CHICAGO – Gov. Rod Blagojevich will go to Springfield, Ill., to make the closing argument in his impeachment trial Thursday.

Lucio Guerrero, Blagojevich’s spokesman, said the governor wants to defend himself and also is responding to comments made by Senate President John Cullerton the past two days in which he urged Blagojevich to appear.

“Senator Cullerton asked him to come down,” Guerrero said. “So he’s taking him up on that and wants to give his closing arguments … That’s something he wanted to do.”

But don’t expect Blagojevich to resign during his speech to avoid being removed from office, Guerrero said.

“I do not know now of any plans to resign. I don’t think he’s going down there to resign, I think he’s going to make his appeal to senators,” he said.

Word of the governor’s request to appear was delivered by a top aide to one of Cullerton’s top staffers only moments before Cullerton announced the governor’s plans on the Senate floor.

“I’ve been informed that the governor would like to come here tomorrow and (ask) leave of us to file an appearance,” Cullerton told the Senate. “We would have to give him permission to do that. I would urge us all to give him that leave so he can argue as his own attorney.”

Immediately upon Cullerton’s announcement, senators broke into wide grins and leaned over to talk quietly to their seatmates.

Blagojevich, who has boycotted the impeachment trial up to this point, will not take questions from senators, Cullerton said. The Senate had been expecting final witnesses Wednesday and a single closing argument Thursday morning from House prosecutor David Ellis.

Now, Blagojevich also will speak. Under the trial rules, the governor first has to ask for permission. It’s a motion the Senate is expected to approve.

The announcement came several hours after Cullerton challenged Blagojevich to stop giving national television interviews and to take questions directly from lawmakers at his impeachment trial.

“If he wants to come down here instead of hiding out in New York and having Larry King asking questions instead of the senators, I think he’s making a mistake,” Cullerton said outside Senate chambers. “He should come here and answer the questions and provide the context that he claims these statements are being taken out of.”

Cullerton also took issue with Blagojevich’s complaints that the trial is unfairly stacked against him.

“Before I suggested that perhaps the governor had just been misreading the (Senate) rules; now I’m pretty sure he’s lying about the rules,” Cullerton said. “He’s had plenty of time to read these rules. I saw him on television last night. He flat out misrepresented what these rules said.

“He wants us to change the rules. I’ll tell you one rule that I would be willing to change, and that is for us to ask questions directly, not in writing, of the governor.”

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AP-NY-01-28-09 1942EST