Senator Dick Durbin’s recent efforts on behalf of former Illinois governor and convicted felon George Ryan are supposedly in the name of compassion, but such a charade only tells us that some think justice should not be blind to a resume.

Ryan resides in a medium security facility in Terre Haute, Ind., after being convicted in September 2006 on numerous charges of racketeering, bribery, extortion, money laundering and tax fraud. Ryan’s downfall began years earlier with a federal investigation of a crash in Wisconsin that resulted in the deaths of six children. The investigation uncovered a scandal in which Ryan’s office had given illegal licenses to unqualified truck drivers.

Durbin said he was motivated to seek commutation for Ryan after speaking with Lura Lynn, Ryan’s 74-year-old wife, who has been in poor health and recently sought treatment for an aneurysm. He also said Ryan has already served a high enough price for the scandal with his one-year imprisonment, loss of pension and quite obvious humiliation and disdain to his name. Durbin added that further imprisonment by Ryan would “not serve the ends of justice.”

But that’s exactly what it would do. Ryan’s measly one year in prison does not even come close to paying for the deaths of the six children from Wisconsin, let alone his lies to the F.B.I. and the Illinois public who trusted him and put him in office.

For President Bush to consider releasing Ryan from jail would be to show him a consideration that would not be given to any private figure in a similar position. The reason this is being taken seriously, the only reason, is that Ryan is a former high-ranking public official.

Even the senior senator himself said public officials should be held to a higher standard of public trust, and in this case, Ryan has completely lost ours.

Parts of Ryan’s letter to the president revealed that the former governor was sorry for his conduct. He said he is humiliated, has lost all respect and trust, has faced financial difficulty and “worst of all,” as he so genuinely wrote, has had to leave Lura Lynn when she needed him the most.

But there is no mention of his responsibility in the loss of innocent lives, only regret that he is being made to face the consequences of his actions. If anyone is deserving of compassion, it is Rev. Scott Willis and his wife Janet, who lost six children in an entirely-preventable traffic accident.

George Ryan got what he deserved: a fair trial and a prison sentence.