So ABC News first broke the story earlier today that JLJJ (Jesse L. Jackson Jr.) is, or is likely, "Senate Candidate 5" who is alleged by Blago to have offered to raise the guv a half-million clammies in exchange for the Senate seat.
I say first of all, let's not jump to conclusions. We have only one person's word that such an offer was put forth, and obviously that person (Blago) is kind of a crazy man. So maybe he's lying. Maybe Jackson said something that he misunderstood.
I don't know Jackson. I've met his dad several times. To the extent I know him, I like his father personally. Whatever his shortcomings and misjudgments, I do think he's done a lot of good things too, in terms of encouraging young black people to work hard and in terms of his activism in behalf of people you wouldn't necessarily think were his natural constituents, like foreclosed white farmers.
JLJJ has always struck me as a little harder to get to know -- he doesn't seem like the kind of guy who jokes around much. I also think he's more ideological than his dad; more of a bookish intellectual, and more left-wing in that way. I think you'd certainly almost call him a social democrat of some sort.
People like that usually aren't corrupt -- not because they're superior of course, but because they tend to have a kind of contempt for the political process and especially its earthier manifestations. On the other hand, it's possible he knew that when talking to a thug like Blago, he had to talk Blago's language. I suppose we shall see anon.
