As Trial Resumes, Blagojevich Worries About Daughters

Jury selection resumes Monday in the retrial for Rod Blagojevich on corruption charges, and the former Illinois governor tells the Chicago Tribune that he's mostly worried about how daughters Annie, 8, and Amy, 14, will handle a possible jail sentence for their dad. "I explained to her that I was in a hard business," Blagojevich said of Amy, "that there are some federal prosecutors who were politicizing their offices. And that I did nothing wrong." This being Blagojevich, an asterisk comes with the interview.

The Tribune notes that prosecutors have accused him of playing the sympathy card in public to sway potential jurors—the girls were nowhere in sight, but Skittles the dog was—and critics have accused him of using his girls as political props to defuse tough questions dating back to when he was governor. He and wife Patti dismiss the criticism. "This has to turn out all right for our children," said Patti. "It's the difference between … this being a brief rotten period that we've gotten through or them having a profoundly unhappy childhood." Click for all things Blagojevich. (More Rod Blagojevich stories.)