Jackson Jr.

Updates below...

Completely guiltless:

U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) is "completely guiltless" in the alleged scheme to corrupt the appointment of a new U.S. senator from Illinois and will meet with federal investigators as soon as Friday, the congressman's newly hired attorney said today.

My emphasis. Many people have speculated that Jackson Jr. is "Senate Candidate 5" in the criminal complaint filed against Blagojevich yesterday. I haven't followed his career that much but Jackson Jr. has struck me as more or less a clean politician. With all the speculation and the fact that Fitzgerald has asked him to come in and discuss the case it makes sense that he's retained a lawyer.

I don't read too much into this little bit of news. Still the family doesn't have the cleanest reputation and Chicago politicians have a well deserved reputation for corruption. I wouldn't rule it out. If someone did approach Blagojevich about the appointment with a cash offer it would take a fair amount of proof to convince me that Jackson Jr. did not know about it.


UPDATE: NPR just reports that Jackson Jr. has confirmed he is Senate Candidate 5. Jackson also said he has been told by federal prosecutors he is not a target of the investigation.

UPDATE2: Let's be clear, I'm not trying to accuse Jackson of anything at this point. Or ever. That's Fitz's job. What was said about SC5 offering a bribe is not necessarily true. It could just as easily be Gonad trying to convince someone else give him a bribe. I would have to go back and reread that section of the indictment since I don't remember the exact context. And with what we seem to know about Gonad I think Jackson definitely deserves the benefit of the doubt at this point.

UPDATE3: I realized my original post was way more accusatory than I wanted it to be and MHP's comment confirms that. I wanted to express that Jackson being identified as SC5 tainted him. With the accusations against his family (see the book Shakedown) and Chicago politicans in general one cannot dismiss the implied impropriety out of hand. On the other hand, Gov. Gonad is looking so slimy and corrupt that there are any number of explanations. Gonad was saying something that wasn't true to convince another possible candidate to pony up is one option. Gonad and Jackson have not always seen eye-to-eye. Gonad may have just been trying to tarnish Jackson by out and out lying.

TPM points out that emerging evidence makes Jackson look MORE INNOCENT. Despite this some people are not going to look any farther than the initial impression and their own bias against the Jacksons. The guy that sits across from me has mentioned at least 3 times this morning that Jackson is "clearly" guilty. No amount of evidence is ever going to convince him he is wrong.