Reporting with Natasha Korecki
As defense lawyers hinted during squabbles over tapes at the end of last week, Rod Blagojevich is using the defense that he planned to appoint Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan in exchange for her father, Speaker of the House Mike Madigan, passing certain legislation.
Defense attorney Aaron Goldstein asks his client if Lisa Madigan was friend or foe.
"She was the offspring of a foe," answered Blagojevich. "She was a qualified attorney general who loves her father and a father who loves her, and they didn't love me."
But he shares a few rare words of praise about his "nemesis" Mike Madigan and adds that he got along well with Madigan's son, Andrew.
"I really admire Mike Madigan as a dad," Blagojevich testified as prosecutors object. "I know, there's no point, you're right -- I'm sorry. I want to say something nice about him, Judge."
Blagojevich is earning lots of smiles from female jurors today, who are seemingly responding to his frequent tangents and self-deprecating remarks.
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