Blagojevich Pleads Not Guilty

Riffing on a Teddy Roosevelt quotation, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich maintained his defiant (or delusional?) stance to reporters outside Chicago’s U.S. District Courthouse after pleading not guilty to 16 federal criminal charges on Tuesday.

The New York Times:

“Black care never catches a rider whose pace is fast enough,” Mr. Blagojevich said at one point, offering a slight permutation on something Theodore Roosevelt once said. “You got that?”

On Tuesday, Mr. Blagojevich, whose defense lawyer is asking federal prosecutors to allow him to spend some of his old campaign money to add more lawyers to his team, was clearly a man without the trappings — or the state police security — of the governor’s job. He and his lawyer seemed to wander around the lobby of the Dirksen Federal Building … , trying to figure out how to get out without meeting dozens of television cameras that awaited him. And once outside, he stood, smiling tightly amid the cameras, waiting for his car to drive up.

Though the corruption case against Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, may not go to trial for months, it has already left a mark on nearly every level of politics around [Chicago].

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