Senator Oprah? Blagojevich takes on the talk shows

Embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich appeared on four national TV shows Monday in his public campaign to discredit the impeachment process against him and raise his tanking image. Here are some highlights from his interviews on "Today," "Good Morning America," "The View" and "Larry King Live":

• The governor has been making comparisons of his trials to Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela, Pearl Harbor, the Bible and a number of other far-out suggestions. Monday he was a sacrificial lamb, saying he is "willing to sacrifice myself for the principle that everyone deserves a fair trial."

• The governor is refusing to put forward any defense witnesses: "You can conceivably bring in 15 angels and 20 saints led by Mother Teresa ... There is no chance whatsoever to have a fair hearing."

• His take on the tapes set to be heard by lawmakers that allegedly show him trading campaign cash for a law benefiting racetracks: "I trust in the truth, and my only request would be that I hope (the people) get to hear the whole story ... Then, I think they will see a governor who gets up every day and fights hard for them."

• Blagojevich made his start as a prosecutor. He said he thinks highly of those prosecuting him now:

"I still see them as the good guys. I see me as one of them. I see us on the same side. I keep hoping that maybe they will wake up and realize that this is just one big misunderstanding."

• In a one-on-one interview, Barbara Walters on "The View" seemed a bit frustrated at Blagojevich's refusal to answer questions about the criminal charges against him. "Why are you wasting time on these programs?" she asked, later adding, "I realize that even though you have this opportunity ... you are never going to answer that."

• On his attorney Ed Genson's resignation, Blagojevich said it was because Genson wanting him to stay quiet and he was "chomping at the bit, dying to show my innocence."

• State employees are given an ethics test. Of it Blagojevich said, "It is really not a hard test. It think I got 100."

• Blagojevich said he did consider Oprah Winfrey for the Senate appointment he was accused of selling for personal gain. "And then the question is how do you suggest something like that so it doesn't look like it is just a gimmick to get cheap publicity at her expense," he said. "We were never able to implement, execute that. partly because I was interrupted on Dec. 9."