GEORGE RYAN, STATESMAN….This story ran a few days ago but I just found out about it today (via Archpundit). Last summer, George Ryan, then governor of Illinois but so hip deep in corruption charges that he had decided not to run for re-election, decided to get cute with 40 state employees:
The 40 Ryan employees were in jobs with four-year terms due to expire shortly after the new governor took office last month….But late last summer, the employees tendered their resignations — temporarily. They never actually stopped working. Then Ryan appointed them to brand-new terms — in most cases within five days, according to records compiled by Blagojevich’s office.
I can just imagine the dittoheads chortling over this ? we sure put one over on them Democrats, yuck yuck! ? but this kind of crap needs to stop, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s a Democrat or a Republican doing it.
And for any Republicans who still think this was a cute move, what are the odds that Rod Blagojevich won’t do the same thing four years from now? The net result is that both parties lose the ability to govern the state the way they want, and gridlock and rancorous partisanship just get worse and worse. The whole episode just reeks.
