Blago likens himself to King, Gandhi

On the eve of his appearance on three national TV shows, Gov. Rod Blagojevich compared himself to Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela in an interview aired Sunday.

In a portion of a taped interview for the Today show, Blagojevich recounted his arrest and said thinking of those persecuted leaders helped "put some perspective in all this."

Blagojevich also described how he received a phone call from FBI agents at 6 a.m. on Dec. 9 asking him to step outside his Chicago bungalow to be handcuffed.

"I said, "Who is this? You playing a joke on me?'" Blagojevich said. "I thought it was a friend of mine who was playing a practical joke. Unfortunately it wasn't."

"And then, you know, the day unfolded and I had a whole bunch of thoughts, of course my children and my wife," the governor continued. "And then I thought about Mandela, Dr. King, Gandhi and tried to put some perspective in all this and that is what I'm doing now."

Blagojevich has hired a publicist, the same one used by Drew Peterson, and booked national shows today to portray himself as a victim of overzealous prosecutors and vengeful lawmakers, who are set to begin impeachment proceedings at noon today. The governor is boycotting the trial, calling it unfair.

The rest of the Today show's interview will air Monday morning as he appears on Good Morning America then The View and Larry King Monday night.

For the Today show, Blagojevich took his interviewer through his Chicago campaign office where prosecutors had placed a bug and tapped his phone. U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald alleges they caught the governor blatantly scheming with aides to sell off state business, including an appointment to the Senate, for campaign cash and other personal gain.

Blagojevich told the Today show that he had not been in that office since his arrest. He said he feared it was still bugged.

Blagojevich has denied any wrongdoing.