As I've remarked many times on Marathon Pundit, one way to clean up Illinois is to impose long prison sentences on public officials, particularly elected ones, who break the law.
Fear of a ten, twenty, or in the case of former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, a twenty-eight year sentence might scare some tempted folks straight.
As Illinois is in the midst of a widespread corruption investigation, there should be opportunities to frighten budding crooks in government.
As for Blago, now that he's out of prison, perhaps he can talk about what he knows to federal investigators about Boss Michael J. Madigan, the speaker of the Illinois House for 35 of the last 37 years and the chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party since 1998. The two were never close. Of course what Blago might know is of little use directly to the feds--the statute of limitations on any crimes he's aware of during his time as governor has likely passed, but he can tell investigators that this crony of Madigan, or that hanger-on of the boss might be someone they can talk to.
If Blagojevich provides useful information to the feds, then I might change my mind about the commutation.
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