Representative Bob Ney gets 30 months? What in the name of sleezy Ohio politics is that for justice?! I’m sorry to sound so punitive, but where can a corrupt bureaucrat get a fitting reprimand? In developing nations, government officials who profit illegally from their station are executed in public. This is meant as a lesson to others who may be tempted to take advantage of the public trust. It’s a trust the public has no recourse but to offer. That’s why punishment must be severe.

What of the misrepresentation for which Ney was convicted? How many people were hurt by Ney not representing them? What public-good legislation was prevented from passing because of Ney and the corporations he was protecting? What detrimental laws were passed for their benefit? Going further, who did Ney help get elected, and what wave of murderous manslaughter did Bob Ney and his fellow cronies help unleash? Should those consequences not have weighed into his sentencing?

Compounding Bob Ney’s crime of misrepresentation is that the results persist. The laws he was influenced to pass still stand. It’s as if a bankrobber, caught, is let to keep the money. Bob Ney was fined $6,000. Is that restitution?!

There is no restitution for the victims, the American people, who suffer from corrupt laws and elected administrators. And fellow cronies continue to represent their malevolent corporate interests against the voters who thought their candidates represented them.

You may say even thirty days in jail is a sufficient deterrent. I say we should demand the heads and bank accounts of all a crony’s progeny. And business partners. Everyone who benefited from the crime of corruption. I’ll be satisfied to meet in the middle, a pound of flesh.