Word: blagojevichization
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Defiant or recklessly stubborn, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich on Friday vowed that he would not resign or temporarily step aside, saying he owed it to the voters of the state to remain in office despite polls showing some 80% want him out. "I will fight, I will fight, I will fight until I take my last breath," Blagojevich said to a packed news conference in Chicago's Loop. It was the first formal statement Blagojevich had made since being charged last week with trying to auction off President-Elect Barack Obama's Senate seat, among other alleged offenses...
With state and U.S. flags behind him, Blagojevich appeared at the podium alone, rarely looking down as he addressed the media and spoke into the cameras, including a dramatic recitation of lines from a Rudyard Kipling poem: "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you and make allowance for their doubting too, if you can wait and not be tired by waiting or being lied about, don't deal in lies, or being hated, don't give way to hating...
...take questions, but minutes later two of his attorneys came out to take some from reporters. One of them, Sam Adam, Jr., reiterated the governor's intention to remain in office, but allowed that Blagojevich could step aside if the pressures of defending himself against U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's charges became too heavy for him to complete his work. "If the people of Illinois suffer, he will step aside," said Adam...
...Blagojevich's brief but defiant appearance that dominated the afternoon in Chicago. In its combativenss, it called to mind - especially to some who know the governor intimately - one of his political heroes, another besieged politician who overstayed his welcome on the national stage: Richard Nixon...
...While going to school at Northwestern University, Blagojevich idolized Nixon, according to friends, frequently defending him during the Watergate scandal. According to a long-time Blagojevich friend, the future governor often found inspiration in Nixon's "me against the world" sensibility. Blagojevich particularly loved the fact that Nixon bounced back after the "you won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore" speech after losing the race for California governor...