Blagojevich fires back at critics in book — misspellings and all

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) claims Democratic leaders in Washington did not want him to choose among the African-American candidates who were interested in filling the first black president’s Senate seat.

In his new book, The Governor, Blagojevich discusses his ties to President Barack Obama’s administration — although he spells one of the president’s senior adviser’s names wrong — and describes the behind-the-scenes battles that led him to appoint Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) to Obama’s Senate seat.

And, in multiple parts of the memoir, Blagojevich, who is under indictment for federal corruption charges, denies allegations that he tried to extort campaign cash in return for the appointment. The book is due out Tuesday, but The Hill purchased a copy at a Washington bookstore.

Blagojevich writes that he had decided to appoint longtime rival Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan (D) to the Senate, but a deal with her powerful father fell through once Blagojevich was arrested.

He notes he was "repulsed by the idea of making Lisa Madigan the senator," but pursued a deal in which her father, House Speaker Mike Madigan (D), would pass comprehensive healthcare, mortgage foreclosure and jobs legislation in return for the appointment.

Blagojevich claims he reached out to the elder Madigan through Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), incoming Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

Reid and Durbin did not want Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D) appointed to the seat, Blagojevich writes, while all three senators were opposed to state Senate President Emil Jones.

In fact, "Democratic Senate leadership in Washington did not want me to choose from among the African-American candidates who had publicly expressed an interest," Blagojevich writes. "I'm not suggesting this was motivated by racism. It wasn't. It was political."

Spokesmen for Reid, Durbin, Menendez and Emanuel declined to comment on the allegations Blagojevich leveled.

If a deal with Madigan could not have been reached, Blagojevich settled on Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.), attorney Gery Chico or Eric Whitaker, Obama's close friend and a prominent public health official, as his next choices.

But, Blagojevich writes, "before [the deal] could get done, United States Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald had me arrested." The former governor was impeached from office in January following his arrest Dec. 9.

"When [Fitzgerald] arrested me and my Chief of Staff, he didn't stop a crime spree. He instead stopped the embryonic stages of a routine and lawful political deal," Blagojevich writes.

The former governor also details his ties to the Obama administration.

David Axelrod, a senior White House adviser, served as Blagojevich’s media consultant during his runs for Congress.

According to Blagojevich, after he won Illinois’s 5th district, Axelrod recommended the freshman congressman hire David Plouffe as his chief of staff (though Plouffe is spelled "Plough" in the book). Plouffe, who would go on to manage Obama's presidential campaign, turned down the job.

The White House declined to comment on Blagojevich's memoir.

In the book, Blagojevich levels accusations at political rivals while setting himself up as a populist hero. His tone is both self-righteous and incredulous at his own treatment, pandering to populist sentiment while railing against perceived "Ivy League" bureaucrats at the State Department and the "pundits," "prognosticators" and anyone who claims to know something about politics.

But he saves his vitriol for powerful Chicago politicians he says were out to get him — and whom he blames for his legal troubles.

Blagojevich says he feared father-in-law Richard Mell, the Chicago alderman and ward boss who first convinced Blagojevich to run for the State Legislature. At one point in 2004, Mell made comments that led his daughter Patti, Blagojevich's wife, to believe Mell would kill her husband.

The Madigans, long enemies of Blagojevich, "decided to work against my healthcare initiatives" after Blagojevich turned down a request for about $400,000 in campaign funds, he asserts.

And members of the Illinois State Legislature, he says, were wined and dined by Springfield lobbyists. "I hate to say it, but a lot of the men and some of the women who make the laws in Illinois are hungover when they're doing it,” he writes.

Later, he writes: "I was thrown out of office by a pack of self-righteous hypocritical lawmakers in a process that violated the very civil liberties and constitutional guarantees we as Americans cherish."

Even President Bill Clinton's administration comes in for criticism.

During the war in Yugoslavia, when Blagojevich, who is of Serbian descent and was then a member of the House, proposed to negotiate for the release of three American soldiers held captive, Blagojevich says he believes the Clinton administration "didn't want the soldiers released at that time."

"Anything that might make [Slobodan Milosevic] and the Serbs appear less barbaric would undermine [efforts to demonize the Serbian leader] and their ability to sustain the bombing of Yugoslavia,” he writes.

No one in Illinois politics escapes Blagojevich's wrath.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who went to Yugoslavia with Blagojevich to secure the soldiers' release, is "shameless," the former governor claims, when it comes to self-promotion.

Blagojevich also criticizes Durbin, writing that he won the governorship only because Durbin has a deep-seated "aversion to risk losing what he had." Durbin, Blagojevich asserts, is also afraid of Speaker Madigan.

Of his term as governor, Blagojevich said, "I wasn't going to squander this unique opportunity. I was of the people, and I was going to be for the people."