Former aide brands Blagojevich incapable

SPRINGFIELD, Ill., Jan. 9 (UPI) -- A former senior adviser to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has branded him unable or unwilling to serve properly as governor, officials said Friday.

The state House of Representatives voted 114-1 to impeach Blagojevich Friday.

In a 9-page letter to the House special committee that unanimously recommended his impeachment, Bob Arya, who resigned from the administration in October, urged "an independent psychological evaluation" of the governor. He said it was "clear to anyone who has been around him that there is ample cause for such an extraordinary request."

The panel declined to agree to his request, the Springfield State Journal-Register said.

Arya painted a dismal portrait of his former boss, saying the governor rarely showed up at his Chicago office, was "violently unpredictable" and often used foul language on the phone from home.

He said Blagojevich had presidential aspirations but little interest in governing duties such as acting on clemency petitions.

"Rod dislikes Barack Obama because Barack is living the life Rod envisioned for himself," Arya said.

Arya, 40, was a longtime Chicago television reporter who joined the administration in November 2006 as an adviser to the governor. He left that post a little more than a year later because "the situation became so bad."