CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Illinois Supreme Court on Wednesday denied a request that embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich be temporarily removed from office amid charges he tried to sell President-elect Barack Obama's former U.S. Senate seat.

The ruling, issued without comment, came as Blagojevich began fighting efforts in the state legislature to impeach him.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan, a Democrat as is Blagojevich and Obama, had asked the court to use a never tested provision allowing the governor to be removed for disability, saying that the charges against him placed him in that category.

"Because of Governor Blagojevich's refusal to resign, the state of Illinois is in an unsustainable situation," Madigan said in a statement after the Supreme Court decision.

Blagojevich and his chief of staff were charged on December 9 with conspiracy to bribe in a scheme to swap political favors, including choice of Obama's replacement, for cash, high-paying jobs or other considerations. They have not been indicted and the governor through his lawyers has denied any wrongdoing.

Obama's U.S. Senate seat at the center of the scandal remained unfilled, with Blagojevich holding sole power to fill it but not acting in the face of suspicion that any choice would now be tainted.

His criminal defense lawyer, Edward Genson, told reporters Wednesday Blagojevich will not make an appointment because Senate Democrats have said they will not seat anyone he chooses, the Chicago Tribune reported. That would leave the seat vacant well past Obama's inauguration in January since the impeachment proceedings are likely to be lengthy.

LAWYER CHALLENGES LAWMAKERS

Blagojevich sent Genson to the state capitol in Springfield to challenge a committee of state lawmakers trying to decide whether impeachment proceedings -- with possible removal from office -- are warranted.

"I find nothing, nothing ... that talks about what the basis for impeaching can be," or what it takes to prove the action is warranted, Genson told the bipartisan committee.

Genson, a prominent Chicago defense attorney who recently helped the R&B star R. Kelly gain acquittal on child pornography charges, also suggested that some members of the House panel be removed because they had already said in public that impeachment is warranted.

The panel's chair, state Rep. Barbara Currie, a Democrat from Chicago, told Genson the hearing was not a court of law and that members could not be expelled.

She said she was satisfied there was a legal underpinning for the committee, which could meet for weeks before deciding on impeachment proceedings.

The federal complaint filed last week by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald was detailed in a 76-page affidavit supported by numerous court-approved wiretaps.

Fitzgerald's investigation is still going on and he has made clear Obama is not implicated in the matter.

Blagojevich on Wednesday went on with business as usual, telling reporters in Chicago that he is "dying" to tell his side of the story and would do so soon.

When the new U.S. Congress meets in January, Democrats will hold 57 of the 100 Senate seats, with the Illinois seat vacant and the outcome of a Republican-held Minnesota Senate race still undecided.

Democrats are counting on retaining Obama's seat for their party. Republican-backed efforts to hold a special election that they would have a chance of winning have so far failed.

(Editing by Peter Bohan and David Wiessler)

www.nytimes.com/reuters/2008/12/17/washington/politics-us-blagojevich.html