Gov. Rod Blagojevich today told national television audiences how unfair it is that he cannot mount a defense in his impeachment trial in the Illinois Senate.

On Friday the governor said he was like a cowboy who's being lynched without a trial. In later interviews he likened himself to Nelson Mandela, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi. Then he went to New York to appear on national talk shows and news programs.

Back in Springfield, where the Senate is hearing his impeachment case, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Thomas Fitzgerald entered a not guilty plea on behalf of the absent governor.

The governor's complaint is that he cannot mount an effective defense in the impeachment hearing. He said he wants to call witnesses to refute the charges against him.

What Blagojevich has been told by the Senate is that he cannot call certain witnesses who will be crucial to a criminal trial that is pending in U.S. District Court.

Blagojevich had planned to call a list of witnesses who he said would testify that he did not seek to enrich himself by "selling" the Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama. At least they would have testified that he did not do anything illegal in conversations with them.

This defense is akin to getting testimony from people who did not see a crime, and arguing that since they did not see the crime, it must not have happened. Forget all evidence to the contrary.

It would be the rhetorical equivalent of saying "If witness XYZ did not see or hear an illegal act, it must not have happened."

Blagojevich has never given an explanation for the wiretapped conversations with advisers in which he talked about getting himself named to a high-paying job, or getting big campaign donations in return for naming a Senate replacement.

Guess we'll have to wait for the criminal case to hear the defense the governor said he's dying to share with Illinoisans.

A group has announced a protest rally outside the Thompson Center Friday to try to convince Gov. Rod Blagojevich to resign.

Rod Must Resign, a new citizen group, includes prominent Chicago lawmakers. They'll gather outside the offices that the governor, uh, governs from. It would do no good to hold such a rally in Springfield, since the Blagojevich administration is a Chicago organization.

When Chicago politicians start saying someone is too tainted to serve, things must be really bad.

While those political insiders are swearing at Blagojevich, a new Congress was sworn in.

Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Peoria, was interviewed on CBS as a member of Generation Y. Schock, 27, is the youngest member of Congress. He's also being held up as a possible rising star in the Republican party.

Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth, Mo., doesn't have the youth of Schock. The 53-year-old is getting attention, however, as what to Washington circles looks like a GOP throwback.

One publication said Luetkemeyer's name should be spelled "conservative." That might not seem strange in Missouri, where five of the nine U.S. House members are Republicans, but in Washington, the 2006 and 2008 crop of newcomers has tended to be more liberal.

Both men were sworn into office today.

The "swerving" label is being applied to District of Columbia Judge Roy Pearson.

You may recall he's the man who sued a dry cleaner for $54 million because his pants were lost. His argument was that the store had a "satisfaction guaranteed" promise and so they were guilty of fraud.

Pearson lost that case when three appellate judges ruled in December that his argument defied logic.

Most judges would have been happy to fade back into obscurity after getting drubbed by fellow jurists. Pearson apparently didn't see this as a no-win situation. He now is appealing the December ruling in hopes that all nine judges need to hear his arguments.

Pearson may unwittingly be the best friend the tort reformers could have. He's rapidly becoming the poster boy for judicial excesses in the nation's capital.