Congressman Luis Guiterrez Defends Alleged Terrorist on Illinois State Payroll

The Chicago Sun-Times has a follow up on their breaking story of the high ranking employee making $120,000 a year on the state of Illinois payroll(who's a convicted felon):

But the politician who recommended Guerra for his state job, U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), lavished praise on a longtime acquaintance who "made what he considered a principled decision, and he paid a heavy price for that decision."

"I have known Steven for a long time. He is a good man who cares about making our state a better place to live," said Gutierrez, who persuaded President Bill Clinton to grant clemency to 11 imprisoned FALN members in 1999.

As you can guess,the people in Congressman's Gutierrez's district view a criminal past as an asset.