Today's turmoil in Fitz's other trial...more Republican corruption

Even though my diaries are rarely read or commented on, I thought I'd update y'all on Patrick Fitzgerald's other big case - the corruption trial of former Republican Governor George Ryan - both to highlight the widespread pandemic nature of typical Republican corruption and to provide insight into an actual trial conducted by Fitz.  Today's court hearings were explosive and deserve to be known widely.  To briefly summarize the story, Ryan was Secretary of State of Illinois prior to being elected as Governor in 1998 and there have been numerous allegations about corrupt conduct during his tenure then, the most serious perhaps being the bribe-for-license scandal whereby commercial driving licenses were obtained by graft (which ultimately resulted in the horrific deaths of a family allegedly caused by a driver who fraudulently obtained his license).

I dare you to read more after the break!

But today's brouhaha concerned a quite different allegation - that Ryan, in his capacity as chairman of the Phil Gramm for President Illinois committee, helped raise money for the campaign and then funneled it to his daughter by claiming that he was being paid legitimately by the campaign for "consulting services."  That is, a line item in the Ryan-led Gramm Illinois committee's financial statement included "consulting services" which was a subterfuge to enrich Ryan and his family from monies allegedly raised to benefit Gramm's campaign.

Numerous Gramm staffers have been testifying, but today's star witness was none other than former Senator Gramm himself, who basically testified that he knew nothing about paying Ryan or his daughter and would not have approved it if he had and that no other such state chairman, to his knowledge, had grafted money off his campaign in this fashion.  After his testimony, he rather notoriously told reporters that it was essentially the difference between "love and prostitution" and that you don't pay for it with friends.

Needless to say, Ryan did not like this testimony.  On local news here in Chicago, they reported that when Gramm made his statements in court (NBC), Ryan stared at Gramm and was visibly livid.  Afterwards, he went to the extraordinary length of making a public statement (he hasn't done much of that til now) which admitted that he took money from the campaign (he claimed only $11,000 but the canceled checks with his daughter's name on them and the budget line item reveal much larger bribes).  This was different because he previously had not even admitted that simple fact, but in his statement he said that he earned the money and that Gramm and his campaign knew all about it.

But the most interesting thing was that Ryan, at his press conference, then tore into Gramm, noting that he had retired "under pressure" because of allegations of Enron-related financial shenanigans combined with Gramm's wife being the chairwoman or the CFTC at the time.  Ryan demanded an investigation into Gramm's shady dealings; rather clearly implying that there was a lot more there than was generally known.

Observers at the trial were flabbergasted by the Gramm-Ryan tiff and at the visible anger and the mean-spirited comments from both of them.  They are playing hardball Republican-style and they ain't taking no prisoners!!

Fitz, of course, declined to comment today on either this trial, the Bob Woodward bombshells or the fact that he was listed in People's "Sexiest Man" list yesterday.  He's taking the high road...  As for insight into how he might handle a more nationally-known case, the manner by which he's got the Republicans pissing all over each other is a joy to behold!

Uh, I suppose I should add the caveat that I voted for the slimy Ryan in 1998 because of his stance on the death penalty and because Glenn Poshard was gay-baiting repeatedly.