SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The walls kept closing in on Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Thursday, with President-elect Barack Obama pressing for his resignation, state lawmakers preparing to strip him of power and his lieutenant governor publicly eyeing Springfield's Executive Mansion.

As a new poll showed Blagojevich's approval rating in single digits, Illinois' attorney general worked on a court challenge to have him declared unfit to continue in office. The Democratic governor, for his part, showed up for work for the second straight day.

"Upbeat, positive," was how spokesman Lucio Guerrero described Blagojevich's mood inside the Chicago office, where he has evaded aggressive media coverage since his Tuesday morning arrest by federal agents at his north side Chicago home on corruption charges. "There's a sense of trying to return to normalcy."

That sense wasn't shared by fellow Democrats in Springfield, Chicago or Washington, where calls for Blagojevich to step down have become nearly unanimous.

"I don't think the governor at this point can serve the people of Illinois," Obama said in a Chicago news conference. He said he was "appalled and disappointed" at Blagojevich's alleged schemes to personally profit from his position, as laid out in a federal criminal complaint based largely on wiretaps of Blagojevich's home phone and office.

As governor, Blagojevich has the authority to appoint a replacement for Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat from Illinois. The second-term governor is accused of plotting to cut a deal with Obama's administration, or with a candidate directly, in order to profit from a federal appointment or campaign contributions.

Nothing in the government's case implicates Obama or his staff. In fact, the criminal complaint alleges Blagojevich was recorded using some harsh expletives to describe the president-elect when it became clear that Blagojevich wasn't going to get anything from him.

Still, Obama on Thursday found himself having to stress that his only role in the case was to read the public disclosures "and shake my head."

"I had no contact with the governor's office. I did not speak to the governor about these issues. That I know for certain," Obama said.

"What I want to do is to gather all the facts about any staff contacts ... that may have taken place between the transition office and the governor's office," he added, and make them public.

Blagojevich also is accused of trying to barter with his official position in other ways, including trying to squeeze campaign contributions from a children's hospital by threatening its state funding and trying to get critical Chicago Tribune editorial writers fired by offering a state business deal to the newspaper's owners.

The sweeping allegations prompted a comment from the White House Thursday, which said President George W. Bush finds Blagojevich's alleged behavior "astounding."

Back in Springfield, it has become a foregone conclusion that political leaders are going to move against Blagojevich, but there is conflict over how to do it.

The Illinois House meets in emergency session Monday to consider stripping the governor's office of its the authority to name a U.S. Senate replacement. The measure would set up a special election to choose the occupant of that seat for the last two years of Obama's term.

But Lt. Gov. Patrick Quinn — who would replace Blagojevich should the governor resign or be removed from office — came out against the special election idea Thursday.

"Illinois should get a U.S. senator as quickly as possible," said Quinn, noting that a special election would cost the state $50 million and take as long as six months.

Quinn said the Legislature instead should deal with "the source of the problem" — Blagojevich — and allow Quinn to appoint the new senator if and when he ascends to the governor's office.

The lieutenant governor called the removal of Blagojevich "the primary duty of the Legislature right now."

Quinn initially resisted questions about his plans if he becomes governor, saying they were premature. But when asked whether he would live in the Executive Mansion in Springfield, he said without hesitation that he would, and talked of returning it to its status as "the people's house."

Blagojevich has been criticized by downstaters for remaining in his Chicago home as governor rather than moving into the mansion.

If Blagojevich doesn't resign, and if the Legislature doesn't impeach him soon, he could conceivably be removed from office by the state Supreme Court, on grounds that the charges against him have made it impossible to carry out his duties.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan — a fellow Democrat but long-time Blagojevich critic — said she is exploring the possibility of making that case to the court.

"Since Tuesday, we have been looking into the law" on the issue, Madigan said in a nationally televised CNN interview Thursday. "We have issues right now where we need a governor … who can make decisions."

A poll taken since Blagojevich's arrest by Chicago-based Glengariff Group finds the embattled governor's approval rating has tanked to around 8 percent. That's a fall from an already abysmal rating of 23 percent in September.

And the vast majority of respondents say they want the governor gone. Of the 600 people surveyed by phone Tuesday and Wednesday, 70 percent think he should resign. And 73 percent say they'd support moves to impeach him.

The margin of error of the new poll was plus or minus 4 percent.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

kmcdermott@post-dispatch.com

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