I am sure many people within Illinois and outside Lincolnland are chortling or at least grinning today when they see newcasts of our former Gov. George Ryan on television, headed for federal prison in Wisconsin.

Despite a less-than-ideal brush with the former governor, I am not among those gloating over his conviction, or now, his incarceration.

It is a sad day for the state of Illinois and its residents, whether they voted for him or not. While the citizenry should be glad that authorities investigate criminal activity - even by the highest officeholders in the state - then charge people who appear to have broken the law, it is sad that someone in whom the public has put its trust is found guilty of using that office for illegal personal gain.

It is not a day for celebration.

Assuming the 73-year-old Republican doesn’t die or get a Presidential pardon, he will serve much of a 6 1/2-year sentence on a corruption conviction.

The curmudgeonly former governor, keeping his gruff demeanor, didn’t talk to reporters today and walked through doors of the prison near Oxford intending to continue working to clear his name. The prison is about 60 miles north of Madison.

Ryan was convicted in April 2006 of steering contracts, tax fraud, misuse of tax dollars and state workers, and quashing a bribery investigation. Elected governor in 1998, after serving as secretary of state, he was in office only a few weeks before the federal investigation became public. He served only one term.

Ryan had hoped to remain free on bond while he appealed his convictions to the U.S. Supreme Court. But he lost his final bid to delay his prison term Tuesday, when U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens turned down his request to remain free on bail.

I have no doubt that the one-term governor will do just what he vowed, to try to clear his name, based on what I’ve read, seen on television and my two encounters with him in Alton.

One of his visits to Alton that I covered for The Telegraph was when he and a cadre of other elected officials announced a grant for the National Great Rivers Museum at an on-site press conference at Melvin Price Locks and Dam 26. He seemed a bit brusque, but he did what he had to do among the throng of Southern Illinois politicians and media, then left. No friendly chitchat or pleasantries with a warm smile that one could expect from his predecessor, Gov. Jim Edgar. I do remember his longtime wife, Lura Lynn, who seemed to always accompany him, was pleasant and conversational.

My other experience with Ryan actually was adversarial, and unnecessarily so.

An Alton social service organization had invited Ryan to come and read a book to its preschoolers. I don’t remember if there was a new grant involved or what the reason was for the invitation. Perhaps it was national read-a-book week. He might have been in the Alton area for other reasons, also.

Anyway, I showed up, pen and pad in hand. I believe a Telegraph photographer was there, too. The governor perched on a chair with a group of tots sitting on the carpeted floor in front of him, politely waiting for him to open a book he was holding and begin reading. He looked across the small room at me and demanded to know who I was and why I was there, although I’m sure the seasoned politician knew I was a reporter by presence of my pen and tablet.

Ryan then said he wouldn’t read to the children until I left the room.

I shot back that the host organization had invited the newspaper to the event, so that was why I was there. I also said I wouldn’t do a story on his visit OR on the agency if I had to leave.

This was not hard news that HAD to be covered. We already had a photo we could run as a standalone. For him, the positive media exposure was as close to “kissing babies” as he could get that day in Alton, and he almost blew it off.

He relented, though, so I guess I won.

He “let” me watch him read a simple book to the preschoolers, albeit a bit gruffly. The vision of W.C. Fields, though, flashed in my head: “Go away kid, ya bother me.” I did the story without bias, but that image burned in my head forever.

The Associated Press provided some information for this commentary.

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