Yowza, is Republicrook ex-Guv "Virginia Slick" Bob McDonnell going away for 10 years? (Or maybe more!)

One shuffle closer to the chain gang? As Howie asked in September, when the jury dropped the hammer on Governor Bob and Mrs. Governor Bob, "After Throwing His Own Christian Wife Under The Bus, Whose Wife Will Bob McDonnell Be In Prison?"

by Ken

When we last dallied with "Slick Bob" McDonnell, he and his wife -- the onetime love of his life and indispensable partner in his political career, whom he had taken to portraying publicly as That Crazy Bitch (as I put it in July, "Man, what a dingbat ex-VA First Lady Mo McD is! Yes, the Dingbat Defense emerges as the McDonnells' secret weapon!") -- had been found guilty of corrupt gift-accepting so petty as to blight the very brand of Republicrookery. All that remained was for a judge to decided how long he's going away for, and then it's bye-bye, Bobby!

Slick Bob, you'll recall was the rocket-rising star of right-wing GOP politics (oops, that's redundant, isn't it? there isn't any other kind of GOP politics, is there?), the man who put a manly face and head of hair on crazed right-wing extremism. (The obvious contrast would be the creature from the crazy lagoon who served alongside him and but for the grace of God nearly succeeded him as governor, "Cuckoo Ken" Cuccinelli, the man who flaunted the face of crazed right-wing extremism.) To the professional pols and commentariat, His Slickness was a mere hop, skip, and jump away from the White House.

Oops.

Now there's news, and it's not the kind the McD's were likely hoping for. This morning washingtonpost.com put out this word:

Former Virginia Governor McDonnell’s sentencing guidelines: 10 years at least

By Matt Zapotosky

The federal agency that will play a pivotal role in guiding the sentence of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell has recommended that the onetime Republican rising star spend at least 10 years and a month in prison and 12 years and 7 months at most, according to several people familiar with the matter.

The guidelines recommended by the U.S. probation office are preliminary ones, and even if finalized, U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer is not required to follow them. But experts said Spencer typically heeds the probation office’s advice, and judges in his district have imposed sentences within the recommended range more than 70 percent of the time in recent years.

“It’s of critical importance,” said white collar criminal defense attorney Scott Fredericksen. “The fact is, the vast majority of times, courts follow those recommendations closely.”

To be sure, the matter is far from settled. Calculating an appropriate range of sentences in the federal system is a complicated, mathematical process that takes into account a variety of factors, including the type of crime that was committed, the defendant’s role in that crime and the amount of the loss. A probation officer is tasked with analyzing each factor objectively, then using the federal sentencing guidelines to calculate an appropriate range of penalties.

McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, were convicted in September of lending the prestige of his office to Richmond businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr. in exchange for $177,000 in loans, vacations and luxury goods.

McDonnell is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 6. His wife is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 20, and her guideline range — on which the probation office has not yet filed a report — is expected to be lower than her husband’s.

It is unclear how the probation office determined that those crimes necessitate a minimum decade-long sentence. The initial report on the matter is sealed, and people familiar with its contents revealed only the recommended range to the Washington Post.

The range is particularly notable because last December, prosecutors offered to let McDonnell plead guilty to just one count of lying to a bank as part of an agreement that would have meant he could be sentenced to three years in prison at the most, and probation at the least. Importantly, though, McDonnell would have been required to sign a statement acknowledging that he helped Williams’s company at the same time the businessman was giving him loot, fully shouldering blame for a relationship he has insisted was not criminal and was driven largely by his wife. . . .

In the Eastern District of Virginia, where McDonnell is being sentenced, judges imposed sentences within the guideline range more than 70 percent of the time last fiscal year, according to data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission. They imposed sentences below the guideline range without a request from prosecutors to do so in about 21 percent of cases.

Nationally, judges imposed sentences within the guideline range about 51 percent of the time last fiscal year, and deviated downward without a request from prosecutors to do so in about 19 percent of cases.

In the McDonnell case, prosecutors are not expected to ask for a sentence below the guideline range. . . .

Of course, I assume that even if Slick Bob gets that ten-year whammy he isn't going to serve ten years, that "good behavior" and what not will whittle it down to a fraction. But it would be a fraction of a heckuva lot longer sentence than your average Republicrook gets for crimes anywhere from 10 to 100 times worse.

But then, the average Republicrook doesn't even get indicted for his crimes. One thing Slick Bob may never overcome, even after he's paid his debt to society, is the crime of getting caught at such piddling pilfery.

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