What a wimp.
That would be former state Sen. Carl Kruger, who in federal court yesterday cried his way through guilty pleas on four bribery and fraud charges.
“I accept responsibility for my actions and am truly sorry for my conduct,” Kruger sobbed to Manhattan Federal Court Judge Jed Rakoff.
Isn’t that what they all say?
Translation: I’m so very, very sorry that I was caught, sir. Now won’t you pretty please go easy on contrite little ol’ me?
True enough, Kruger was looking at an effective life sentence — 50 years. And, at age 62, the nine-to-121/4 years he’ll likely get in the plea he copped could very well have the same outcome.
No wonder he was all weepy.
Of course, he could have thought of that before he sold his not-inconsiderable Albany influence for $1 million in payoffs.
In return for the cash, he intervened on behalf of a high-profile lobbyist’s clients and several health-care execs.
And those proceeds allowed him to indulge in such luxuries as a Bentley Arnage and a garish Mill Basin mansion originally built — appropriately — for a former organized-crime family boss.
(Kruger’s housemate and “intimate companion,” Michael Turano, also pleaded guilty to corruption charges. He couldn’t stop crying, either — indeed, he started weeping while listening to Kruger’s allocution.)
Kruger, meanwhile, resigned his seat shortly before entering court — a seemingly meaningless gesture, given that a felony plea meant automatic expulsion from the Senate seat he’d held since 1995.
Either way, the former senator will soon be cashing checks from his lush legislative pension.
That’s a profound insult to taxpayers, but at least Kruger will have the cash for candy bars once he’s shipped off to some soft-touch federal-prison camp.
Meanwhile, it was certainly no reassurance that the newly created Joint Commission on Public Ethics — already burdened with some dubious appointments — yesterday convened its first public meeting.
Whereupon it immediately moved behind closed doors for a secret session.
So much for any winds of change and reform sweeping through Albany.