Blagojevich mum on patronage chief's Rezko meetings

[Algorem]

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2008/03/blagojevich-mum.html

Posted by David Mendell at 1:27 p.m.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich is keeping to his no-comment mantra when it comes to former top fundraiser Antoin “Tony” Rezko, who is on trial on federal corruption charges.

Blagojevich was asked Monday morning about testimony in the trial that Joe Cini, the one-time head of Blagojevich’s patronage office, met regularly with Rezko to discuss "boards and commission candidates and candidates for state positions."...


The governor also was asked whether he would sit down with the editorial boards of the Tribune and Sun-Times to fully discuss his relationship with Rezko as U.S. Sen. Barack Obama did last Friday. Blagojevich responded by echoing some of Obama’s remarks, but declining to say whether he would subject himself to such questioning.

"I think Senator Obama said it right," Blagojevich said. "In politics, you have friends and supporters who help you, who raise money for you. And you hope they do things right. You hope and pray they do things right. You hope and pray that things being said about them aren’t true. You don’t run away from them, but again, you hope that they follow the rules, that judicial proceedings work out and it all shakes out the way it ought to."