How to block crooks' pensions?

It's maddening that a politician can be convicted of abusing the public trust yet still collect a fat pension. Take Carl Kruger. The former Democratic state senator from Brooklyn pleaded guilty to accepting nearly $500,000 in bribes but will get his full $75,000 annual state pension anyway. Efforts to strip away pensions in such circumstances have foundered, in part because a devil always lurks in the details. Example: Should a pension be stripped even for a minor violation? Isn't it just deferred compensation, to which even a criminal is entitled? Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli is proposing a sensible solution: Make officials pay a fine double what they gained. They'd still get a pension, but a Carl Kruger, for instance, would owe nearly $1 million. That would consume much of his pension -- and perhaps deter other wrongdoers.