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Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich will give his first national interviews to ABC's "Good Morning America" and "The View" on Monday, according to a Friday press release from the network. He will be a guest Monday on "Good Morning America," which begins at 7 a.m. on WLS-Ch. 7, as his impeachment trial gets underway in Illinois. He and his wife Patricia will then appear on "The View," which airs in Chicago at 10 a.m. on WLS-Ch. 7. Blagojevich said Friday he would not participate in the trial, which he called a "hanging" at a Friday press conference.

Less than two weeks after Gov. Rod Blagojevich vowed to fight "every step of the way," his legal team announced today that it won't try to block the start of next week's impeachment trial and expects the Senate will vote to kick him out of office. "As far as I know, the people in the Senate are more likely than not to convict him, and he will be removed from office," Blagojevich attorney Edward Genson told the Tribune. "I don't welcome it, but I expect it." Genson also said Blagojevich won't mount a defense during the impeachment trial. He said...

CHICAGO -- Illinois' embattled but defiant governor, so fond of reciting poetry as he defends himself against federal corruption allegations, has turned instead to the history books to describe the emotional strain his arrest put on him and his family. In an interview Thursday with The Associated Press, Gov. Rod Blagojevich compared his early morning December arrest by FBI agents to Japan's 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. He says it was a "complete surprise" but he'll prevail, just like America in World War II. Blagojevich says there's no chance he will resign before the start of the state Senate's impeachment...

A Chicago homeless agency has fired Illinois First Lady Patricia Blagojevich from her job as its chief fundraiser.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has climbed down from his initial refusal to allow the seating of Roland Burris to succeed President-elect Barack Obama as the junior senator from Illionis. Burris was appointed by embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich despite warnings and pleas from Democrats in that state and in Washington, D.C. that he not name anybody, pending resolution of charges by U.S. Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that he sought to sell the appointment for personal gain. Burris was the first African-American to win statewide office in Illinois, gaining the Comptroller office in 1978. He also served as Illinois Attorney General...

In two days, Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) will begin the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Eric Holder, former Clinton deputy attorney general who is President-elect Barack Obama’s highly controversial nominee to the office of Attorney General. Holder, best known for playing a major role in the Clinton pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich, will face skeptical Republicans, including ranking Republican Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). Specter has run into a Leahy roadblock in his attempts to get some of the background documents on the nomination. Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy has refused to sign off on document requests by Republicans...

Barack Obama's chief of staff says Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich did not ask for anything improper in their discussions about Obama's Senate successor. Aide Rahm Emanuel says he talked with Blagojevich (bluh-GOY'-uh-vich) and the governor's ex-chief of staff about the type of person who should replace Obama. But Emanuel says he never got the impression that Blagojevich wanted anything improper in return for naming a replacement. The Illinois House impeached Blagojevich last week. Federal authorities have accused Blagojevich of scheming to benefit by selling Obama's old Senate seat to the highest bidder. Blagojevich did appoint former Illinois Attorney Genera; Roland...

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's pick to fill President-elect Barack Obama's vacated U.S. Senate seat - Roland Burris - was sworn-in today by Vice-President Dick Cheney as a United States Senator from Illinois. Democrats at first said Burris would "never" be seated in the Senate, but they quickly changed their minds last week as the Obama Team seemed to decide it was best to seat Burris and get this story off the front pages of the media prior to the Inauguration on January 20, 2009. . . . . . (watch video)

Roland Burris is now officially a U.S. senator. The Illinois Democrat was sworn-in by Vice President Dick Cheney Thursday at a Capitol Hill ceremony. His new colleagues in the Senate chamber responded with applause. He takes his Senate seat alongside fellow Democrats who initially turned him away, and who had vowed not to seat anyone appointed by embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The governor, who's been impeached by state lawmakers, is accused of trying to sell the Senate seat that had been held by President-elect Barack Obama. Burris is now being given a polite welcome by Democrats, who say they never...

The bright hopes for a new political beginning that often accompany the inauguration of an Illinois legislature will be overshadowed by awkwardness Wednesday when Gov. Rod Blagojevich oversees the swearing-in of a Senate that will sit in judgment at his pending impeachment trial. "I think it's going to be eerie," Sen. Susan Garrett (D-Lake Forest) said Tuesday. "It's like being a part of a family where you're in a position to try to convict a family member—because we worked with him. Whether we liked him or didn't like him, we've been with him for six years." On Wednesday, Blagojevich is...

Catching up: Seeking to end an embarrassing episode, Democratic leaders of the U.S. Senate sent word to the world today that Roland Burris, a 71-year-old African American, would be sworn in late this week to replace the 47-year-old president-elect, Barack Obama. (See video below.) The move, done with no cameras present to provide lasting video evidence of the political debacle for Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Illinois' other senator, Dick Durbin, should get the political mess out of the way in time for Obama's inauguration next Tuesday, as his aides had suggested. Even in another time zone, the...

As a social conservative, I never thought in the space of one calendar year I would have been defending soon-to-be Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and beleaguered Illinois Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich. But sometimes fate can lead us to strange places. I supported Hillary Clinton's doomed Democratic presidential primary bid against Barack Obama though I didn't have a vote in the matter. At the time, I felt that even the Clintons would be better for America than President-elect B. Hussein Obama and, for the record, there has been nothing to change my mind. Indeed, my opinion on the subject is...

Harry Reid and Dick Durban are going out of their way to prove that they are a little short in the political brains department. Well, either that or they are want to give political observers some more entertainment. Just when everyone thought that the controversy over the appointment of Roland Burris was over, Dumb-Dumb Durban and his "Dumberer" Senate Majority leader have decided to stir the pot some more. Yesterday the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the Secretary of State's signature is not needed for Governor Blago's choice to be seated. Beyond that, the Secretary of State announced that he...

The documents include a December 3, 2008, letter from Barack Obama following his well-publicized December 2, 2008, meeting with Blagojevich as well as a November 17, 2008, letter signed by Presidential Transition Team co-chairs Valerie Jarrett and John Podesta providing Blagojevich with a list of transition team contacts. Here are a few excerpts from the letter signed by President-elect Obama less than one week before the Blagojevich arrest: "Thank you for meeting with me on Tuesday in Philadelphia. Vice President-elect Joe Biden and I were pleased with the open discussion." "As we discussed, I would appreciate any advice you can...

Here's what hasn't changed in America. In the past week or so, we've seen a threatened Senate stand-off, hyperbolic historical references, an alleged case of stonewalling by the Illinois secretary of state, lawsuits and rumors of lawsuits, a wild-card nominee for the Senate first turned away from that body and then perhaps accepted by it, and that same nominee called upon to testify in the impeachment hearings of the man who nominated him -- all tied together by the complicating factor of race. Former Illinois attorney general Roland W. Burris may well be qualified to serve as the junior senator...

Rod Blagojevich may look like one of the dim bulbs from Tony Soprano’s Bada Bing, but the guy’s a political genius. Who could imagine that a month after U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald signaled that the Illinois governor was about to be indicted for trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama’s Senate seat, the man would not only remain un-indicted and un-impeached (well, until yesterday), but he’d manage to make the entire Democratic congressional leadership look like chumps? In naming former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to the vacant seat, Blagojevich has hoist the Dems on their own petard. Blagojevich knew exactly...

DAVENPORT, Iowa-- Impeachment is no laughing matter, but Illinois politics through the years has been rooted in the absurd. So, we take a closer look at the governor's appearance. And what he can do as he prepares to stand trial. As a public service we would like to offer the governor a free haircut on us at one of our favorite places, The Spa at Five Star Salon in the Village of East Davenport. Justice may be blind, but the state senators aren't, so we asked should Rod Blagojevich get his haircut? At a press conference Friday afternoon Governor Rod...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Driven by anger and politics, the Illinois House has voted to impeach Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The unprecedented action sets the stage for a Senate trial on whether he should be thrown out of office for corruption and abuse of power. The governor seemed to acknowledge the inevitable when he issued a statement Thursday night that looked past the House vote and predicted a different outcome in the subsequent Senate trial. His statement criticized the hearings leading up to the House vote as unfair and biased. A House committee has been studying the possibility of impeachment since shortly...

Fellow Freepers, I am starting a new movement and I'd like to ask for your thoughts and participation. I am starting a campaign to keep Illinois Governor Rod R. Blagojevich in office. "Let Blago be Blago" will make the case that until Fitzgerald actually tries and convicts him, Illinois should suffer what it asked for. Democrats are anxious to get rid of this fraud to save them further embarrassment through shame by association, so I say LET BLAGO BE BLAGO!! He already made Obama, Jesse Jackson Junior, Emmanuel, Reid, Durbin and a big old corrupt labor union look like complete...

SPRINGFIELD — When former Chicago television broadcaster Bob Arya joined Gov. Blagojevich's staff as a senior advisor in November 2006, the governor described him as “a real asset to my administration.” But when Arya's run with Blagojevich came to an end, he had a story to tell — one of intense jealousies by the governor toward President-elect Barack Obama, House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) and others, a terrorized staff, and emotional instabilities that Arya said demonstrate the need for a psychological evaluation by the legislative panel weighing the governor's impeachment.