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Announcer: Welcome back to The David Pakman Show.
David: Back on The David Pakman Show. Giving away an iPad in just minutes, Louis. And several
new David Pakman Show members I want to say hello to: Scott Roth, as well as Roy Padrick,
both new friends, new family members of the David Pakman Show Progressive Mafia, so to
speak. For lack of a better term, I think is what I mean.
Also, for people who ask me how else other than becoming a member can I help support
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of the site, and bookmark that page, and in the future, whenever you use Amazon to get
whatever it is you use Amazon for, use that link, use that bookmark, and you'll also be
helping to support The David Pakman Show. Over hundreds of items, Louis, purchased through
that link over the last week, and really going a long way to help support the show. It's
fantastic.
Louis: Oh, yeah.
David: Rod Blagojevich, guilty on 17 of 20 counts, this of course revolving around the
conspiracy to sell President Barack Obama's prior Senate seat from Illinois. And Blagojevich
said frankly, he was stunned. Let's take a listen to exactly what he said.
Brooke Baldwin: Wolf, forgive me, I hate interrupting you, but take a look at your TV screen. We
are seeing, or we just saw, the camera's fixated on former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich,
with his wife, Patti, presumably, walking outside of that courtroom. We know that he
was found guilty on 17 of those 20 charges he's been facing. It looks like he is clearly
surrounded by a crush of media. Let's see if he will speak. Looks like he is. Do we
have audio?
Rod Blagojevich: ... try to speak a little bit less, so I'm going to keep my remarks
kind of short. Patti and I obviously are very disappointed in the outcome. I frankly am
stunned. There's not much left to say other than we want to get home to our little girls
and talk to them and explain things to them, and then try to sort things out. And I'm sure
we'll be seeing you guys again.
David: All right, so not taking any questions that I was able to find there. And he's stunned,
because he really thought he was going to be able to fleece the jury into thinking he
did absolutely nothing wrong. And I guess he's stunned that he wasn't able to do that.
I don't know what else to think.
He faces a maximum penalty of over 200 years in prison. Now, as the verdict came down,
pundits were quickly pointing out that Judge James Zagel will have to follow the federal
sentencing guidelines, which leaves most to assume that Blagojevich will get somewhere
around seven to 10 years.
However, I want to propose that he may get a lot more. And what I would point to is that
people expected Bernie Madoff to get 10 years, roughly. That was the consensus after his
conviction but before his sentencing. He got 150 years, and I think that this is... obviously
every judge is different, but I think that going forward with a lot of these corruption-type
fraud, white-collar crimes, I think that the Madoff sentence has opened the door to longer
sentences for corruption and scams.
Louis: Right. I hope so.
David: You think he should go for longer than the seven to 10 years he's expected to get?
Louis: Yeah, why not?
David: Well, I don't know, maybe he doesn't deserve it.
Louis: I mean, I can't pick a number that I think is fair, I just think seven to 10
seems a little low.
David: Are you surprised by this verdict?
Louis: No.
David: I'm not either. I mean, it just seems like one... every time that we just are going
by what we see on television and in the media, I always am hesitant to assess guilt or innocence,
however, there was such a preponderance of evidence along with recordings and so many
other things, and Blagojevich's behavior was just so bizarre, between the reality shows
and the very loud calls and predictions of vindication, I am not surprised at all. I'm
surprised he's only... I'm surprised he's that stunned, if he's telling the truth about
it.
Louis: Right.
Transcript provided by Alex Wickersham and www.Subscriptorium.com. For transcripts, translations,
captions, and subtitles, or for more information, visit www.Subscriptorium.com, or contact Alex
at subscriptorium@gmail.com.