Blago Media Blitz

Illinois' beleaguered Gov. Rod Blagojevich said today that when he was deciding who would take President Obama's Senate seat he considered appointing talk show queen Oprah Winfrey.

Blagojevich made the revelation to Diane Sawyer on "Good Morning America" on the day his impeachment trial is set to begin. That trial is expected to toss him out of office.

The governor said that Winfrey's name came up as a potential successor to Obama in the Senate.

Blagojevich is slated to appear on "GMA," ABC's "The View," the "Today" show and "Larry King Live" today.

The governor insisted he was innocent but was boycotting his trial because he was not allowed to introduce witnesses like Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and the president's top adviser Valerie Jarrett.

"I'm talking to Americans to let them know what's happening in the land of Lincoln," Blagojevich said.

When asked whether he had tried to auction off Obama's Senate seat, Blagojevich said, "Absolutely not and I'll have a chance in a criminal case to show my innocence and bring witnesses."

Reminded that many people, including Obama, have called on him to resign and that Mayor Richard Daley even called him "cuckoo," the governor said, "Here's a question I have to you, to Mayor Daley and everyone else: Whatever happened to the presumption of innocence?"

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Daley Knows Best

If Gov. Blagojevich wants to invoke the insanity defense, he won’t get an argument from Mayor Daley.

Daley turned into an amateur psychiatrist Friday when asked about the governor’s claim that the state Senate’s upcoming impeachment trial is a plot to get Blagojevich out of the way to pave the wave for a massive tax increase.

“I’ve said, ‘cuckoo’ once. I’ll say it again: ‘Cuckoo,’ ” the mayor said of the governor’s claim.

That’s the second time in four months that Daley has referred to Illinois’ disgraced governor as “cuckoo.”