Former Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno arrived at the federal courthouse about 2:40 p.m. this afternoon for his sentencing on federal corruption charges.

The proceedings are scheduled to get underway momentarily, and could go on for some time, I’m told, as there are going to be discussions and motions made about the sentencing guidelines, over which there is some confusion.

In the meantime, Bruno’s friends and enemies alike are anxiously awaiting word of the veteran former Republican lawmaker’s fate.

I caught up with Saratoga County GOP Chairman Jasper Nolan, a longtime Bruno ally who wrote a letter on the ex-majority leader’s behalf and is now hoping the judge shows leniency toward him and looks at the “total man” when determining how many years Bruno should spend behind bars.

“I know that people want to judge him by one or two little events, but I look at the whole man and see a man of strong character,” Nolan told me during a brief telephone interview this afternoon.

“That’s not going to sit well with some people,” the chairman continued. “But he’s done a great job for Rensselaer County. As majority leader, he did a great job of keeping things under control. Now, I see what’s going on with the dysfunction in government, and we don’t have a strong leader…He did a lot of good things for everybody, and he leaves a great legacy, and that’s where I’m coming from.”

Nolan called Bruno’s convictions “minor,” and noted that the US Supreme Court is considering the theft of honest services statute that was the crux of the federal government’s case against him.

He also seemed a little bitter about the lengths to which the feds went to land Bruno, referring to the prosecutors as “persecutors,” and saying: “I hope they’re happy with themselves.”

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