December 19th, 2008
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BY MONICA DAVEY and JACK HEALY
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Published: December 19, 2008
CHICAGO —Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois, who has been accused of scheming to sell President-elect Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat, said on Friday that he would not resign and insisted that he had done nothing wrong, saying defiantly, “I will fight, I will fight, I will fight.”
In his first statement since he was arrested on federal charges of conspiracy and soliciting bribes, Mr. Blogojevich was alternately emotional and combative, his voice breaking as he told reporters that he would be vindicated, and asked Illinois residents to withhold their judgment.
“I intend to stay on the job and I will fight this thing every step of the way,” he said in an appearance at the James R. Thompson Center in downtown Chicago. “I will fight, I will fight, I will fight, till I take my very last breath. I have done nothing wrong.”
Within minutes of his appearance, state Republicans reiterated their calls for a special election to determine Mr. Obama’s replacement in the Senate, and the state’s lieutenant governor, Pat Quinn, issued a statement chastising Mr. Blagojevich.
“On behalf of the people of Illinois, I plead, plead with the governor to step aside,” Mr. Quinn said. “There is no way Governor Blagojevich can in my mind fully protect the people of Illinois, their safety, their welfare. I think the people of Illinois are held hostage right now to this situation.”
At his appearance, Mr. Blagojevich derided the “false accusations and a lynch mob” that had brought his political career to its knees, but offered no specific defenses to the charges against him, and did not answer broader questions about his actions or his ability to effectively govern as he prepares for a criminal trial and fights off impeachment.
In a 76-page criminal complaint, prosecutors have accused Mr. Blagojevich of, among other things, seeking to profit from his sole authority to appoint Mr. Obama’s replacement in the United States Senate. In taped conversations released by Patrick Fitzgerald, the United States Attorney in Chicago, Mr. Blagojevich is quoted saying, “I want to make money” on the Senate seat.
“I’m dying to answer these charges,” he said at his appearance on Friday. “I’m dying to show you how innocent I am.”
But Mr. Blagojevich said he would wait for his day in court to do so. He then quoted several lines from the poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling, and left the glare of flashbulbs without taking any questions. He wished “Happy holidays” again and again as dozens of reporters shouted questions.
Friday’s press conference was the latest twist in the saga of Mr. Blagojevich, which has taken one dramatic turn after another since two F.B.I. agents arrived at the governor’s Chicago home at 6 a.m. on Dec. 9, and arrested him.
Although Mr. Blagojevich has made only fleeting public appearances since then, the public focus on him has mushroomed. Questions mount about whether he will remain in office, and fight impeachment proceedings in the state’s House, and how he can govern effectively with criminal charges hanging over him and politicians across Illinois and the country calling for his resignation.
The Illinois House began proceedings to impeach him this week after a raft of lawmakers — including the lieutenant governor, 50 Democratic United States senators, and Mr. Obama — called for his resignation.
The Illinois attorney general filed an action with the Illinois Supreme Court seeking to have Mr. Blagojevich declared unfit to serve, but the suit was dismissed without comment this week.
On Chicago’s North Side, legions of reporters have staked out the governor’s home, transforming his brief public appearances — climbing into a black SUV, standing on his front porch, jogging through snowy streets — into breaking news.
The governor’s aides say Mr. Blagojevich has been going into the office regularly, and signed laws addressing medical regulation, families with autistic children and tax cuts for filmmakers who shoot movies in Illinois. A spokeswoman has called the governor’s schedule “business as usual.”
But even as Mr. Blagojevich has said little during the past 10 days, his lawyer, Edward Genson, has mounted a pugilistic defense of the governor. He has said that Mr. Blagojevich had done nothing wrong, condemned the legislative action against the governor as a “real witch hunt” and said that lawmakers on the impeachment committee were unfairly biased.
On Wednesday, Mr. Blagojevich ratcheted up the anticipation that he would finally address the charges against him.
“I can’t wait to tell my side of the story,” he told reporters. “"There’s a time and place for everything. That day will soon be here.”
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