Politics | Rod Blagojevich Blago: I'm Blacker Than Barack Ex-Illinois gov shined shoes, thank you very much By Polly Davis Doig Posted Jan 11, 2010 7:28 AM CST Copied Rod Blagojevich jokes with the crowd during a book signing for his book, 'The Governor' at the University of Chicago Bookstore, Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2009, in Chicago. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green) Rod Blagojevich has a knack for dropping F-bombs and soundbites as outlandish as his hair, and his latest interview—a wide-ranging doozy with Esquire—is no exception. The disgraced-but-unabashed ex-gov tells the mag he's "blacker than Barack Obama," that he's innocent ("Where the f--- is Woodward and Bernstein?"), and that he was the only real politician in the land of Lincoln (his taped conversations will show "me motherf---ing these phony politicians and how sickening they are, because the people are getting screwed.") "I shined shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived," Blagojevich says. "I saw it all growing up." Read These Next Details trickle out on 2 more victims of the Minneapolis shooting. The Air Force has changed its tune on Ashli Babbitt. Isolated tribe members show up in an unexpected place. Trump fires regulator before vote on rail merger. Report an error