Rod Blagojevich is that rarest of creatures: a Democrat politician to whom laws actually apply.
Back in 2009, Blagojevich was impeached and removed from office as governor of Illinois for, among other things, trying to sell Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat. During the early days of the Obama administration, Blago (as he came to be known) became a figure of fun for his floppy hair and arrogant, seemingly clueless manner. Then Blago went to prison, and Democrats no longer had to explain how Obama ascended so spotlessly from such a fetid sewer of corruption as Chicago politics. Out of sight, out of mind.
And that’s just where Blago will stay, for the time being. Patrick M. O’Connell and Jason Meisner, Chicago Tribune:
A federal judge imposed the same 14-year prison sentence on Rod Blagojevich Tuesday despite pleas for mercy from the former governor, his wife and two daughters.
The decision appeared to stun Blagojevich, who was looking on by closed-circuit television from a federal prison in Colorado…
“He stole my childhood,” Blagojevich’s oldest daughter, Amy, said a short time later as she gestured toward the bench. U.S. District Judge James Zagel had left the courtroom by then…
Zagel said Blagojevich still stood guilty of the same corruption despite the ruling by a federal appeals court last year throwing out five of the 18 counts for which he was convicted.
Blago isn’t scheduled to get out until May 2024. It’s as if he’s paying for the sins of all the other corrupt politicians in Chicago. Which is a lot of corrupt politicians, because it’s Chicago. Guess they’re just better at it than he is.
Saddest of all: His hair has gone gray. Lot of that goin’ around, pal!