-By Warner Todd Huston
Jesse Jackson, Jr., was at one time one of those politicians that was on TV and radio as much as humanly possible. Like his father, it wasn’t a good idea for one’s personal safety to get between either Jackson and a TV camera or microphone. But since the end of 2008 Junior’s media appearances have been relatively scarce. So what happened? At least two scandals can be identified to have worked to force Junior into hiding.
First, and worst, was Jackson’s connection to the scandal surrounding the arrest (and later conviction, and soon retrial) of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. As the facts about Blago’s attempts to sell for personal gain Barack Obama’s Senate seat came to light, it became clear that Jackson, Jr. was somehow mixed up in the whole mess. Junior has, of course, insisted that he had no part in trying to buy his way into a Senate seat, but the rumors and facts of the case were embarrassing enough to cause Junior to shy from public exposure in hopes that it would all calm down.
During the Blago trial a millions in payoffs to Blago in conjunction with a Jackson, Jr. Senate nod caused Junior no end of heartburn. While Junior hasn’t been charged with anything, his political career might still falter due to the second Blago trial coming early this year as more facts come out on his involvement in the whole affair.
Speaking of affairs, scandal number two swirled around Junior’s initial interest in running for mayor of Chicago after current mayor Daley announced his long-in-coming retirement. While it wasn’t long before Jackson was announcing no interest in running for mayor, it became evident that his reason for skipping the election was because he had a little problem with some extra curricular activities he indulged with a shadowy blond female named Giovanna Huidobro.
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Both Jackson and his wife have confirmed that the affair as a “personal matter” between them. Yeah. An embarrassing personal matter.
Of course, Jackson, Jr.’s father is well known for his wayward path away from the sanctity of his own wedding vows, so I guess Junior learned from a master.
Junior told one reporter not long ago that he is still honored to be a public servant. “I entered public life to provide people with jobs,” he said. Like most Democrat/socialists he seems willfully unaware that government does not “provide people with jobs.” All government can do is cause people to lose jobs or get out of the way and allow the market to work.
In any case, it seems that Jesse Jackson, Jr. is not doing so well these days. Things really have to be bad if he’s spent nearly a year and a half hiding from the media of which he was once so fond.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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