter-type’s job – to tick off political people and occasionally bite the hand of the occasional politico who comes by willingly.

But while there are some political people in this state who have shown an ability to hold a grudge against me, I can’t say that Barnich was in those ranks.

Eventually, Barnich went the route of many a government official – he gave up a spot on the public payroll for the private sector. In his case, he became a consultant. Like I wrote earlier, for a few years he was one of the lobbyists pushing for the political interests of whichever company was paying him.

EVENTUALLY, HE MOVED on to a bigger scale – choosing to try to earn his living by being a part of the coalition trying to rebuild Iraq into something resembling a Democracy.

I can’t say I had kept in touch with him, but I must admit to having always gotten a kick out of the idea that somebody I knew “way back when” had moved up to such a reputable post.

He had been in Iraq for just over two years, working as a senior advisor for the State Department’s Iraq Transition Assistance Office. I actually found an interview he gave early in 2008 where he said he expected to be back in the United States to stay by April 1 of last year.

But just as the Iraq situation isn’t resolved, neither was his work. Which is why he happened to be a part of a convoy on Monday that was returning from a wastewater treatment plant inspection when it was hit by a roadside bomb. Barnich was one of three killed in the explosion.

SO IN THE case of the life of Terry Barnich, we’re talking about a guy who worked his way out of the South Side's Hegewisch neighborhood (he was a 1971 graduate of Washington High School) up through the ranks of the Statehouse Scene before achieving some moments of significance trying to bring stability to what has become a troubled region.

It’s just a shame he couldn’t live long enough (he was 56) to see if his work would end in success.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: I found it most ironic to read of how Terry Barnich narrowly escaped (http://www.phoneplusmag.com/articles/personality_plus_terry_barnich.html) death during a past explosion – 44 paces and eight seconds, by his estimation. He wasn’t as fortunate (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/26/iraq/main5039228.shtml) this week.

Whether expressed then or now, an “I’m sorry” from Ryan doesn’t mean much

How desperate is George Ryan to get out of the federal prison at Terre Haute, Ind.? He is so desperate that he finally did Friday what he had refused to do for all these years – he apologized.

Ryan, with the support of his son, George Jr., wrote a three-paragraph statement that was meant to be a mea culpa for all the criminal acts people think he did during his time as governor (even though the criminal charges against him relate to activity during his time as Illinois Secretary of State).

AND THAT STATEMENT was sent from Terre Haute to Chicago, where another former Illinois governor, James R. Thompson, read it to reporter-types at his downtown Chicago law office in hopes that it will bolster the chances that soon-to-be-former President George W. Bush will look favorably upon Ryan’s request for clemency.

Ryan has served just over one year of a 6 ½-year prison term, and has to serve just over four more years before he could be eligible for early release. Considering that Ryan is already 74, there’s a good chance that he might not live that long.

So Thompson is putting his legal reputation on the line in supporting Ryan’s request to Bush for a commutation of sentence, which would leave Ryan’s criminal record intact but would let him return home to Kankakee, where wife Lura Lynn is struggling financially to survive.

Just what effect will an apology have now? I don’t think it will mean much, since I am inclined to believe that Bush is not the type of person who will look sympathetically at Ryan’s plight.

BESIDES, HE HAS his own crowd of allies who have committed acts in recent years (think Abu Ghraib) that will require presidential clemency to spare them prison time. Why should Bush waste clemency on Ryan when there are others who, in his mind, deserve it more?

And based on various Internet sites that offer people a chance to comment on various issues, it is clear that nobody wants to hear an apology from George Ryan. They want to see him rot away in prison.

Think I’m kidding? Take this comment – “Sorry Ryan, rot in prison. No mercy” – from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website, posted just after Thompson read the statement, which was broadcast le on several Chicago television newscasts. Or, take this statement attached to a Chicago Sun-Times story posted on the Internet:

“It would only be poetic justice if governors Ryan and Blagojevich were forced to share … the same cell at the federal prison at Terre Haute, Ind.”

THAT SENTIMENT (THE notion that Ryan and Blagojevich are somehow equal in status) is about the only reason I can think of in which an apology from Ryan makes any sense.

George Ryan wants to establish the thought in our minds that he’s the public official who is apologetic about his actions. He’s sorry, and wishes he could take it back.

When compared to Blagojevich’s actions the same day – meeting with ministers at his home and telling them how he intends to beat the rap because he didn’t do anything illegal – George comes off looking downright contrite.

Ryan wants us to think of him as the “good” convicted politico, while thinking of Blagojevich as the “bad” politico facing criminal charges.

YET ONLY IN that context does George Ryan come off looking good. By any other standard, the apology offered Friday doesn’t mean much. All too many Illinoisans are willing to think of Ryan and Blagojevich as political twins – which even Thompson concedes, he has said publicly that the incumbent governor’s legal predicament harms his chances of getting presidential clemency for Ryan.

Keep in mind that this thought about Ryan’s activity on Friday is being expressed by someone who has always thought much of the criticism against Ryan throughout the years is absurd.

An apology in the earliest days of this political saga (meaning, several years ago) might have been listened to. Now, it comes off as insincere rhetoric from a political person who can’t handle the mental stress of prison life (even though Thompson said on Friday that Ryan’s change of heart was due to his year of incarceration giving him the chance to reflect upon his life’s actions).

Even then, many of Ryan’s activities as governor (particularly his efforts to reform the death penalty in Illinois that culminated with him providing varying forms of clemency for the just over 160 inmates on death row at the time of Ryan’s departure from politics in early 2003) would have motivated Ryan’s critics to refuse to listen to anything he had to say.

THOMPSON DID MAKE one legitimate point, in saying that it would not have been realistic to expect Ryan to say anything that resembled an apology prior to now, because he had court proceedings, then legal appeals, pending before him.

Which means he had a legal responsibility to shut up and let the court activity run its course.

But now? Ryan says his, “goal is to do the right thing, no matter how tardy or flawed.”

Somehow, I don’t see the president or the public at-large buying it. For Ryan’s sake, I only hope he survives long enough to see Independence Day of 2013 – which is the date he is tentatively scheduled for release from prison.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Some people think that showing any sympathy for George Ryan is a sign (http://www.suntimes.com/news/commentary/1322545,editorial-ryan-no-commute-sentence-121008.article) that Rod Blagojevich may also get undeserved sympathy some day.

He’s sorry. (http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=6553141) He’s really, really sorry.

Ryan’s so-called allies among conservatives and Republicans have always been his most-outspoken (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/12/10/opinion/main4660712.shtml) critics when it comes to the long-shot concept of George W. Bush granting him some form of clemency.