As is becoming well established in this trial, Rod Blagojevich had little patience for those who told him “no.”
In a phone conversation with Deputy Gov. Bob Greenlee on Nov. 4, 2008, Blagojevich expressed suspicion about former aide Doug Scofield, who had been resistant to the ex-governor’s plan to parlay the Senate appointment into an ambassadorship or cabinet position for himself.
“What’s his motivation?” Blagojevich asked Greenlee of Scofield.
“I don’t think he has a motivation,” Greenlee, who was poll watching in the suburbs at the time, responded. “I’m sure it’s just an opinion.”
Blagojevich deems it a “subconscious thing” with Scofield.
As the conversation continued, Blagojevich harped on how the rise of Barack Obama, then just hours from winning the presidency, was hampering his own political future.
“My upward trajectory is stalled if not terminally wounded,” Blagojevich vented. “His election blocked me now.”
Blagojevich also carped about his advisors: “All these f—ing consultants who I am listening to instead of my family.”
And he’s had it with the people of Illinois as well.
“Only 13 percent of you think I’m doing a good job,” he tells Greenlee. “F— all of you.”