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[Catherine Vincent]

BREAKING NEWS: FORMER ILLINOIS GOV. GEORGE RYAN, A STRONG DEATH PENALTY CRITIC, WAS FOUND GUILTY OF FRAUD, RACKETEERING AND TAX EVASION

So why did they throw in the "strong death penalty critic" in there?

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1841989&page=1&gma=true&gma=true

[otohara]

1. Is He Going to The Electric Chair ????

how weird they would put that in. It's not like he's going to get the death penality

[marmar]

2. Interesting...

Because being a death penalty critic has no relevance to that story.

[dchill]

6. Because being a death-penalty critic...

makes you a CRIMINAL!

[stop the bleeding]

3. Chalk up another victory to Fitz n/t

[jsamuel]

4. WOW! Instead of REPUBLICAN, they go with "Strong death penalty critic"

msm trying to make it seem like he is a Dem?

[aquart]

22. Bingo!

If he'd been less Dem-like, he wouldn't be going to jail!

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. He was the guy that stopped the execution of all the death row people.

It was big news.

7. ya - he pardoned the death row people

and also made a trip to Cuba. I thought he was trying to deflect criticism by turning a new leaf, because if he was so corrupt, why would he care about prisoners.

[Democrats_win]

8. Yes, that´s all I know about him--him standing up against the faulty d.p.

How do his crimes compare to him doing the right thing on the death penalty especially since the rest of the country was rallying behind Mr. kill-the-innocent Bush?

[goclark]

11. And he is/isn't repub ?

[Mandate My Ass]

9. He was not a strong DP critic. He was basically forced to place

a moratorium on execution in ILL after 13 people were exonerated during the same period 13 were executed. It was mostly because of David Protess and his students and the resulting expose was very explosive at the time. There were multiple cases of prosecutorial and police corruption that were so egregious he really had no choice but to shut it down. The cases were so cooked up, students were able to collect enough evidence to win new trials or dismissals of their convictions.

[TahitiNut]

10. The word "Republican" doesn't even appear in the CNN story.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/04/17/ryan.verdict.ap/index.html

:puke:

Nor does it appear in the UPI or Chicago Tribune stories.
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060417-113703-3735r
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/newsroom/chi-060417ryantrial,0,4525779.story?coll=chi-homepagepromo440-fea

[ourbluenation]

16. and they lifted it from the AP - this is ridiculous! eom

[dogday]

12. Where Is The Word Republican????

Me think me smells ze rat.....

[helderheid]

13. good question! Whaaa?? Interesting 2 non-related Ryans (R) got in IL hot

water.

Remember Jack Ryan?

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/22/ryan.divorce/

[Pirate Smile]

14. Maybe people will assume he was a Democrat instead of a Republican.

I would guess though that they put that in because that was what he was known nationally for doing - because he commuted all the Illinois death penalty cases to life in prison, no possibility of parole.

[nonconformist]

19. Bingo! So people will assume he is a Democrat. nt

[meegbear]

15. Maybe they're trying to imply he's "tough on crime" ...

and now he's guilty of a crime.

Either that or they wanna see him fry.

[Zynx]

17. As a strong death penalty critic myself, I'm disgusted.

[Gormy Cuss]

18. Probably because it's the first shorthand description they remembered

That's the benign explanation that occurs to me --for what would most Americans recognize Ryan, prior to these convictions? There could be a hidden agenda, but it may just be the simplest way to identify him to people outside of Illinois.

[Democrats_win]

20. Moral of the story? There´s no such thing as a decent Republican

Rule 1. There´s no such thing as a decent Republican.

Rule 2. If a Republican appears to be decent see rule #1.

[BlooInBloo]

21. They NEVER mention in the ENTIRE story that he's a republican...

... I'm satisfied it's a bamboozlement attempt - to make people think he's a Democrat.

Think I'll blog it - with a screenshot for posterity :)

[tridim]

23. Strong Death Penalty Critic = Liberal

Obviously that's why they chose those words.

It's just like Bush's favorite phrase when talking about his indicted pals, "Innocent until proven otherwise". Never use the word "guilty" when talking about Republican criminals.

[alfredo]

24. Maybe when Fitz cleans up some of his old cases, he can

start bringing new ones to court. You know the Plame case is going to need his undivided attention.