Blagojevich's talking points

Embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich talked for more than an hour at a news conference and during a morning radio program, Don Wade & Roma on WLS 890AM. Here are some key points:

On how some of his closest advisers and friends are now cooperating with federal investigators:

"I'm deeply hurt by some friends."

Blagojevich has been accused of being crazy. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has called him 'cuckoo' twice.

"I feel my mental state is where it always has been ... and you can judge whether or not that is a good place or a bad place."

Federal investigators have been probing Blagojevich's administration for six years. Didn't he expect them to tap his phone as they did?

"I think anyone who comes out of Chicago politics should assume things like that ... while it is shocking in so many ways that your home phone is tapped."

On the profanity in the transcripts of the tapped phone conversations:

"I apologize for some of the profanity, but if I would have known they were listening, I wouldn't have used those words."

Any regrets?

"Knowing what I know now after the presidential election, I would have taken a two-month vacation and not talked to anybody."

(Note: Two months was about the time span his phones were tapped)

On his haggling over the Senate appointment, which he was ultimately arrested for:

"At the end of the day, it was all about trying to do the right thing for the people of Illinois."

(Note: Prosecutors say Blagojevich was taped telling his chief of staff the pick would be based on "the following order of importance: 'our legal situation, our personal situation, my political situation. This decision, like every other one, needs to be based upon that. Legal. Personal. Political.' ")

Blagojevich said he is "calling on the major newspapers in Illinois" to write about how the impeachment trial is unfair. He noted how journalism can't be gagged by the government.

(Note: Prosecutors say they have Blagojevich on tape trying to get editors of the Chicago Tribune fired for writing editorials calling for his impeachment even before his arrest on criminal charges.)

On lawmakers, Blagojevich said they will raise taxes on people once he is out of office, because it "seems all too convenient for them to burden working people." He said as governor he "took that system on" and "challenged that system."

"I did it by not raising taxes on people," he said. "And that is what this is all about."

(Note: Blagojevich proposed the biggest tax increase in state history that would have focused on businesses. It failed horribly. He also approved of a sales tax increase in the collar counties for transit improvements.)