The Rod Blagojevich who once challenged a prosecutor to face him like a man and the glad-handing politician who took to celebrity TV shows to profess his innocence was nowhere to be found as he was sentenced to 14 years in prison for corruption.

ROD BLAGOJEVICH, the ousted Illinois governor whose three-year battle against criminal charges became a spectacle, was sentenced to 14 years in prison yesterday, a stiff penalty for the man convicted of trying to sell President Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat to raise campaign cash or land a high-paying job.

ROD Blagojevich, who rode his talkative everyman image to two terms as Illinois governor before scandal made him a national punch line, was convicted yesterday of a wide range of corruption charges, including the incendiary allegation that he tried to sell or trade President Barack Obama’s Senate seat.