debate

Does Blago Deserve 14 Years in Prison?

Pundits are split over whether ex–Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich deserved the 14-year prison sentence he was handed Wednesday—and nowhere was that debate more apparent than on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. Joe Scarborough decried the sentence as “excessive,” while cohost Mika Brzezinski said she’s “not surprised” he was harshly punished since he’s spent the the past three years mocking the process—for example, by going on Celebrity Apprentice. (The Daily Beast’s Michelle Cottle acknowledged as much, contending that he’s “getting spanked for being such a flamboyant jackass.”) But in the end, Morning Joe guest John Heilemann argued, Blago might just be “paying for the sins of his predecessors” in famously corrupt Chicago.