Just when you think you have it figured out..

Blagojevich to address impeachment trial, but avoids questioning

By Kevin McDermott and Kari Andren

POST-DISPATCH SPRINGFIELD BUREAU   01/29/2009

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – After boycotting most of his impeachment trial and complaining to national media that the proceedings are unfair, Gov. Rod Blagojevich today is expected to address the Illinois Senate tribunal that is deciding whether to remove him from office.

“It’s my understanding that the governor wishes to file an appearance to give a closing argument,” Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, told a stunned Senate chamber Wednesday afternoon, as lawmakers conducted the third day of the impeachment trial without participation from the Democratic governor or his defense attorneys.

Cullerton said Blagojevich’s request was strictly to make a statement, “not to testify or to submit himself to cross-examination.”

State Senate members indicated Wednesday they likely will grant Blagojevich’s request, though several of them expressed frustration at the way his likely appearance has unfolded.

“I do think it’s somewhat cowardly that he won’t take questions. … He’ll just simply offer his spin much like we have already seen on the talk shows,” said Dan Cronin, R-Lombard. “We know this guy.”

Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero said in an e-mailed statement that Blagojevich is merely responding to repeated public calls from senators to address them about the allegations against him.

The Senate leadership “has asked the governor to go to Springfield to make his case and that’s what he is doing,” Guerrero said in the statement. He said Blagojevich wants to “make his closing arguments directly to the Senate.”

Under the impeachment trial rules, the legislative prosecutor in the proceedings will be allowed one hour to make his summation this morning. Blagojevich then would be given 90 minutes for a closing statement, probably beginning at 11 a.m. The prosecutor then would get another 30 minutes for rebuttal.

Blagojevich repeatedly has surprised and frustrated his critics in recent weeks with unexpected responses to the legal and political threats against him. He has issued forceful if vague denials of wrongdoing in the face of federal wiretaps; he has alleged that the impeachment proceedings against him are part of a plot by his enemies in the Legislature to raise the state’s income tax; he has found sympathetic national forums on shows like “The View;” and he even beat U.S. Senate leaders in a game of political “chicken,” forcing them to accept his appointee to the Senate, Roland Burris, after vowing not to.

Some Illinois lawmakers clearly viewed Wednesday’s move as another frustrating political maneuver. It will allow Blagojevich to make his case to a statewide and national audience without challenge, after sidestepping the portion of the trial in which he would have been subjected to tough questions about the allegations against him.

“I think all of us would have felt better if the governor would have come, early on, engaged in the process, from the very first day and sat before us instead of on the set of ‘The View’ or ‘Larry King Live’ and told us why it was that he wasn’t guilty,” said state Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon. “He doesn’t want to answer questions.”

Senators likely will begin their deliberations by this afternoon. It’s unclear how long that process might take, but they are widely expected to remove Blagojevich, putting Lt. Gov. Patrick Quinn in the top office.

Blagojevich faces federal corruption charges following his Dec. 9 arrest, but his more immediate threat is removal from office. Lawmakers have heard testimony from an FBI special agent involved in obtaining wiretapped evidence against Blagojevich and listened to about five minutes’ worth of wiretap audio in which Blagojevich and others appear to be discussing obtaining a political contribution from a horse track owner in exchange for legislation.

Blagojevich also is accused of plotting to personally profit from his power to appoint a replacement for President Barack Obama’s former U.S. Senate seat.

Even Blagojevich has acknowledged that the Senate is likely to remove him. “I believe the fix is in,” Blagojevich told CNN’s Larry King on Monday, the first day of the impeachment trial.