Issue of July 3, 2009 / 11 Tammuz 5769
150 years for Bernie Madoff. If only modern medicine could keep him alive for that long. While so many of his victims remain in desperate financial straits, justice has been served to the extent possible; unlike Bernie's stolen billions, each day has been earned.
A legal affairs commentator on newsradio called the sentence a “cheap shot” by Judge Denny Chin. Since Madoff, 71, would have drawn what amounts to a life term in any event for running the world's largest known Ponzi scheme, Chin tacked on extra years to avoid being criticized for leniency, the pundit claimed.
That's nonsense. A cheap shot would have been the 12-year term Madoff's lawyer advocated for in a pre-sentencing letter to the judge. A cheap shot would have been anything approximating a run-of-the-mill sentence akin to those meted out for run-of-the-mill white-collar crimes.
Rather, the judge keyed in on the exquisite need to make an example of Madoff in this of all cases and meted out justice accordingly. Chin said as much in court and should be praised for the outcome. Generally, he has been and, like the sentence he handed down, the plaudits are well earned.
There’s so much more to do in this case however. Every effort must be made to make the victims whole, or at least provide some restitution. It seems fair overall to withhold funds from Madoff clients who withdrew money from their accounts, if it means those who didn’t can get more back. At the same time we hope to hear that all of the victims receive refunds on taxes they paid on profits that never really existed and that were never withdrawn.
Hopefully it won’t take 150 years to unwind the financial mess that Madoff created, but we truly do wish he could read all about from behind bars until the ripe old age of 221.
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Some other people we're starting to wish were behind bars all go by the title ‘Senator.’
On Tuesday, the day we went to press, even a court order couldn't get the group of insufferable clowns who make up the New York State Senate to focus on vital matters of state. Led, in part, by our own Dean Skelos –– and we do not say that proudly this week –– the whole lot of ‘em continued to play childish games even as the clock ticked toward a number of serious deadlines.
Senate approval is required on a deal between Nassau County and most of its union employees to help close a budget gap and avert 700 layoffs. A financial aide to the county executive estimates that delay past July 1 will cost the county $100,000 a day. That's a lot of money to lose to political narishkeit. For New York City, the Senate must ratify renewed mayoral control of the public schools, or else the law will require work to begin on resurrecting the old Board of Education bureaucracy. Imagine the waste that could entail.
A blog operated by the JTA news service spotlighted a Vermont rabbi this week that “offered his blessings to the Yiddish-y named Circus Smirkus.” We've got a full-blown circus in Albany, full of clowns who don't seem to know that the show must go on. Maybe the good rabbi can swing by sometime.
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