Diane Sawyer interviewed the Illinois governor, and to her credit held his feet fairly firmly to the fire.  In contrast with Amy Robach’s relatively soft treatment in her NBC interview, Sawyer repeatedly cited some of the seamier excerpts from the infamous wiretape transcripts, e.g., “I’ve got this thing and it’s bleeping golden and, I’m just not giving it up for bleeping nothing.”

Sawyer was also persistent on the subject of whom Blago had in mind for the seat.  The guv eventually spilled the beans, but not before asking Sawyer a question worthy of middle-school girls gossiping during break, along the lines: “who did you hear I was thinking about?” DIANE SAWYER: You said one of the things that you would introduce in order to establish that you were talking about lots of people to become senator is that you had other names on the list and you were really thinking about somebody else.  Who were you thinking of?

ROD BLAGOJEVICH: Well, there was a whole series of people we talked about in those conversations, and ultimately, again, there was a political process trying to be able to leverage a result: pass a public works program, expand health care, hold the line on taxes.

SAWYER: But who were you thinking of?

BLAGO: Several people, and I’ll tell you about that. The guv went off once more on his riff about the Illinois impeachment trial being unfair, mentioning yet again how he’d like to call senior Obama admin officials like Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett.  But Diane would not be denied.

SAWYER: Let me ask you a personal question.  I want to go back.  Who were you thinking of for Senate who wasn’t in any of these telephone calls?

BLAGO: There were a lot of different candidates that I explored. And again, the full story will come out at the appropriate time.  You have any suggestions on who I might have been thinking about?  What have you heard?

SAWYER: I heard Oprah.

BLAGO:  That is true.

SAWYER: Did you call Oprah?  Were you talking to her or was this just something you were thinking?

BLAGO: No, the idea came to me from a friend.  And then among the considerations we discussed, whether or not it made any sense, she seemed to be someone who had helped Barack Obama in a significant way become president, she is obviously someone with a much broader bully pulpit than other senators.  She probably wouldn’t take it, and then we talked about if you offered it to her, how would you do it in a way that didn’t look like some gimmick and embarrass her?

It’s been speculated that the purpose of Blago’s exercise in going on national TV is an attempt to influence the jury pool in his upcoming criminal trial.  He certainly wouldn’t mind if there were some Oprah fans on the jury, who now know that Blago was considering their idol . .  .