CBS 2 Chicago's Jay Levine (who, with his wife, Mary Ann Childers, once gave my wife 100% tip at the restaurant she works at) managed to track down former Illinois Republican governor George Ryan, a Republican who helped make Illinois a solid-Blue State.
From the CBS 2 website:
Former Illinois Governor George Ryan is speaking out about his federal indictment on corruption charges.
"It's torn at the very fiber of my family, my friends and myself,"Ryan said. The former governor told CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine that his eight-year ordeal will end in September when he finally gets his day in court.
George and Lura Lyn Ryan are back home now in the Kankakee neighborhood where they've lived all their lives. Now they are facing the fight of their lives.
Ryan told CBS 2 News that he will not come to some kind of agreement with prosecutors to avoid putting himself and his family through a trial. "You have to have done something wrong to do that. I have done nothing wrong," Ryan said.
"I'm pretty limited to what I can say about the case, but I know that Dan Webb said at the time of the indictment that the federal government can't name one person who gave me a corrupt dollar. And I think that's an important thing for the public to know," he said.
Ryan's lawyers won't let him answer specific questions about the case or the potential witnesses, who could be close aides and advisers, even his children.
"How are you going to be able to handle a trial in which very own children are going to called to testify against you?" Levine asked.
"I just want to say we have a very close family. They'll all be there in spirit and physically," Ryan said. "Our family is very strong and very strong-willed and we are all looking for opportunity for this trial to proceed and conclude."
This will be the big story in Illinois in six weeks, and should get a lot of national attention, too. Outside of Illinois, Ryan is best known as the governor who emptied out the state's death row. Here in the Prairie State, at least among Republicans, he's an embarrasment.
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