Jack! Vs. Ryan
Many of you may wonder why I often refer to Jack Ryan as Jack! Mostly I enjoy making fun of politicians who have silly handles or whatever. This began in the last Governors race with Jim Ryan’s constant whine about being confused about George Ryan. I generally respect Jim Ryan, but it was too much and so much like J-Lo, Ryan and Ryan became J-Ry and G-Ry. And Blagojevich just screams for any number of nicknames, with Rich Miller’s G-Rod my general favorite. Jack! seems natural since it was meant to deflect attention from the last name.
So Jack! gets used when I’m being snarky, but in more serious posts, Ryan does just fine. Obama seems to have nothing fun for a nickname so, to date, he has been spared. In general I use it in good humor. If I really don’t like a politician, usually they end up with a really long nickname like Unindicted Co-conspirator Jerry Costello. Entirely fair, balanced, accurate and true.
Lots of stuff for tomorrow, but now, time for bed.
April 6th, 2004 at
Really. I thought it was a hilarious take off of “Just Jack!” from Will and Grace. I thought comparing the two in that context was extraordinarily clever of you. Now I’m disappointed.
April 6th, 2004 at
“I generally respect Jim Ryan.”
I hate to beat a dead horse — or rather a horse repeatedly, wrongly sentenced to death — but Eric Zorn is certainly right about the respectability of Jim Ryan:
“[In] February 1983 *** 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico was abducted in the middle of day from her home in unincorporated Naperville, raped and bludgeoned to death. Jim Ryan, then the state’s attorney of DuPage County, oversaw the 1985 trial in which Cruz and Hernandez were convicted on dubious evidence and sent to Death Row.
What kept the story alive was that a few months after the convictions, an Aurora man, Brian Dugan, was arrested in LaSalle County and charged with the abduction, rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl. As part of his negotiations with prosecutors, Dugan offered to confess not only to perpetrating that crime alone, but also several others, including the Nicarico murder.
***
Jim Ryan turned all the efforts of his office into destroying Dugan’s credibility and supporting what many even in law enforcement were recognizing as a false, flimsy conviction.
***
Jim Ryan used every legal and public-relations trick he knew to suppress the fact that DuPage authorities had somehow sent a pair of handy scapegoats off to die for a crime that another man had committed. He attacked the state police investigators, successfully persuaded a judge to keep much of the Dugan evidence out of retrials for Cruz and Hernandez and enlisted the aid of prison snitches to win new convictions. He played politics with justice.”
http://www.truthinjustice.org/cruz-ryan.htm
April 6th, 2004 at
Austin, I understand your point and during the 2002 election I made a series of posts which should be in the archive on the issue. I think Ryan has a ways to go, but he at least realized that there is a problem in general and seems to have improved. I’m not excusing it, but I think he took some lessons out of the case and the following issues on innocence issues.
This is in contrast to Birkett who is a retrograde jackass on the whole matter.
April 6th, 2004 at
Honestly, I thought you were doing the Will&Grace thing myself.
April 6th, 2004 at
Amen, Austin Mayor. Other than sending two men to Death Row for a crime they didn’t commit, Jim Ryan’s a swell guy. I know folks directly involved with this case. It stunk from the start.
April 7th, 2004 at
I’ll remember to shut up from now on so people think I’m far more clever than I actually am. However, now I’m finding a whole new level of humor in Jack!
December 1st, 2004 at
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