"I just wish the people of Illinois could have known the truth"

[Padraig18]

POSHARD: CHARGES NO SURPRISE - FORMER CONGRESSMAN ALLEGED RYAN WAS CORRUPT IN 1998 RACE

BY JIM MUIR
THE SOUTHERN


CARTERVILLE -- Glenn Poshard said he wasn't surprised former Gov. George Ryan was named in a 22-count federal racketeering indictment but the news still had an effect on him.

Poshard was out of the area Wednesday and didn't hear the news until later that night.

"I bet I didn't sleep one hour last night after I learned about the indictment," Poshard said. "I spent the night reliving all of this again and thinking about all the times we tried to lay out the corruption that was taking place and make a point that these things were going on and needed to be stopped. There was no feeling of elation or 'I told you so' or anything like that. Basically, to tell you the truth, it makes me sick at my stomach."

Ryan defeated Poshard for governor in 1998. During the campaign, Poshard alleged Ryan was involved in corruption that included a license-for-bribe scandal and state employees working for Ryan's campaign on state time.

"The same allegations made in the indictment against him (Ryan) are the exact same things that we said were happening in 1998," Poshard said. "Looking back, I believe there was intent to give George Ryan a pass through the entire process."

<snip>

http://southernillinoisan.com/rednews/2003/12/19/build/top/TOP001.html

This is why we MUST put aside our aversion to raising money for the GE in 2004; Congressman Poshard told the voters the truth, but he was drowned out by the well-financed Republican party's media machine. We are going to be facing a battle for our own survival, and we may well have to do things we ideally would prefer not to.

We need LOTS of money next year, folks, if we don't want to have happen to our nominee what happened to Congressman Poshard!

:)

[Creideiki]

1. I voted for Ryan

Poshard is a heartless, evil, little toad.

Ryan, on the other hand, was quite liberal as governor. Given the choice, I chose the more progressive candidate, even with little doubt the allegations were true. Hey. I was raised in Illinois. I can handle a little corruption if the handiwork is good.

Now, the good news for Illinois, is that the rightwingnuts here have decided it was really association with Ryan that got all but the rational one kicked out of statewide office. That means that they won't learn their lesson and run someone reasonable next time, so the Democrats should easily hold the statewide offices.

[Padraig18]

4. "Poshard is a heartless, evil, little toad"

:wtf: do you mean? We must know two completely different Congressman Glenn Poshards, because that certainly doesn't accurately describe the one I know.

[dansolo]

6. I felt the same way

Even though I was fairly certain that Ryan was corrupt, I could never get myself to vote for Glenn Poshard. He is definitely a DINO.

[Padraig18]

7. Umm...

Poshard was very progressive, except for 'guns and groins'. Even though he was personally pro-life, he made it crystal clear that the governor's job was to enforce the laws, not make them, and that Roe v. Wade was the 'law of the land'. To call him a 'DINO' is, at best, disingenuous.

[AngryAmish]

10. A word on Illinois corruption.

I also am of the school that if a politician steals a little it is ok as long as the job gets done. Rosty is the perfect case. He was enjoyng the perks of the office and he really went to bat for us in DC. And Gingrich put him in jail.
But about Ryan - he really did sell the Sec. of State office. For cash, no. But he had a lot of workers who were political hires who did no work.
I have noticed a measurable increase in efficiency at the driver's facilities since Jesse White took office. (Maybe all the bad Repub employees are in jail.) But things are better there.
Ryan did some good things - for example on the death penalty. But do you think for one minute he would have done that if he was running for re-election in the Repub primary. He had to go looking for friends. What a jerk.

[Cocoa]

15. for cash, yes

big time. A lot of that money ended up in Ryan's pockets.

Regarding the increase in efficiency, I wouldn't say it's noticable, I would say it's incredible. It took me literally ten minutes to get my license last time, and I got to sit down for that ten minutes, and the people were nice. Compared to standing in line for hours, staring at pictures of Ryan's ugly face, and being treated like crap by Ryan's surly, demoralized patronage workers. Who it turns out were having their meager salaries taxed by the Ryan campaign.

[Cocoa]

13. if the handiwork is good?

you mean the six dead Willis children? wtf? Did you ever stand in one of George Ryan's lines?

[Padraig18]

14. Ryan was a TERRIBLE SOS, and a worse Governor.

His largesse pushed this State close to the brink of bankruptcy, and even though I don't agree with several of Gov. Blagoevich's choices on how to balance the books, I give him a HUGE :thumbsup: for having the b***s to do it in spite of the heat he's getting. We, the People of Illinois, are, at long last, being served as we deserve to be served. :)

[Q]

2. Yeah...that's it...all we need is MORE money.

- Of course...it depends on where the money comes from and what's expect in return.

[Padraig18]

3. We need MORE than money, obviously.

But let's not kid ourselves any longer about its importance.

[Padraig18]

5. Kick

:dem:

[davsand]

8. Poshard -v- Ryan was a case of "hold your nose..."

...for a lot of Dems in Illinois. Poshard STILL carries a lot of good will in downstate. I can't say I'm shocked to see this kind of back and forth on here about him.

I'm in Champaign County (and yeah, our Dems are fairly progressive, for the most part) but we had a huge split here. As I recall, Chamaign County went for Schmidt that year in the Primary.

In the General, there was a HUGE drop off in votes for Poshard compared to the rest of the Dem ticket. There was a lot of cross over and there were several who skipped that race on the ticket. I was working on projections for a candidate last November and I was reviwing those numbers and it just hit me how many folks did not care for Poshard here...

Poor Glen, it must feel a bit like Cassandra to have lost out to a man as reviled as Ryan.

Laura

[Padraig18]

9. I feel terribly sorry for him.

I agree about the split in the Dem vote, and it was tragic, frankly. Poshard was one of the most able, honest and truly progressive members of the IL congressional delegation, in many ways (education, labor, defense, civil rights, the environment, etc.), but some Dems just couldn't look at him as a 'whole package', and chose not to vote for him because he was pro-life and thought we had enough gun-control laws.

And look at what we got instead, eh? :eyes:

[RBHam]

11. When will people get it?

republicans actually are as corrupt as they say democrats are.

[Padraig18]

12. LOL!

We've known it here in IL for YEARS! :P

[Cocoa]

16. the Chicago Tribune endorsed Ryan

and IIRC, their coverage of the scandal seemed to focus on trying to discredit the lawyer for the Willis family, the guy that broke the story, the guy that was doing the press's job for them.

I rememer a lot of negative press for the whistleblower in Ryan's office as well.

And I remember a lot of "winking" at Illinois corruption on the part of the news media, in particular on the TV show "Chicago week in review," a lot of stuff about how this is the way things work in IL.

As it turns out, Joel Weisman, the host of that show, was on Fawell's favors list, he got a couple of vanity plates. Along with a lot of other media people.

[Padraig18]

17. Your recall is perfect.

one of the MOST underreported stories in this whole thing is how many reporters sold themselves to the Guv, in return for access, favors, etc... :puke: