Blagojevich Busted

(CBS) The Rod Blagojevich tour met The Daily Show's Jon Stewart Thursday night. When it ended, Stewart seemed to indicate the former governor might be innocent of all charges.

CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery has a look at the surprising success Blagojevich seemed to have on the national talk show circuit.

A recent poll found Stewart to be the "most trusted" news anchor. So it's worth paying attention when Stewart declares that Rod Blagojevich might be a new Richard Jewell, the man wrongly accused of bombing the Atlanta Olympics.

 Watch The Interview Here

Blagojevich continued to insist that he is innocent of all federal charges against him and that federal prosecutors are trying to railroad him using snippets of wiretaps taken out of context.

Stewart called himself "skeptical," but spoke to Blagojevich sympathetically in the interview.

"If it's true, please come on this show and allow me to hug you personally to apologize," Stewart said near the end of his interview with Blagojevich. "If so, this is one of the great stories. You are Richard Jewell."

However, Stewart also introduced the version of the interview that was broadcast on television by saying it had been edited for time puposes so that "you can get the general tenor of the really bats*** crazy things that were going on."

Even so, for Blagojevich, it was the strongest high-profile performance, yet, of his campaign to tell his story to potential jurors in his upcoming criminal trial.

Howie Siegal, a Jon Stewart fan, said, "I thought Jon was gonna beat him up a little bit more. But he seemed to kinda let him talk and do his thing."

The former governor's success has seemingly defied the advice experts, including former jury consultant Dr. Phil, had offered.

Earlier this month, Dr. Phil offered Blagojevich this simple advice: "Shut up. He needs to stop."

There are those, though, who still believe Blagojevich will ultimately regret his high-profile attacks on federal prosecutors and some of the other things he is now saying.

"He's an extraordinary campaigner. He comes across very well in a campaign setting. But he's not campaigning to the jury and the judge. He is answering charges in court about crime," Former Chicago alderman and University of Illinois at Chicago political science professor Dick Simpson said. "Should he testify on the stand and say anything different than what's in his book or any of his appearances on television, he is guilty of perjury."

Even so, it was clear that some are sympathetic to Blagojevich's claim that he's the victim of a conspiracy.

William Evans Sr. said, "I think he's a good guy. And I think the state is just trying to railroad him."

Robert Plunkett said, "Circumstantial evidence doesn't mean nothing at all." Plunkett wasn't willing to say Blagojevich is innocent, but said "He did a lot for people."

Jury consultant William Healy said reactions like those from the general public could mean the government's case is in trouble.

"It could be. It absolutely could be. It really depends on what happens in court. People want to hear these tapes," Healy said.

During the interview with Stewart, Blagojevich repeated a claim he has issued several times before that he is being falsely accused of trying to trying to sell President Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat.

Blagojevich claimed in reality, the same morning he was arrested, he was working on a deal in which Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, whom he described as the daughter of his "political nemesis" to the Senate. In exchange, he says, "I wanted 500,000 jobs for public works, I wanted health care for 300,000 people, and I wanted a written promise that we would not raise taxes on the people of Illinois."

He admitted to coarse language attributed to him in FBI transcripts, and both he and Stewart used plenty of profanity during the interview. But he claimed the whole conversation about Obama's Senate seat was intended to help the people of Illinois.

"I think any reasonable person – you probably do too – when you hear, 'This is F'in golden and he's not getting it for nothing, you probably figure the next sentence is, 'And I want a million dollars and a bank account that I'm going to have in Switzerland if he wants to get in as Senator," but this was not the case, Blagojevich claimed.

He said the whole "f***ing golden" conversation was about a deal for expanded health care and public works jobs. He said House Speaker Michael Madigan would not approve Blagojevich's jobs program unless Lisa Madigan were appointed Senator, and even questioned whether Speaker Madigan should be held criminally liable instead.

He added that his hands were tied from defending himself and providing the proper context for the tapes.

"I'm the anti-Nixon. I want every tape recording heard by you. I want those released to the public. My accusers are the Nixons. They're saying, 'Don't listen to the tapes,'" Blagojevich said. "If you want to hear the truth, hear those tapes."

Stewart may have seemed sympathetic to Blagojevich in his interview, especially the way he said – whether seriously or sardonically – that he hoped Blagojevich was innocent.

"I want this to be real. I want Pat Fitzgerald and the entire City of Chicago's political structure and the entire State of Illinois to somehow be conspiring (against you) as hard as they can," Stewart said. But Stewart said that Blagojevich's claim that the case against him is a massive conspiracy by political enemies is "hard to believe."

Stewart could have pointed out that the secret FBI recordings will be played at Blagojevich's trial and not beforehand. He could also have pointed out that some of the conversations the former governor claims will exonerate him were recorded after he already knew about the federal wiretaps, because the Tribune revealed it in a front page story.

CBS 2 Web Producer Adam Harrington contributed to this report.

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