Monday, January 26, 2009

Blagojevich claims he's innocent


The Illinois Senate has convened Blagojevich's impeachment trial to decide if he will be removed from office. He is charged for trying to sell Obama's senate seat. Blagojevich refuses to take part in the trial. He says that the rules are so biased that he can't present a defense. Today he has made several TV appearances to proclaim his innocence. In an interview on Good Morning America with Diane Sawyer, Blagojevich says that he is not given the chance to have "due process to bring witnesses and to defend himself." He also says, "I did nothing wrong. And if I did something wrong, I would have resigned." And during the conversation he also mentions, "Whatever happened to the presumption of innocence?" Sawyer read specific quotes from the taped conversations of Blagojevich : "I've got this thing and it's bleeping golden and I'm just not giving it up for bleeping nothing. I'm not going to do it and can always use it. I can parachute me in there...Therefore, I can drive a hard bargain. If I don't get what I want and I'm not satisfied with it, then I'll take the Senate seat myself. It's a bleeping valuable thing. You just don't give it away for nothing." Blagojevich claims that taped conversations are snippets of conversation taken out of context. I don't see how his taped conversation could be taken out of context. It sounds like he's trying to sell the seat for money. Even if Blagojevich did bring in witnesses, I don't think it would help him because people are probably already convinced that he did it. I think his reputation would be ruined even if he is not removed from office.

1 comment:

Scott Silton said...

This guy is crazy. Totally nuts. It might be interesting to see Rachel Maddow crush him tomorrow.