Blagojevich: 'F***ing Golden' Remark Was 'War-Gaming'

Rod Blagojevich finally got a chance to explain his infamous description of Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat as "f---ing golden" but he did a pretty poor job of it. "I'm afraid to answer this, but I'm not quite sure how to answer it," the former Illinois governor told his corruption retrial when his attorney asked him to explain the statement. "I was saying this opportunity is f---ing golden, that's what I was saying," he said, after a pause. "I knew it was a unique opportunity."

Blagojevich, who denies trying to swap a Cabinet post for the Senate seat, described the wiretapped conversation as "war-gaming," reports the Chicago Tribune. Blago's testimony capped a bad-tempered day at the trial, in which the judge gave him an angry scolding for ignoring his rulings and "smuggling in" inadmissible testimony. "I make a ruling, and then the ruling is disregarded, and then I have to say, 'Don't do it,'" the judge said. "And when you do that more than once or twice, it is inevitable that I'm going to believe that there is some purpose other than the pursuit of truth." (More Blagojevich trial stories.)