Prison countdown starts at ten weeks

Rod Blagojevich starts his Thursday facing a bleak countdown — 71 days before the twice-elected Illinois governor must say goodbye to his family and begin serving a 14-year sentence for corruption. During those days, he will scramble to get his financial affairs in order and spend a final birthday and Christmas at home with his wife, Patti, and their two young daughters, 15-year-old Amy and 8-year-old Annie, before heading off to prison to serve the sentence handed down yesterday. Judge James Zagel sentenced Blagojevich on 18 counts of corruption, including his June convictions on charges that he tried to sell or trade an appointment to Obama's U.S. Senate seat for campaign cash or a top job. The impeached governor must report to prison on February 16, and where he reports is still being decided on by federal authorities. Wherever it is, that bellend will be largely cut off from the outside world. He will have to share a cell with other inmates, be extremely careful not to drop the soap, and work a menial job, possibly scrubbing toilets or mopping floors, at just 12 cents an hour (too bad you can't hire employees that cheaply in the free world). Spending 14 long, hard years locked away from his family will serve him right.