Confident Burris: 'I Am the Senator'

(NEWSER) - Rod Blagojevich proclaimed his innocence at a jam-packed press conference this afternoon, vowing to "fight until I take my last breath," the Chicago Tribune reports. "I'm not going to quit a job that people hired me to do because of false accusations and a political lynch mob," the embattled Illinois governor said in his first substantive public comments since he was arrested last week on federal corruption charges. More»

Meanwhile, lawyer complains of a lack of 'standard of proof' in impeachment proceedings

(NEWSER) - Illinois’ top court today rejected the state attorney general’s motion to have Rod Blagojevich declared unfit to be governor due to corruption charges against him, the Chicago Tribune reports, even as his lawyer charged that members of a state House committee looking into impeachment wouldn’t give Blagojevich a fair shake. Attorney Ed Genson also requested a special prosecutor, and that taxpayer money pay for Blagojevich's defense. More»

And no pension, to boot

(NEWSER) - Gone was the defiant Rod Blagojevich who protested his innocence , promised a comeback , and called himself "frankly … stunned" at his guilty verdict: The Blago on display yesterday at his sentencing was apologetic and emotional, but he was sentenced to 14 years for corruption nonetheless. Now he has just 71 days of freedom before going away for at least 12 years, the earliest point at which he will be eligible for early release. The disgraced ex-governor, who turns 55 Saturday, will get one last birthday and Christmas with wife Patti and daughters Amy, 15, and Annie, 8, before reporting to prison Feb. 16 to share a cell and work a menial job for 12 cents per hour. More»

Former Illinois governor sentenced for corruption

(AP) - Rod Blagojevich, the ousted Illinois governor whose three-year battle against criminal charges became a national spectacle, was sentenced to 14 years in prison today, one of the stiffest penalties imposed for corruption in a state with a history of crooked politics. "When it is the governor who goes bad the fabric of Illinois is torn and disfigured and not easily repaired," said Judge James Zagel. Blagojevich's 18 convictions included trying to leverage his power to appoint someone to President Obama's vacated Senate seat in exchange for campaign cash or a high-paying job. More»

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

(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.” More»