SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Gov. Rod Blagojevich's attorney called a legislative impeachment effort against the governor a "witch hunt" Wednesday and tried to get three impeachment committee members disqualified as biased.

"Rod Blagojevich cannot get a fair and impartial hearing from this committee," attorney Ed Genson told House lawmakers, who are investigating whether federal corruption charges and other issues are grounds to impeach the second-term Democrat.

Meanwhile, a different threat against Blagojevich ended Wednesday. The Illinois Supreme Court declined to hear an argument that Blagojevich should be declared incapacitated because of the national furor surrounding him.

Blagojevich has been top national news and late-night comedy fodder since his arrest last week on federal charges that he tried to auction off a U.S. Senate seat. Emerging from his Chicago home for a morning jog Wednesday, he told reporters he will break his weeklong silence today.

"I can't wait to begin to tell my side of the story and to address you guys and, most importantly, the people of Illinois. That's who I'm dying to talk to," Blagojevich said, according to The Associated Press. "There's a time and place for everything. That day will soon be here. …"

Blagojevich was led from his Chicago home in handcuffs Dec. 9 on federal fraud and bribery charges, including an alleged plot to sell off his authority to appoint a replacement to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

Blagojevich is free on a signature bond as he awaits a January court date. He has ignored calls from Obama and others that he step down, and has gone to work at his Chicago office, signing a dozen bills in the last week. Frustrated state lawmakers responded by convening the House impeachment committee this week.

Genson, Blagojevich's attorney, argued before the committee in Springfield on Wednesday that angry public statements by some state lawmakers should disqualify them from serving on the 21-member body. He asked that Reps. Jack Franks, D-Woodstock, Jil Tracy, R-Quincy, and Bill Black, R-Danville, be removed from the committee.

Black, minutes earlier, made a speech from his committee seat saying that "the people have lost confidence" in state government under Blagojevich. That and other comments, Genson said, "made it perfectly clear they have made up their minds."

Franks — a vociferous Blagojevich critic who began calling for his impeachment long before last week's arrest — responded after the hearing: "I can be fair."

Genson predicted that Blagojevich won't attempt to appoint anyone to fill the vacant U.S. Senate seat. "They (the U.S. Senate) have said they're not going to accept anybody (that Blagojevich appoints). Why would he do that?''

Genson also complained that rules adopted by the committee don't specify what standards will be used to judge Blagojevich. The only standard that appears in play, he said in a Statehouse news conference after the hearing, is "sort of what everybody feels like."

"This is a real witch hunt," Genson told reporters.

Committee Chairwoman Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, disputed that characterization. She noted that the committee doesn't have to adhere to the rules of criminal trials and that Illinois law leaves it to the Legislature to determine what is an impeachable offense.

"The governor's lawyer did a pretty good job of throwing up dust," Currie said.

Unlike the federal "crimes and misdemeanors" standard, there is no specific criterion that Illinois lawmakers have to meet to impeach a chief executive. Under the 1970 state constitution, the House determines by a majority vote whether there is cause for impeachment. If so, the case is tried in the Senate, which can remove the executive by a two-thirds vote.

Among the committee's topics of discussion are likely to be issues that arose prior to Blagojevich's arrest. Some lawmakers have been clamoring for Blagojevich's ouster for as long as a year, on grounds that he has refused to work with the Legislature or to carry out basic functions of his office.

Genson, in addressing the committee, gave a peek at what his defense strategy might be in defending Blagojevich against the federal criminal charges. He denigrated wiretapped evidence against his client as a lot of "jabbering" about schemes that no one ever attempted to actually carry out.

"People talk and talk and talk (in the wiretapped conversations of Blagojevich and others), but there's no evidence that anyone ever did anything," Genson said.

As the impeachment committee pondered Blagojevich's fate Wednesday, he got what was probably his first good news in a week. The state Supreme Court declined, without comment, to hear a plea from Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan that the court remove Blagojevich from power.

Madigan had invoked a legal provision meant for leaders who become incapacitated. She argued that, because the federal charges against Blagojevich involve central responsibilities such as signing legislation, dispersing state money and making appointments, he is effectively incapable now of doing those things while he awaits trial.

Madigan, a longtime Blagojevich critic, would normally represent the governor in legal matters like impeachment. Genson is asking the Illinois House to pay him instead, because Blagojevich has a right to state legal representation but "happens to have an attorney general who files things against him."

Genson said he is asking the House to pay him "whatever they think is fair" for handling the impeachment defense.

The state isn't paying for Blagojevich's defense in his federal criminal case, in which Genson also is representing him. Genson indicated Wednesday he isn't handling the criminal case for free, but he declined to say who is paying him or how much. "That's none of your business," he told a reporter.

The impeachment committee will reconvene at 10 a.m. today.

kmcdermott@post-dispatch.com

217-782-4912