Marathon Pundit: Blago hit with legal defeat

At this point in the game--late fourth quarter--disgraced former Governor Rod Blagojevich can only toss cross-court desperation shots.

Well one of those attempts fell way-short, as AP tells us:

A federal judge has turned down a request from impeached former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to have Chicago's top federal prosecutor and his staff thrown off the corruption case against him.

Chief Judge James F. Holderman of U.S. District Court said in an order issued Friday that "no legal precedent supports the granting of the relief sought by the defendant Blagojevich in this motion."

Blagojevich had argued that removing U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald from the case was necessary because the prosecutor made inflammatory remarks about him at a news conference after the then-governor was arrested Dec. 9.

He said Robert Grant, special agent in charge of the Chicago FBI office, had made similar remarks. He also said Fitzgerald crossed the line by making public transcripts of wiretaps of Blagojevich conversations that should have been sealed.