Steve on the sympathy for former Ill. Gov. Rod Blagojevich:
Add Richard Roeper tothe list of sympathizers.
“Look at Rod Blagojevich’s life right now,” Roeperwrites. “He’s been stripped of his law license. He was impeached and removed from office by a vote of 114-1. He’s broke. His house is for sale. His daughters have seen their father become a disgrace and punch line. His obituary will lead with his criminal convictions. In the court of public opinion, he’s already been sentenced to a lifetime of disgrace.
“Yes, Blagojevich did all that to himself, and has no one to blame but himself. But given the price he’s already paid and the fact he was arrested before he could execute one of his wacky plans to sell the Senate seat, I have no great desire to see the guy serve 15-20 years in prison.”
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Perhaps some media folks sympathize because Blago is “like us,” not “them.”
“[S]hould he really do more time than hundreds if not thousands of violent criminals?” Roeper asks. “[I] a country where Dr. Conrad Murray gets four years and will serve much less than that for contributing to Michael Jackson’s death, seems out of whack for Blago to serve a dozen years or more.”
Fittingly, Roeper’s best analogy is a celebrity doctor in a celebrity death.
Okay. Once and for all, people making jokes about you on TV is not actual punishment. It may seem so, for those whose livelihood is invested in the importance of celebrity, but it’s not actual punishment, not the way going to prison is.
A.