The impeachment case was based on the criminal charges plus other allegations — that Blagojevich expanded a health care program without authority, that he circumvented hiring laws to give jobs to political allies, that he spent millions on flu vaccine that he knew couldn't be brought into the country.

Blagojevich did not testify before the House impeachment committee and has not offered an explanation for the criminal charges.

"His silence in this grave matter is deafening," said House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, a Chicago Democrat.

Rep. Elga Jefferies voted "present." Rep. Milton Patterson, also a Chicago Democrat, voted against impeachment. Patterson said later that he was not defending anyone, but that he read the impeachment committee's report and wasn't comfortable voting against the governor.

"I went by my own gut feeling; it's as simple as that," he said. "If the government is going to indict him, let them go ahead and do that. That's their job, and I'm doing my job."

After returning from his jog, Blagojevich said his situation reminded him of the short story "The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner," about a petty criminal who takes up running. "And that's what this is, by the way, a long-distance run," he said.

Later, at the news conference, Blagojevich portrayed the impeachment vote as another round in a long struggle with the House, which he said had repeatedly thwarted his efforts to help real people instead of "special interests and lobbyists."

He ended the news conference by reciting a few lines from the poem "Ulysses" by Lord Alfred Tennyson, ending with: "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

After his arrest, Blagojevich defied practically the entire political establishment by appointing someone to the Senate, former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris. That provoked a furor as state and federal officials struggled over whether to seat Burris.

On Friday, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that Burris' paperwork was valid and that Illinois' secretary of state did not have to sign his appointment. But that may not be sufficient for Burris to take his seat: Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the Senate will not accept Burris without the signature.

The Illinois Senate is working to draft rules for the impeachment trial. The state constitution does not specify what is an impeachable offense and does not lay out a standard for conviction, other than that senators must "do justice according to law." The chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court will preside.

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On the Net:

Committee report: tinyurl.com/94n5fo

Impeachment resolution: tinyurl.com/83zera