Tribute to Russert in Lincoln Museum exhibit

When the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum opened three years ago, it sought to pull Lincoln's presidency out of the history books and drop it into a modern context. Among the exhibits that does that in stellar fashion is "Campaign 1860," which sets the four-way presidential campaign of 1860 in a modern media setting. Setting viewers straight on the views of candidates Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, John C. Breckinridge and John Bell is the familiar, authoritative presence of Tim Russert. Russert was a natural choice for this role. Since taking the helm of "Meet the Press," Russert had earned respect across the political spectrum. If a generation was to understand the bitterly contested presidential contest of 1860, who better to explain it than the man who guided America through the bitterly contested presidential contest of 2000?…

It's our hope that "Campaign 1860" remains part of the presidential museum for many years to come. It's a fitting tribute to one of this generation's great journalists; a person millions will miss as the current presidential campaign unfolds.

Don't pardon Ryan

If President Bush didn't think Scooter Libby's crime was any big deal, perhaps he'll think the same of former Illinois Gov. George Ryan's multiple transgressions. At least Ryan's attorney, Jim Thompson -- a former Illinois governor himself -- is hoping so as he plans to press his case before fellow Republican Bush to get his buddy Ryan out of federal prison after the U.S. Supreme Court said "no can do"…

We hope President Bush recognizes how poorly served Illinoisans have been and continue to be by the rampant corruption in their state government, to which Ryan was once a primary contributor...

We are not totally lacking in compassion for Ryan. If Illinois didn't have these last 50 years of awful history with unscrupulous public officials, we might be of a different mindset. But if President Bush were to commute Ryan's sentence, it would send a terrible message to every politician in anything-goes Illinois. We don't want any more leaders whose behavior is dictated not by doing the right thing but by cynical calculations of how far they can go doing what they believe they can get away with.