Rod Blagojevich's interview with Scott Raab in Esquire is captivating--but perhaps not in the way the former Illinois governor was hoping. In a monologue so colorful as to make Raab "stipulate ... for the sake of our own sanity, that [Blagojevich] is not quite sane," Blagojevich declared he was "blacker than Barack Obama." (His reasoning being that he shined shoes and his father owned a laundromat). He also claimed that David Axelrod encouraged him to consider a run as a 2008 presidential candidate. The blogosphere is snickering.

• 'The Most Trenchant Racial Humorist Since Richard Pryor,' laughs Wonkette's Sara Smith. "He said that he was 'blacker than Barack Obama,' which greatly offended the nation's first black president (Bill Clinton)."

• Blagojevich Still Trying, notes Politics Daily's David Sessions, who calls the governor's "campaign to prove he was innocent" in his signature scandal "quixotic." Blagojevich's claim that David Axelrod suggested he run for president in 2008, along with other discussion of Barack Obama, Sessions dubs "characteristically dubious."

• Fact-Checking Politico's Ben Smith checks the Axelrod claim-- the political adviser denies the story. Smith declares Blagojevich "outdoes himself" in the Esquire interview.

• 'Yet Another Light Skinned Black,' writes Rick at Wizbang, wittily referring to Senator Reid's reported comment about Barack Obama.

• Who Is He Kidding? "The disgraced ex-governor of Illinois," writes Gawker's Azaria Jagger, "apparently failed to take his Elvis Presley pointer-finger dance into account in assessing his relative level of whiteness in a new interview with Esquire."

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Heather Horn