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Blago Memoir: 'I Didn't Do Anything Wrong'

And he might move to New York, where no one has told him to 'F off' yet

By Evann Gastaldo, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 21, 2009 11:42 AM CDT

(Newser) – When it comes to political memoirs, Rod Blagojevich’s The Governor: Finally, the Truth Behind the Political Scandal That Continues to Rock the Nation “is surely unsurpassed” in the areas of “febrile self-defensiveness and look-over-there deflections and deceptions,” writes David Remnick for the New Yorker. “No sun can melt Blago’s coif, which descends like a silken espresso curtain and then swerves suddenly to the side, revealing a gaze most innocent.”

“If you have never heard the wiretaps, Blagojevich’s book makes a kind of loopy sense,” Remnick continues. “It’s not that he really wanted to sell Obama’s Senate seat, exactly, oh, no, he just wanted to get something out of it, see—maybe by ‘holding my nose’ and offering it to a useful enemy. For the good of the people of Illinois and whatnot.” And don't count him out of politics just yet, Blago tells Remnick: “I believe in those comebacks.”

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (3)]

In this April 21, 2009 file photo, ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is seen leaving federal court in Chicago. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)

In this book cover image released by Phoenix Books, "The Governor," by former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, is shown. (AP Photo/Phoenix Books)

In this March 19, 2002, file photo, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his wife Patti watch election returns in their Chicago home. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, file)

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When I say ‘comeback,’ I’m not necessarily saying I’m going to run for president. You understand that, right? - Rod Blagojevich, not ruling out a return to politics

I have a situation where, hypothetically, my father-in-law wants me to hire Chucky Lomanto’s cousin and I don’t, (he'll) run to my mother-in-law, and convince her I was a big ingrate who wasn’t helping him. - The world according to Rod Blagojevich

People seem to like me here. No ‘F you!’ or ‘Yo, F off!’ like you get some places. Maybe I should be a New Yorker. - Rod Blagojevich on New York City

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Blago Memoir: 'I Didn't Do Anything Wrong'