From today's newspaper

The politically connected law firm that's donating more than $10 million in legal services to defend former Gov. George Ryan got its money's worth Wednesday.

Defense attorney Dan Webb was brilliant in closing arguments as he took a verbal wrecking ball to the charges against Ryan in the corruption trial coming to a close this week in the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse.

It was quite a show (see theater critic Chris Jones' review).

In seven hours over two days, Webb went through each allegation against Ryan and was alternately folksy, emphatic, sarcastic, indignant and funny in explaining why they're "garbage," in his words, and why the jurors should find Ryan not guilty on all counts.

Webb, a partner at Winston & Strawn and former U.S. attorney widely hailed for his trial skills, portrayed Ryan, 72, as a well-intentioned ex-pharmacist.

Webb said Ryan's alleged crimes, in every single instance, were honest mistakes, misunderstandings or not crimes at all--just routine political and governmental acts viewed through the twisted prism of federal investigators.

It was a far more theatrical, engaging performance than the workmanlike recitation we saw from the prosecution Monday and early Tuesday. Webb cleverly isolated each allegation and either explained it away or dismissed it as insignificant, repeatedly pointing sympathetically at the stone-faced Ryan and leaning hard on his "F's" as he asked if the evidence amounted to a "federal felony."

In many cases, the answer was no. And immediately after Webb finished, I went on WGN-AM 720 to predict Ryan will be acquitted on at least some of the 22 counts. Webb had reduced to dust several of the pickier allegations, such as the one charging Ryan with tax fraud for listing as a political expense the cost of home health care for his mother-in-law that allowed his wife to accompany him on the stump.

But other allegations are still standing, despite Webb's best efforts to explain them away. Most notably, Webb sounded almost comically desperate when he attempted to put a favorable spin on the so-called cash back arrangement. That was when Ryan stayed several times in a Jamaican villa owned by a leader in the state's currency-exchange industry and created a phony paper-trail by writing the man $1,000 rent checks for which he was instantly reimbursed in cash.

I'm guessing Ryan will be found guilty on charges relating to that cheesy arrangement. But whether the overall verdict vindicates Ryan or the relentless investigation that led to his indictment now seems to rest on how well lead prosecutor Patrick Collins is able to rebuild what Webb all but demolished Tuesday and Wednesday.

Collins will get the last word in the trial either late Thursday afternoon or Friday morning, when he'll have about four hours to talk to the jury.

To win convictions on the most important charges, he'll have to make jurors see the case not as a series of isolated allegations based on circumstantial evidence and suspicion, but as a coherent narrative.

He'll have to transform Webb's hapless pharmacist/public servant into a greedy, arrogant politician.

He'll have to turn Webb's honest family man with an unlucky weakness for sleazy friends and advisers into an amoral schemer who abused the public trust, stuffed his pockets with Christmas cash from janitors and tried to cover his tracks with lies.

The details are important, but when there are so many of them piled up after nearly half a year of testimony, story line is even more important. How these jurors interpret all this evidence and testimony is likely to depend on whether Good George or Bad George is their main character as they deliberate next week.

And from my seat in the courtroom, I'm guessing the $10 million closing argument paid off by putting the momentum solidly behind Good George.

But it could still swing. Collins is a steely prosecutor who at times seems to seethe with deeply felt personal indignation over Ryan's public career.

If he channels that emotion perfectly, then my other prediction--that Ryan will never serve a day in prison--will look naive and premature.

Simply, Patrick Collins is going to have to tell a better story than Dan Webb, and at a fraction of the price.

A Bill To Be Entitled

An Act to Amend Gambling in Illinois.

1 Section 1: Bet on corruption trials to raise money for education.

2 Amend the US Constitution and make it a right of all citizens.

3 "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of gambling, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom to gamble, or of the casino; or of the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for unpaid debts."

4 Section 2: This shall be instituted in Illinois and all US States and Provences.

5 Section 3: This shall be enacted in the spring of 2006. Citizens 12 years and older shall be first affected.

6 It shall be the responsibility of government to enforce all debt payments.