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To: TheStockFairy who wrote (170606)	12/11/2008 3:40:05 PM
From: Jim McMannis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Blago says up yours, barack? Blagojevich on the job despite calls to quit news.yahoo.com CHICAGO (Reuters) – Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich clung to his office on Thursday despite mounting pressure to quit, including a renewed call for his resignation from an "appalled" President-elect Barack Obama. The 52-year-old Democrat left his home in Chicago, once again eluding a news media crowd waiting outside, driving to an undisclosed location two days after he was charged with trying to shake down people for political favors. At the same time Obama was telling reporters at a news conference elsewhere in Chicago that he had ordered an investigation to find out what if any contacts his staff had with Blagojevich before the governor was arrested on Tuesday and later freed. "I had no contact with the governor's office. I did not speak to the governor about these issues. That I know for certain," Obama said. "What I want to do is to gather all the facts about any staff contacts ... that may have taken place between the transition office and the governor's office," he added, and make them public. "But what I'm absolutely certain about is that our office had no involvement in any deal-making around my Senate seat. That I'm absolutely certain of," Obama added. STILL IN POWER Blagojevich was accused by federal prosecutors of an array of bribery and influence peddling schemes, including trying to sell Obama's Senate seat, which Obama resigned after his election. Blagojevich has not been indicted and remains governor with full powers. But the charges come after years of investigation detailed by court-approved wiretaps of the governor. The scandal also began to affect the state's financial situation. Standard & Poor's said it may downgrade Illinois' bond rating, citing the charges and the state's growing financial problems. A much-needed $1.4 billion cash-flow borrowing on Thursday to pay bills was delayed until next week. The selection of someone to fill the Senate seat was in limbo. All 50 members of the U.S. Senate Democratic Caucus told Blagojevich in a letter on Wednesday to resign and under no circumstances make an appointment to fill the seat. If he does, they said, it would raise serious questions and they would try to block his choice from being seated. Democrats will control the Senate when the new congressional session convenes in January, even if Obama's seat remains empty. The state legislature was to go in session on Monday to consider a law stripping Blagojevich of the right to make the appointment and turn the decision over to the voters in a special election. If that happens Obama's successor could be from either party, instead of it remaining a Democrat seat as had been assumed since Obama and Blagojevich are both from that party. IMPEACHMENT POSSIBLE Impeachment and trial were also a possibility at the legislature, and the Illinois attorney general said she might ask the state's supreme court to invoke a provision under which the judges could rule the governor unfit for office. In the cold outside the governor's home on Thursday, Mark Piekarz, 34, an unemployed financial services worker, said: "What he did shows a disregard for what public service is." "I was surprised he didn't (resign) the first day. If today goes by and he doesn't resign, that throws everything up in the air. I don't know what he's going to do next," he added. The saga was drawing attention in corners of the world far removed from Chicago. Blagojevich's Serbian heritage won coverage in that country. Blic, the nation's biggest circulating daily, carried a headline reading: "American corruption in a Serbian way." Obama told his news conference he was appalled and that Blagojevich could no longer be effective as governor. He said part of the reason he got into politics was to "reclaim a tradition of public service that is about people and their lives, and their hopes, and their dreams. And it isn't about what's in it for me."