Instead of being in Springfield for the opening day of his state Senate trial, impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich took his plea for “fairness” on a national media stump. Blagojevich was met with hard-line, direct questions on the morning network n
Instead of being in Springfield for the opening day of his state Senate trial, impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich took his plea for “fairness” on a national media stump. Blagojevich was met with hard-line, direct questions on the morning network news and talk shows. But he stuck to his mantra as he responded to questions of whether “in context or out of context” he made statements indicating that he was set to offer Barack Obama’s vacated U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder. “Under no circumstances was I trying to sell a Senate seat. Under no circumstances did I break any laws … I was working to make the right decision for the people of Illinois,” the governor, who could be out of office as soon as next week, said on a national talk show. Blagojevich made an eyebrow-raising revelation Monday, saying that he had considered asking talk show icon, Oprah Winfrey, to take the Senate seat. He said Oprah is an, “African American woman who, by herself, has more influence than 100 senators.” His whole objective in filling the seat, he claimed, was to select someone who could help create jobs and expand health care coverage in the state. “It’s a complicated politics,” Blagojevich said of his selection process. The FBI arrested Blagojevich in the early morning of Dec. 9, after the U.S. Attorney’s Office issued a 76-page complaint against the two-term governor, alleging, among other things, that he was trying to sell the U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder. After he and his legal team said the governor would not appoint anyone to the post, thought by some politicians to be tainted in the wake of the arrest, Blagojevich appointed former Illinois attorney general Roland Burris to the post. The governor said emphatically Tuesday that he would not resign and expects that the state Senate will vote to remove him from office. ______ Copyright 2009 Chicago Defender. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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