Will the Fawell guilty verdict change how politics is practiced in Illinois? Only if U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald doesn’t let it end with him and goes after former Gov. George Ryan, as is much rumored.

Otherwise, the lesson to politicians will simply be to let your underlings do what they want, just don’t give the go-ahead to shred documents, as Ryan — who has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by admirers of his death penalty stance — did.