Governor Rod Blagojevich was pure defiance last week after the House voted 114 to 1 to impeach him.

Blagojevich said he expected the impeachment because the House has been fighting him tooth and nail ever since he was re-elected in 2006. A statement his office released a day earlier predicted smoother sailing in the Senate.

"It was a foregone conclusion," the governor said about the impeachment.

"When the case moves to the Senate, an actual judge will preside over the hearings, and the governor believes the outcome will be much different," his office's official statement read.

"It's tough to scream 'witch hunt' when your client is riding a broom," one Statehouse reporter cracked recently after Ed Genson, the defense attorney for Governor Rod Blagojevich, claimed the atmosphere following Blagojevich's arrest was "a real witch hunt."

Genson's protestations have mostly fallen on deaf ears, particularly with the Illinois House's impeachment committee. The committee has shot down his objections time and time again in a clear attempt to make sure Genson knows he is not in a courtroom and has few, if any, legal legs to stand on.

From the very beginning, Governor Rod Blagojevich sought to centralize the operation of state government as much as possible in his office. A cadre of deputy governors has overseen daily agency operations with an iron fist and reported directly to Blagojevich's chief of staff or to the governor himself.

But Blagojevich is now under siege and spending much of his days meeting with attorneys about his criminal case. His chief of staff has resigned, as did one of his deputy governors. Another deputy governor was hired only recently.

I spent a few hours re-reading the federal criminal complaint against Governor Rod Blagojevich and former Chief of Staff John Harris late last week. As I did, one image kept coming to mind over and over again: Howard Hughes.