<i>Sun-Times'</i> Brown's Open Letter To Durbin: Don't Ask For Ryan Pardon

Dick Durbin seems to be confused. That's the nicest way I can think to say it.

Fresh from helping put Barack Obama in the White House, coupled with his own runaway re-election to the U.S. Senate, Durbin must be so giddy with success that it has clouded his judgment.

How else to explain Durbin's confession Tuesday that he is considering lending his voice to the effort to free former Gov. George Ryan from prison?

While Durbin's comments were clearly sympathetic to Ryan, he says he hasn't made up his mind, which is good, because I'd like to think he's smart enough to snap out of it if we talk sense to him. That's why I'm making the rest of this column an open letter to Durbin.

Senator, the action you are contemplating would be a mistake.

And I'm not just talking about a political misstep, but a profound breaking of the public trust.

Simply put, the People of the State of Illinois, the people who elected you to represent them in Washington, do not want President Bush to commute George Ryan's sentence, and more important, he doesn't deserve it.

Read the entire column.