Blago's Defiant Defense: 'I Will Fight to My Last Breath'

December 19, 2008 3:37 PM

ABC News’ Rick Klein Reports: Gov. Rod Blagojevich, D-Ill., just stood before the cameras in Chicago and said almost nothing of substance to respond to the criminal allegations against him.

But in reeling off about a dozen really solid soundbites indicating that he’s going absolutely nowhere, Blagojevich made matters more complicated for national Democrats, Illinois Democrats, and President-elect Barack Obama.

“I will fight, I will fight, I will fight, until I take my last breath. I have done nothing wrong, and I’m not going to quit a job the people hired me to do because of the false allegations of a political lynch mob,” Blagojevich said.

“I have on my side the most powerful ally there is, and it’s the truth,” he added.

His version of the truth is about all he has on his side: Obama has led a legion of prominent politicians from both parties to denounce the governor and call on him to step aside.

But he isn’t budging -- and therein lies the political problem. For Obama, it means more weeks or months of having his home-state governor hang on despite tapes that appear to show him putting Obama’s own Senate seat up for sale. The release next week of the internal report detailing his staff-level contacts won’t end the political distractions.

And for Democrats more broadly, this makes it harder for them to resist calls for a special election to fill Obama’s seat. A special election would mean a Republican could win -- whereas a Democratic governor (or lieutenant governor) would keep the seat in Democratic hands.

But Blagojevich’s attorney has said the governor won’t make an appointment, since Senate leaders have indicated that they view the process as so tainted that they wouldn’t seat that individual anyway.

This means Illinois is minus-one senator for the foreseeable future -- adding a good-government element to the political argument Republicans are making for a special election.

GOP leaders have honed in on this issue to hammer their case against Democrats. Blagojevich, once again, is giving them a boost.