Blagojevich takes case to TV circuit
Posted by John Malloy on 01/26/2009
As Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s impeachment trial proceedings got under way Monday, the embattled Illinois governor hit the media circuit, answering questions about Oprah, foul language and why he won’t resign.
Blagojevich appeared Monday on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and “The View,” and he was scheduled later to give his first live prime-time interview on CNN’s “Larry King Live.”
On both of his ABC appearances, Blagojevich explained why talk-show host Oprah Winfrey was a contender to fill Barack Obama’s former Senate seat.
“My thought was — an African-American woman who probably by herself has more influence than 100 senators. She was instrumental in electing Barack Obama president. She clearly could use her bully pulpit to do good things for people,” the second-term Democratic governor said on “The View.”
“The question was whether or not there was any chance at all that she would be willing to do it, and then if so, how do you reach out to her? Would she take the call of the governor of Illinois, for example? Because Oprah’s Oprah, and I’m just the governor of Illinois,” he said.
Winfrey said that she had no idea she was under consideration. She said she found out from best friend Gayle King, who called to tell her on Monday morning.
Winfrey said she was “amused by the whole thing” but would have turned down the proposal had it been made.
The governor said the talks never got to that point “partly because I was interrupted on December 9.”
Blagojevich and his chief of staff were arrested then on federal corruption charges, including allegations that the governor tried to trade or sell the Senate seat that became vacant after Obama was elected president.
Blagojevich ended up picking former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to replace Obama.
The governor’s impeachment trial began Monday in the Illinois Senate. The Illinois House of Representatives impeached him earlier this month.
Blagojevich has denied any wrongdoing. 
Watch Blagojevich say he’s done “nothing wrong” »
A 76-page criminal complaint against Blagojevich includes snippets of intercepted phone calls involving the governor’s alleged efforts to benefit from the Senate vacancy. Those conversations are laced with expletives.
Asked on “The View” about his foul mouth, Blagojevich said, “Had I known somebody was listening, I wouldn’t have used language like that.”
He also defended his wife, Patti, saying he takes responsibility for any recordings of her using foul language because he may have rubbed off on her.
“I was raised in a big city in a tough neighborhood, and when you’re a kid growing up in a neighborhood like that, you would never say words like that in front of your mother. But when you’re out there at the schoolyard … it’s just sort of the thing you do,” he said.
“Unfortunately, you try to get rid of some of those habits; you may have left the neighborhood, but part of that neighborhood never left you.” …
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