Rod Blagojevich

He worked his way through college shining shoes, delivering pizza, working in a meat-packing plant and washing dishes on the Alaska pipeline. But by his own admission, he was a mediocre student who, after two years at Tampa University, transferred to Northwestern University in suburban Chicago, where he got a bachelor's degree in 1979. He got his law degree from Pepperdine University even though he liked to brag, "I barely knew where the law library was."

Immediately after college, Blagojevich, insinuated himself into the upper echelon of Chicago's Democratic machine. His first job was with city alderman Edward Vrdolyak, who escaped charges in a 1960 murder case but who in 2007 was indicted on federal fraud charges rooted in Vrdolyak's long career as a behind-the-scenes political kingmaker.

Blagojevich, who maintained a small private law practice, got a job as a prosecutor in traffic court under Cook County's young State's Attorney, Richard M. Daley, the son and eventual successor of Chicago's original machine boss, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley.

All in the Family

But Blagojevich's political career really started after he married into the politically connected family of Chicago Alderman Richard Mell, the man who would speed along Blagojevich's rise in a town where the first and most important question job seekers are asked is "Who sent you?"

Blagojevich met Patricia Mell at a 1988 fundraiser for her father. They married in 1990 and two years later Blagojevich made his first run for political office, a Chicago-based House seat in the Illinois General Assembly. Naturally, he got significant help from his father-in-law.

Blagojevich's youthful looks, boundless energy and an enviable ability to raise campaign cash in big chunks made him a natural on the campaign trail. His son-of-an-immigrant, blue-collar background enhanced his appeal in Chicago's influential ethnic neighborhoods and heavily influenced his progressive populist politics.

Climbing the Political Ladder

Rostenkowski lost his 1994 reelection to Republican Michael Flanagan after being charged with embezzlement of the U.S. House bank and fraud. But Blagojevich easily dispatched Flanagan in the heavily Democratic district in 1996, the year Rostenkowski pleaded guilty to mail fraud and was sentenced to 17 months in prison.

Blagojevich's shining moment in Congress came in 1999 when he accompanied the Rev. Jesse Jackson to Yugoslavia to negotiate with President Slobodan Milosevic for the release of three U.S. servicemen being held as prisoners of war.

In 2001, when political corruption charges felled another senior Illinois politician, Gov. George Ryan, a Republican, Blagojevich jumped at the chance to advance. He ran for governor as the reform candidate who would eliminate the state's notorious pay-to-play politics that sent Ryan to prison for more than six years.

"A governor must be willing to take on the special interests, not carry their water," Blagojevich said at a 2001 campaign rally at the Chicago steel mill where his father once worked. "It means shaking up a system that serves itself instead of the people."

Blagojevich won 52 percent of the vote to become the first Democrat elected governor in Illinois in 30 years. His interest in actually being governor, though, appeared lacking. He and his wife refused to move into the executive mansion in Springfield and he preferred to work from home or his Chicago campaign office, making him less accessible to lawmakers. Other state officials began to complain that Blagojevich was more interested in photo ops and attention-grabbing but unworkable policies like banning junk food in schools rather than in the nuts-and-bolts of running a state government.

Federal Investigation

Federal authorities began probing the way Blagojevich was doling out state jobs and board appointments as early as 2003 as part of an investigation dubbed Operation Board Games. Despite those troubles, Blagojevich raised $27 million and won reelection in 2006 with 50 percent of the vote.

Blagojevich's political career came crashing down around him on Dec. 9, 2008, on the eve of his 52nd birthday, when the telephone in his North Side home rang just a few minutes before 6 a.m. Robert Grant, the FBI's special agent in charge of the Chicago office, was on the other end. Agents were waiting at the governor's door with a warrant for his arrest on a host of public-corruption charges, Grant told him. "Is this a joke?" Blagojevich responded.

Topping the charges against him was Blagojevich's alleged attempt to enrich himself by auctioning off the U.S. Senate seat vacated by then President-elect Barack Obama. The Senate seat "is a (expletive) valuable thing, you don't just give it away for nothing," Blagojevich allegedly said in one taped-recording of telephone conversations. He was indicted on April 15, 2009.

Pay-to-Play

Federal authorities now say Blagojevich may have been trading state jobs and contracts for campaign contributions before he was even formally sworn-in as Illinois' 40th governor in 2002. An investigation by The Chicago Tribune found that of the 235 individuals, companies and interest groups that contributed $25,000 to Blagojevich's campaigns, three-quarters got jobs, contracts or other favors in return.

With the indictments of numerous associates, Blagojevich knew he was being watched. But he allegedly continued to talk openly of trading Obama's Senate seat for a cabinet post or ambassadorship in the Obama administration or lucrative outside jobs for himself and his wife. Blagojevich even complained that Obama was offering "nothing but appreciation" if Blagojevich filled the vacancy with someone Obama preferred. "(Expletive) them," Blagojevich said in one call.

Federal authorities also taped conversations in which Blagojevich discussed withholding state tax assistance that Tribune Co. sought to help with its sale of Wrigley Field unless the company's flagship newspaper, The Chicago Tribune, fired editorial writers who'd been critical of Blagojevich. "Get us some editorial support," he told his top aide, John Harris. Blagojevich's wife, Patti, can be heard on one tape shouting in the background, "Hold up that (expletive) Cubs (expletive). (Expletive) them."

Pay-to-play was nothing new to Illinois politics. Four of the last eight governors of Illinois, both Republicans and Democrats, were jailed on corruption charges.

But even by Illinois' standards, Blagojevich's exploits were extreme, federal and state officials argued. Fitzgerald, the prosecutor, labeled Blagojevich's actions a "political corruption crime spree."

Blagojevich, free on bail, returned immediately to work as governor despite a deluge of calls for his resignation by every top state official and Obama.

"I am not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing," Blagojevich told reporters immediately after the indictment. "I intend to stay on the job. I will fight, I will fight, I will fight. I'm not going to quit a job the people hired me to do because of false accusations and a political lynch mob."

Burris Appointment

Despite pressure from Obama and Senate Democrats, the Illinois General Assembly refused to take up legislation that would strip Blagojevich of his power to name Obama's successor, and the Illinois State Supreme Court refused as well.

And so on Dec. 30, 2008, the governor named former state Attorney General Roland Burris to take Obama's place as the only African-American in the U.S. Senate. "Please don't allow the allegations against me to taint a good and honest man," Blagojevich said at a news conference announcing his choice.

Five Democratic Senate leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Nev.), immediately issued a joint statement saying they would not seat Burris in the Senate. Obama praised Burris as "a good man and a fine public servant," but backed the lawmakers' threat not to seat anyone appointed "by a governor who is accused of selling this very Senate seat."

But bowing to pressure, Senate Democrats ultimately seated Burris, who ultimarely announced he wouldn't seek election to full-term in November 2010.

State Senate Impeachment

Blagojevich's decision to appoint Burris prompted state lawmakers to accelerate impeachment proceedings against the governor. On Jan. 9, 2009, the House voted to impeach the governor, 114 to 1, with three members voting present.

The Illinois Senate conducted a trial after the House voted to impeach. Blagojevich went on a media binge instead of attending the trial, talking to Good Morning America, The View, The Rachel Maddow Show, and anyone else who would talk to him.

On the final day of the trial, he showed up in Springfield, Ill., to make a closing argument in which once again pleaded innocence. "There was never a conversation where I intended to break any law. I'm appealing to you and your sense of fairness."

His plea made little difference, and the Senate voted 59-0 both to remove him from office and to bar him from holding political office in Illinois in the future. "I predicted it," Blagojevich said after the trial. "The fix was in from the beginning." Lieutenant Governor Patrick Quinn, who was elected with Blagojevich but hasn't talked to the governor since 2007, was immediately sworn in as governor.

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