Defiant Blago: Trial a Big Waste of Money

Because federal prosecutors got Rod Blagojevich on only 1 of 24 counts, we get to do this all over again. Let the posturing begin, as rounded up by the Chicago Tribune:

• Rod Blagojevich: "The government threw everything but the kitchen sink at me, and on every charge but one they could not prove that I broke any laws except one, a nebulous charge from five years ago." And as to that conviction: "I did not lie to the FBI. I told the truth from the very beginning."
• Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald: "We intend to retry those charges. That's it."

• Blago attorney Sam Adam Sr, referring to Fitzgerald: "This guy is nuts."
• Blago attorney Sam Adam Jr: "Why are we spending $25 to $30 million on a retrial when they couldn't prove it the first time?"
• Blago brother Robert: "I have felt like this has been a slow bleed from the beginning, both financially, emotionally and otherwise. But I can tell you what, I feel strong."
• Blago himself again: "We have a prosecutor who has wasted and wanted to spend tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money to take me away from my family and my home."

(More Blagojevich trial stories.)