On Tuesday, May 23, 2017 at 9:56:03 AM UTC-5, analogdial wrote:


Blago's sentence was harsh. But Blago's defense seemed to center on his
bizzare publicity tour, I suppose to humanize him to the jury. This is
a guy who once worked in the Cook County State's Attorney as a
prosecutor and should have a pretty good idea of what makes a solid
case.

As a politician, Blago was a tireless campaigner and told people what
they wanted to hear. But a little Blago goes a long way, and he never
seemed to understand that. He got on the Illinois General Assembly's
nerves and got impeached. I'm sure he got on the judge's nerves, too.

The reason stated for the harsh sentance was that they wanted
to make a public example of Blago. Corruption should no longer be
politics as usual in Illinois, etc, etc, etc. I think Blago got an
extra 7 years for being annoying.


What raised red flags for me was the government's refusal to
allow all their wire tapped tapes of him to be heard. Makes one wonder about the context of the conversations they based their prosecution of him upon.
Don't know. Just made me wonder.

Nothing on the tapes would have Blago unsaying what he said. I suspect
Blago wanted the jury to hear boring hours of Blago NOT being
a crook. Probably not the most brilliant defense.

Could be the Feds were keeping someone else from getting tangled up in
this, too.

His publicity tour worked with me. I remember watching him and actually liking the guy. He's a very personable fellow. Obviously that is what made him a successful politician. I read an article about him in prison and it said he is very well liked by the other inmates. He's more than happy to help them out with legal appeals etc. Very commendable.

Yeah there had to be things going on behind the scenes that only the insiders knew about. He must have really ticked off some of the other corrupt officials Illinois is infested with.

What ever happened to the honor among thieves thing?