Spare the Rod

The News-Gazette article continues (edited):

Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin called Trump’s decision “disappointing” and said he was “never going to be able to figure out how the president messages, nor the decision making that he does.” Durkin was involved firsthand with the bipartisan effort to impeach Blagojevich in January 2009. “I saw a governor who was rogue on steroids,” he said. “He didn’t care about the state of Illinois, he cared about his own ambition, and he abused the office, and the Legislature did the appropriate thing, the federal courts did the right thing, not only at the district court level but also the appellate court and U.S. Supreme Court, and they said his sentence was appropriate.”

In a statement, Gov. J.B. Pritzker (democrat), who has argued on several occasions that Blagojevich should serve his full sentence, echoed that sentiment. “Illinoisans have endured far too much corruption, and we must send a message to politicians that corrupt practices will no longer be tolerated,” he said in the statement. “President Trump has abused his pardon power in inexplicable ways to reward his friends and condone corruption, and I deeply believe this pardon sends the wrong message at the wrong time.

U.S. Rep Darin LaHood, a Republican and honorary cochairman of Trump’s Illinois re-election campaign, said in August that he spoke to the president and encouraged him not to commute the sentence. On Tuesday, LaHood and the other Republican members of Illinois’ congressional delegation — John Shimkus, Adam Kinzinger, Rodney Davis and Mike Bost — released a statement expressing their disappointment in Trump’s action. “We believe (Blagojevich) received an appropriate and fair sentence, which was the low end of the federal sentencing guidelines for the gravity of his public corruption convictions,” they said. “Blagojevich is the face of public corruption in Illinois, and not once has he shown any remorse for his clear and documented record of egregious crimes that undermined the trust placed in him by voters.

The office of Illinois Senate Republican leader Bill Brady of Bloomington released a statement saying Blagojevich should serve his full sentence, and several rank-and-file Illinois lawmakers condemned the commutation and called for greater ethics reforms in state government.