- U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL) speaking with Don Lemon of CNN on Friday, December 12, 2008 after being identified as "Senate Candidate 5" in the federal criminal complaint against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.
Jackson, the son of famed civil rights leader Jesse Jackson and a six-term Democratic congressman from Chicago, had publicly sought to succeed President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate.
Jackson had talked to Blagojevich, the person with the sole power to make the appointment, on Monday, just one day before federal agents arrested the Illinois governor. Jackson said he only presented his credentials and polling information that suggests he could win re-election in 2010.
~ ~ ~
BLOG UPDATE (12/16/2008): CNN.com reports that Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who was cited in a criminal complaint against Rod Blagojevich, went to the U.S. Attorney's office about alleged wrongdoers, including the Illinois governor, a Jackson spokesman said Tuesday.
In a statement, spokesman Kenneth Edmonds described Jackson's interaction with federal authorities this way:
"As a responsible citizen and elected official, Congressman Jackson has in the past provided information to federal authorities regarding his personal knowledge of perceived corruption and governmental misconduct.
"This was completely unrelated to the current investigation regarding the U.S. Senate appointment. [But] Jackson has given information regarding the embattled Democratic governor of Illinois, though not in the case currently under investigation."
~ ~ ~
plez sez: call me cynical, but to paraphrase Shakespeare, "the [gentleman] doth protest too much, methinks."
this is not a good time to be associated with the current governor of illinois. the taint about him rubs off on anyone with any close association.
the vulgar language. the brazen disposition about him. the arrogance and high mindedness of rod blagojevich. congressman jackson cannot be faulted for wanting to vault into the upper chamber of congress on the heels of BARACK OBAMA's awesome win of the white house. but he should've also been aware of the volatility and risk that he was taking in even going to speak with blago.
jackson would do well to find the "emissary" who spoke on his behalf and have this "emissary" publicly disclose his or her involvement in putting jackson's name out there for blago to think he would "pay to play". just as jesse, jr. made an attempt to clear his name, that name won't be stain-free until all the facts about the use of his name in the context of the sale of Obama's senate seat are aired in public.
i'm afraid saying "i don't know who did it" won't cut it this time around!
~ ~ Citations ~ ~
Read the CNN.com article about Illinois Attorney General asks state's high court to remove Blagojevich.
Read the CNN.com article about Obama asks Blagojevich to step down.
Read the CNN.com article about Jesse Jackson, Jr. trying to clear his name of the Blago scandal.
Read the CNN.com article about Jesse Jackson, Jr. providing feds with info on Blagojevich.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Posts
2 comments:
We just stopped paying politicians on top of the table about a hundred years ago.
I personally don't think Jackson should concede anything right now because just because Blagojevich is a bad apple.
If anything, Jackson's own pay to play efforts to me are his only wrongdoing.
He HAD to talk to Blagojevich. So did Obama's people. ANYONE who wanted a real shot at getting the seat would have. Jarret has only escaped her own in person meeting or phone sessions because she probably wasn't a real candidate anyway.
I don't know enough about Illinois politics to be able to say whether or not he could have been reelected, but if Illinois is anything like Georgia, where once you leave the metro, you are in the land of inflexible thinkers, then he probably had some overly optimistic poll numbers in his hands last Monday.
This is just the beginning. I think Obama is going to have a dogfight on his hands for the next year and a half as people see their traditional power structures upended.
This "Change" thing is waaay more dangerous than him being black - now that the election is over, it looks like the folks who want to stay in charge have discarded the smokescreen of that fiction and are now ready to go mano a mano on the real deal - why is this negro trying to move my cheese?
Brown Man,
i think you've touched on something with Obama's "change" message... it was based on the premise of turning things inside out! people get drunk on power (look at blagojevich, et. al.) ... and it will be very difficult to pry the power out of their cold dead fingers!
Post a Comment