10 Things To Know About Gov.Rod Blagojevich

Illinois Governor Arrested for Trying to Sell Obama's Senate Seat

© Bob Kemper

Dec 9, 2008

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested Dec. 9, 2008, on federal corruption charges. Blagojevich is accused of trying to profit personally from the filling of the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama.

Blagojevich sought campaign contributions, high-paying jobs for him and his wife, Patti, or a top position, possibly a Cabinet post or an ambassadorship in the Obama administration, federal authorities said.

Blago-who?

So who is Blagojevich? Here are 10 things, culled news reports in The Chicago Tribune and The Washington Post ,about Blagojevich's arrest that everyone should know about this latest Illinois politician in the news.

1. It’s pronounced Blah-GOY-a-vich. But realizing the difficulty of pronouncing his last name, the governor once told reporters, “Just call me Rod.”
2. Blagojevich, a Democrat who was arrested the day before he turned 52, was elected governor of Illinois in 2002 after running as a reformer who would clean up state government after the incumbent, Republican Gov. George Ryan, who was jailed on corruption charges of his own. He was re-elected in 2006.
3. During the campaign, Blagojevich would often ask his aides which of them was carrying the “football.” He didn’t mean the nation’s nuclear missile launch codes that follow the president everywhere. The well-quaffed candidate meant his hair brush.
4. His father, Rade Blagojevich, immigrated to America from Yugoslavia after World War II and worked in a Chicago steel mill to support his family.
5. Blagojevich shined shoes and delivered pizza as a boy and, in his teens, worked two summers in Alaska to raise money for college. He attended Northwestern University in suburban Chicago and Pepperdine University’s law school.
6. He got a job at the State’s Attorney Office in Cook County, which includes Chicago, and was best known for his work on domestic violence cases.
7. He met his wife, Patricia Mell, in 1988 at a political fundraiser for her father, Chicago Alderman Richard Mell. Blagojevich went to work for Mell and in 1992 won a seat in state legislature. He was elected to Congress in 1997.
8. Blagojevich was disappointed that Obama would have no part of his plans to cash in on the filling of the Senate seat. Blagojevich said Obama’s people are “not going to give me anything except appreciation” if he named someone favored by the president-elect, federal authorities said. “(Expletive), them,” the governor was quoted as saying.
9. Just hours before he was arrested by federal officials who had been listening in on his phone conversations for some time, Blagojevich told reporters, “If anybody wants to tape my conversations, go right ahead, feel free to do it. … “I can tell you that whatever I say is lawful.”
10. “Is this a joke?” Blagojevich’s response to federal agents who called him at 6 a.m. Dec. 9 to tell him agents were waiting outside his door to arrest him.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich

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