Phone call snippets get mixed response in governor’s case

MCCLATHCY NEWSPAPERS

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s voice resonated through the Illinois Senate at his impeachment trial Tuesday in the first tantalizing airing of the undercover recordings that triggered his arrest on federal corruption charges.

But the snippets of bugged phone calls cut both ways for House prosecutors trying to boost their case for removing the governor by using his own words against him. Some senators said the recordings strengthened their resolve against the two-term Democrat, but several others said the meaning was ambiguous and left them with new doubts about the criminal charges at the heart of the impeachment effort.

The calls — just over five minutes in length — featured the governor discussing raising campaign cash from a horse track owner who wanted to see him sign favorable gambling legislation. They contained none of the coarse language associated with the now-famous allegations that Blagojevich sought to sell a U.S. Senate seat.

The fresh sound bites of Blagojevich reverberated through a political body whose members have often had to walk the fine line between pushing legislation for a special interest and taking campaign contributions from supporters with common goals.

A frustrated state Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood, an assistant majority leader feeling pressure from constituents to oust Blagojevich, said she and a growing number of colleagues believe the “federal case isn’t strong.” At the same time, she criticized Blagojevich for boycotting the proceedings in favor of a national media campaign blasting the trial as unfair.

“The governor (and his defense counsel) should have been there, in my opinion, to defend themselves,” Lightford said. “I think they would have had a grand opportunity to take some context and turn it into substance because I just felt like there wasn’t much substance to it today.” In New York instead of Springfield, Blagojevich kept up a frenetic pace of interviews with television stations, completing 16 different stops over two days as he argued the Senate rules were unfairly stacked against him.

In a Fox radio interview, Blagojevich remained true to his style of comparing himself to iconic figures, likening his battles with the state legislators to the fights President Franklin D. Roosevelt had with Congress over helping England in World War II.

Blagojevich acknowledged he soon would have to “find some employment,” but he also compared himself to the “hundreds of thousands of people across America who, unfortunately, are losing their jobs, because this economy is so bad.” In Chicago, Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan lashed out at Blagojevich for “making a mockery of the Constitution” by failing to participate in his impeachment trial. She predicted the governor could be out of office by Thursday.

Standing before the Senate’s wooden doors, state Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, urged Blagojevich to appear at the Capitol to plead his case in person before lawmakers vote on whether to convict and remove him from office.