Blago's plea was, basically, that he hadn't been convicted of any criminal offense, and therefore hadn't done anything wrong. Hint:
The standard for holding elective office is not merely "I haven't been convicted yet."
What's really saddest is that Blagojevich simply could not find it in himself to accept that what he was doing was criminal, or even wrong. Admittedly, what he has been accused of doing is not that much (if any) more culpable than what passes for normal conduct in Illinois politics — in Chicago or downstate, Republican or Democrat — so one might argue that he's really been convicted of getting caught. So be it: If he's stupid enough to get caught, given the lax enforcement standards (in this state and elsewhere), he's too stupid to hold office. And I say that even though I largely agree with his policy choices... at least in comparison to those of his various opponents, including both the maroons the state Republicans put up against him in the two gubernatorial elections he won and the feudal overlords who have controlled the state's legislative caucuses (some of whom, by the way, are not members of those legislatures).