Blagojevich, boycotting his own impeachment trial, compares self to Gandhi

This guy is taking chutzpa to a new level.

Rod Blagojevich, the embattled Illinois governor who has vowed to boycott his own impeachment trial opening today in Springfield, is now comparing his imprisonment last month on corruption charges to the jail terms served by civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi.

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Oh yes and one more thing. While claiming that the charges against him are all "a big misunderstanding," he also said that he considered naming Oprah Winfrey to the U.S. Senate.

Not that Oprah would not have been fabulous, of course, but even Blago confessed in an interview with "The Today Show" this morning that such a move would not have been seen as serious.

In a media blitz that would embarrass even the media-hogs in Congress, the governor said last week that the real reason lawmakers are rushing his impeachment is that they are trying to thwart his tax cuts. He said they are "just waiting to get me out of the way to raise the income tax."

A fan of westerns, the governor -- arrested on corruption charges last month after the U.S. attorney in Chicago, Patrick Fitzgerald, recorded conversations in which he appeared to discuss selling the seat vacated by then Sen. Barack Obama -- said the way the legislature is railroading him toward impeachment, "I'm not even getting a fair trial -- they're just hanging me."

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-- Johanna Neuman