I realize this isn't "Columbo", but I'M JUST SO EXCITED!!! Former Illinois Governor George Ryan has just this moment (12:20 pm, 4/17/06) been found GUILTY on some 22 counts of numerous racketeering/conspiracy charges. All you had to do was look at this guy to know that he was guilty. (For me, that was BEFORE he was ever even elected!) However, it took some terrific Columbo-like detectives and investigators involved on this one to nail this creep! Sentencing will happen on August 4th. This jerk is goin' to prison!!! Hope he gets to room with BIG BUBBA! (He'll probably get to play shuffle-board in a white-collar jail.)

Oooooh, I'm so happy about this!!!

Now back to "Columbo" posts...

I'm a Republican, and I found him an absolute disgrace (I lived in IL during his tenure). And then the biggest disgrace was how he tried to deflect attention from his corruption to buy favor with certain groups by commuting all death row cases in the state before leaving office.

Sorry for the partisan digression there, but this is something right thinking people of both parties should approve of.

I really have no clue when it comes to politics in Illinois. Nor do I know about this guy Ryan. But from the comments you and Eric have made, he sounds like a low-life.
It is great to hear that sometimes justice wins out, and the 'bad guy' gets what he deserves.
I know the local government in my town in Jersey is filled with a bunch of thieving manipulative politicians, and the local papers talk about their underhanded doings all the time. Yet, they continue to hold office, and they remain unscathed. It can really make you lose all hope and respect for one's appointed officals.

As far as I'm concerned, they're all guilty of racketeering the second they run for office, but since I don't see any impeachment proceedings, a few low-level sacrifices never hurt. Keeps the herd thinking that morality in government still exists.

However, ethically or otherwise, parasites don't produce ... they pilfer from those who do, so how much more corrupt do they really have to be in the eyes of their own crooked system?

Racketeering? In Illinois? I didn't know such things happened!

Haha, I'm only kidding, of course. I heard about how Gov. Ryan commuted all the death row convicts. I guess he wasn't the champion of right and virtue he pretended to be - much like a certain Senator Hayward we're all familiar with, eh? I wonder if Ryan, like Hayward, was rendered speechless when he found out he got nailed.