Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun Times reported that the impeached former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich signed a six figure book deal with independent publisher Phoenix Books this afternoon.  Blagojevich’s book, with the working title of “The Governor”, will feature his side of the story (and hopefully an explanation other than “I’m innocent until proven guilty”) of the pay-to-play scandal over filling Barack Obama’s former senate seat.

After Blagojevich was removed from his position as governor in late January, he criticized the senate for removing him over unproven criminal allegations when he wasn’t given the chance to build a defense by questioning potential witnesses in a federal case that relies heavily on recorded conversations he can’t obtain, and that “always the means were legal and, in most cases, the ends were moral.”

I’m sure we will hear more of this come October when the book is due to be released.

Speaking of books, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said yesterday with a hint of humor that the difference between Bush and Obama sounded like a subject of an intriguing book.

According to Gates, who is the only cabinet member who remained in his post from the previous administration, one of the major differences between Bush and Obama as president is that Obama is “somewhat more analytical, and he makes sure he hears from everybody in the room on an issue. And if they don’t speak up, he calls on them,” while Bush “was interested in hearing different points of view but didn’t go out of his way to make sure everybody spoke if they hadn’t spoken up before.”

UPDATE: Blago’s book is too hot of a topic to be covered by just one writer, so we’ve got more. 

Chris Eldred writes: