Buttigieg seeks Jackson redemption

Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign is a confounding mess – he’s raising a significant amount of money that would give him a chance to be a competitive campaigner, yet he has many would-be black voters thinking he’s the devil incarnate.

BUTTIGIEG: In trouble with black voters

So what does he choose to do? He gets himself a spot on the program Tuesday of the Rainbow/PUSH convention held every year in Chicago.

IN SHORT, HE seeks out an audience with none other than the Rev. Jesse Jackson himself – hoping that Jackson will give him the political equivalent of a papal blessing that would get many black voters to quit thinking in terms of Buttigieg as the absolute last of the two dozen presidential aspirants whom they’d consider supporting.

Buttigieg, at 37, is amongst the youngest of the presidential dreamers, and he has attracted some support from the kind of people who want to believe that everybody else is far too old to be in charge of the federal government.

Youth, vigor, somebody who understands (and is fully a part of) the world of the 21^st Century! Which is why he was able to raise some $24.8 million in donations during the second fundraising quarter – more than any other candidate.

He may have the kind of campaign cash that could make him competitive with the Bernie Sanders’ and the Joe Biden’s of the political world. But the man whose political background is serving as the mayor of South Bend, Ind., also is turning out to be the guy that black voters want to see go down to an embarrassing defeat.

AS IN THERE are some black voters who not only want him to lose, they want him to become politically-damaged goods to the point where he’d never be able to run for any government post again in the future.

It stems from an incident in South Bend where the local police were involved in a shooting incident in which a black man was killed.

It didn’t help that the officer was equipped with a body camera and a squad car with a video camera, yet neither one managed to record the incident – which might have backed up the officer’s claims that the man was armed with a knife and was brandishing it.

JACKSON: Being sought for his aid

Also the fact that Buttigieg himself has let himself get bogged down by the whole affair – making himself seem weak and indecisive and potentially helping to cover up details in the whole affair.

SO THE MAN who is openly in a gay marriage who’d like to think he’s the natural choice of all progressive-minded people has one segment of the Democratic electorate wishing he’d drop dead.

And some Democratic political operatives thinking that Buttigieg himself is just too flawed to unite the various factions that comprise the modern-day Democrats.

Hence, Buttigieg seeks redemption in the form of Jesse Jackson. Who had a meeting with the mayor, then allowed him to speak at the Rainbow/PUSH forum gathering.

But the most important part may well be the words from Jackson himself, who said he thinks the accounts many people have heard about what is happening in South Bend are distorted, and that Buttigieg has handled things about as well as any political person could.

“HE’S HANDLED AN awkward situation well by being transparent,” Jackson said of Buttigieg, while also tossing out a potshot against Indiana state law that actually forbids municipalities from having residency requirements for their police officers and firefighters.

SANDERS: Can 'Mayor Pete' beat him?

The fact that cops in South Bend don’t have to live in the city (only within an adjacent county) means local residents don’t necessarily trust them, and view them as something of the equivalent of an “occupying force.”

A description that I’m sure law enforcement types will resent, and one that could come back to bite Buttigieg on the behind if he gets perceived as having too much support from Jackson.

Although for now, I’m sure “Mayor Pete” would gladly accept a Jesse Jackson blessing, if only it results in turning black voters into a segment that eagerly awaits his electoral defeat in the 2020 presidential election cycle.

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EXTRA: Could Taste of Chicago shutdown create moment in the sun for police-motivated protests?

It is one of those events that has taken on a certain aura in Chicago history – the Rev. Jesse Jackson managed to impose a boycott over the now-defunct ChicagoFest.

 

Will Saturday crowds be on the decline due to proposed shutdown?

It was back in the 1982 version when Jackson got black activists to picket the event held at Navy Pier, and several entertainers cancelled out of a sense of solidarity – including Stevie Wonder.

I CAN’T HELP but think that somebody thinks they can pull off a repeat a third of a century later with the Shutdown they’re hoping to accomplish on Saturday at the Taste of Chicago being held in Grant Park.

This event isn’t quite as adventurous, activists are merely calling for people not to go and stuff their faces with overpriced food for a four-hour time period in the afternoon. The rest of the five-day event that runs through Sunday night is fair game for people to attend.

But it seems all of the police violence being inflicted upon individuals of not quite a pure Caucasian persuasion has Chicago-area people feeling the need to do something.

And it’s not just the shooting death of Laquan McDonald that has them angered. This particular boycott, or call for one, was motivated by the activities of this week in which two separate cities saw moments when police killed black men and there was the incident where five Dallas police officers are now dead.

THAT’S A LOT of bloodshed, and I’m going to be curious to see just how many people actually bother to show up. Or perhaps I should say don’t bother to show up, since this is a call for a boycott.

I suppose that since I have no intention of going to Taste of Chicago on Saturday, I could be lame and claim I’m doing it in solidarity. Although the plans I have for the day have been in place for so long I have to say my absence has nothing to do with expressing my view about police violence.

This is an issue that is exploding across the nation. It is NOT a locally-based problem, which is part of the reason why I have had problems placing blame on Chicago political people – including Rahm Emanuel – for what happened to McDonald.

I don’t see that we have any worse a situation in Chicago than any other city does. I’d also argue that anybody who tries to dump blame on Chicago is merely trying to detract from the seriousness of the situation in their home city.

WE’LL SEE LATER Saturday if there’s any notable lack of people in Grant Park. I suspect there won’t be.

For Taste of Chicago is such a touristy event (I haven’t gone to it in years, and don’t think I’ve missed a thing as a result) that I suspect many of those feeling compelled to gnaw on giant turkey legs or wolf down pizza slices will be out-of-towners who didn’t see the “Taste of Chicago Shutdown” page on Facebook – which is how I learned of the attempt to express outrage.

For all I know, they may not have cared if they had been told. They want that turkey leg.

Personally, if I really feel compelled to have a cheezborger (yes, the Billy Goat Tavern is among the restaurants serving food this weekend), I can get one any day of the year. It’s not a weekend-only edible treat.

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EXTRA: Suburban gun runners?!?

It seems the Rev. Michael Pfleger has come up with a new tactic, both to get his name in the public eye and to try to go after gun shops that for decades have managed to frustrate himself and others who are concerned about the number of firearms that are currently spread out amongst the public in Chicago.

He’s suing the suburban villages where he often has protested in the past, contending those municipalities are lax in their enforcement of firearms-related laws.

AS A REPORTER-type person, I have covered protests held in the past by Pfleger and the Rev. Jesse Jackson outside of Chuck’s Gun Shop in suburban Riverdale. Their objections to that shop are long-running – they believe the store’s owners let just about anybody buy a firearm.

Even if the few existing laws concerning firearms ownership would ban those individuals from having pistols of any type.

Because I have covered these protests, I also know the ownership of Chuck’s says it is in compliance. The letter of the law is being followed, they say. They’re probably telling the truth!

Which means the laws themselves are lax. In need of revision. Except that the NRA-types who want to believe that firearm ownership is a God-given right will go out of their way to intimidate political people from doing any serious revisions.

WHAT MAKES THIS particular store so unique is its location. Riverdale is right on the southernmost border of Chicago, not far from the Altgeld Gardens public housing complex.

The store itself is about five blocks from the city limits. There likely are firearms originally purchased there that eventually wind up in the hands of Chicago residents who aren’t supposed to have them.

I suspect similar conditions exist for Midwest Sporting Goods in suburban Lyons and for Shore Galleries in suburban Lincolnwood.

So that led to the lawsuit filed this week in Cook County Circuit Court. Not against the gun shops or their owners. But against the municipalities themselves.

PFLEGER AND HIS allies on this issue want a judge to issue an order requiring the local governments to be more aggressive in policing those local businesses – even though in the past, local officials have said they’re doing everything the law requires of them.

WBBM-TV reported Tuesday that the lawsuit seeks to have the local governments require background checks of gun shop employees, more training for employees to prevent sales to people who intend to sell them to others who can’t make the buy themselves, keeping lists of those who are not allowed to buy firearms and also of all firearms they sell that later turn up as being used in the commission of a crime.

That’s a lot of work. I’m sure the store owners, when they eventually get around to responding, will claim it’s an undue burden being placed upon themselves.

Then again, there is the nature of the product that they’re selling. One that can be too easily misused to cause bodily harm to others in our society.

IT WILL BE interesting to see if the courts accept this line of logic. Even if a local judge does, how quickly will it wind up getting appealed to a court located outside of the city where the perception might be that someone will want to believe that some hunter seeking to shoot elk or deer or whatever is being denied his chance because of such restrictions?

This could wind up as a long-running battle – one that I wonder if it will outlast even Pfleger’s time on this planet.

There are certain issues that it seems will perpetually linger on; we’re never going to come to a resolution. Particularly since there are those in our society who believe that the solution to public violence is to require everyone to be armed.

Which is something the gun shops would probably like – more business for them and a boost to their financial bottom line.

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Will Jesse Jackson help Chuy get significant number of black voters?

The Rev. Jesse Jackson gave his political support Monday to the mayoral bid of hopeful Jesus Garcia, saying he believes Chuy would be more supportive of African-American neighborhoods than Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been.

Garcia, who has constantly touted the fact that when he was an alderman back in the 1980s he was an ally of then-Mayor Harold Washington, wants for the bulk of the black vote to turn out on April 7 in his favor.

GARCIA ALREADY SEEMS to have the bulk of the Latino vote. If combined with liberal-minded white people AND a large share of black voters, it could be enough for the Cook County commissioner from the Little Village neighborhood to prevail in his bid to dump Rahm from office.

So in that sense, having a prominent public personage such as Jackson on his side could help in getting black voters who might otherwise have trouble coming around to support a Latino official to actually do so.

Although the question remains as to whether Jackson is more powerful politically in terms of addressing the major issues confronting our society, while insignificant when talking about local concerns.

It could turn out that the local pastors might have a stronger pull in getting their congregation members to vote in a certain way. While such voters may cheer for Jesse when he speaks, they’re more likely to listen to whomever they follow at their local churches.

BUT GARCIA WANTS to be able to claim black voters, and not just because he needs them in order to win. It’s kind of hard to claim to be a progressive voice for change if the black voter bloc is more or less content with the way things are.

The reality of the municipal elections last month is that the bulk of voters in black-oriented wards supported Emanuel for re-election over all the other candidates.

Even Willie Wilson, who based his campaign on the idea that black voters would put him into office, wound up only getting about 20 percent of the vote in those wards (while being irrelevant in the rest of Chicago).

Both Emanuel and Garcia have sought Wilson’s support, and he has had meetings with both men to talk about endorsement opportunities. Although he seems to be more interested in being perceived as a political player than in actually doing anything to be one.

THESE DAYS, HE’S focusing his attention on the state budget mess that the government in Springfield is confronting. The Capitol Fax newsletter reported how he offered to be the intermediary between the Legislature’s black caucus and Gov. Bruce Rauner – who himself is a friend of Emanuel.

Not that the caucus members were all that sympathetic to dealing with Wilson in such a capacity. For him to get involved in the mayoral campaigns any further could kill off his own public perception.

So now, we’re getting to seeking Jackson’s support. Although I suspect the “Jackson” name has taken so many public perception hits that it might not have the same influence it used to – and not just because “Jr.” is still serving time toward his federal prison sentence (with spouse Sandi to do her time once he returns to Chicago).

If anything, the latest poll from Ogden & Fry could wind up being the most accurate view of the campaign status – Emanuel has a five-point lead over Garcia with 18 percent still undecided. Which is about the same as the poll done the week before.

NO CHANGE IN support levels, with one less week of time in which to actually campaign.

That same poll also showed 40 percent of African-American voters saying they prefer Rahm, compared to 33 percent for Chuy – and 27 percent more still undecided.

No wonder Garcia wants help in getting that just over a quarter of black voters to decide they want him instead of Rahm at City Hall.

Although a part of me thinks back to the 2002 film “Barbershop” and wonders how many potential voters learned of Jackson’s endorsement Monday and had the same thought that Cedric the Entertainer’s “Eddie” character had toward the reverend?

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Some people should pipe down before they make fools of themselves

Let me state up-front that I’m not mocking Paul McKinley because he did time in prison.

McKINLEY: The GOP nominee

Personally, I can find something admirable about the man who, despite having done significant time in prison for burglary, armed robbery and aggravated battery convictions, has managed to win the Republican Party’s nomination for the Illinois Second Congressional District.

HE GOES ABOUT now trying to use himself as an example to young people of how NOT to behave. “Don’t be like me,” might as well be his motto. It is a noble goal. And I don’t doubt that some people are able to make something significant of themselves after enduring incarceration.

A criminal conviction ought not to be an automatic exclusion from a future life.

But I do get a thrill, a chuckle, a serious laugh from the thought of those conservative ideologues who like to bash and rant and rage and who were prepared to go through the next few weeks trashing Democratic congressional nominee Robin Kelly as a “corrupt Chicago Machine pol” replacing another pol who’s supposedly/probably/most likely on his way to prison.

Only to know that their preferred political party is the one that managed to come up with the convicted felon on the ballot; and one whose actual criminal activities debatably were worse than those of Mel Reynolds – whose own bid for political office/redemption ended in failure on Tuesday.

HECK, JESSE JACKSON, Jr.’s use of campaign money to buy himself a load of celebrity memorabilia to decorate his office comes across as petty by comparison to crimes that got decades of time in prison as punishment.

Supposedly, Kelly was going to be tarred and feathered with rhetoric related to the fact that after leaving the Illinois General Assembly, she was chief of staff to Illinois Treasurer Alexi Gianoulias – whose own bid for a U.S. Senate seat in 2010 got smeared with the fact that the Broadway Bank his father founded went under financially.

I even recall the speculation that the bank loaned money for real estate projects to a man with mob ties and criminal convictions, although Giannoulias claimed he had nothing to do with those loans and no one ever came up with evidence to the contrary.

Yet to the ideologues who don’t really care about fact to support their partisan rants, they will now lambaste anyone associated with Giannoulias as “corrupt.”

INCLUDING KELLY. TAKE the Chicago Daily Observer website – which never misses a chance to leave the partisan spin out of its efforts to tell us the “news” of the day.

They gave us the blurb Wednesday morning that read, “Robin Kelly, former Chief of Staff to failed bank owner Alexi Giannoulias, has continued the Democrat tradition of putting dicier members of the dicey Chicago political establishment in the 2^nd Congressional District.”

That was the extent of their morning-after Election Day report, other than to then take a couple of paragraphs from the Chicago Tribune to give us the fact that Kelly won the Democratic primary the night before.

To people who really want to perceive the world that way, they deserve to have to be associated with McKinley’s record (he was paroled in 1997, and the bulk of his arrests since then for misbehaving as part of political protests have resulted in dropped charges) – which will make any of their attempts to talk about political corruption sound cheap and tinny by comparison.

THIS ELECTION WILL be the political mismatch along the lines of when then-Mayor Richard M. Daley had to run against Ray Wardingley (a.k.a., Spanky the Clown).

Not that we won’t hear nonsense talk being spewed during the general election portion of this campaign cycle.

For McKinley is the candidate who is in love with the phrase “corrupt Chicago machine.” The appearances I saw him make at select campaign forums during the primary season literally devolved him into working that phrase into the answer he gave to just about every question.

What does he think of a proposed pipeline from Canada through the United States that would pass through western Illinois? “I’m convinced that the corruption of the city of Chicago will find a way to divert the pipeline and steal away every dime,” he retorted.

NOT EXACTLY A man who’s going to be bashful, or all that concerned with the truth. Although it will go far in explaining why voter turnout likely will stink even more for the April 9 elections than they did on Tuesday.

There’s only so much nonsense-talk our minds can consume before we all just tune it out!

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Fate of the non-singing Jacksons

I’m wondering if right about now, Sandi Jackson is regretting those remarks she made about how she’d keep the aldermanic office furniture for herself if her preference for an aldermanic replacement were not honored by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

SANDI JACKSON: Blame of her own?

For it seems that the federal prosecutors who are hoping to make names for themselves at the expense of now-former Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., are just as eager to prosecute his spouse.

THE REPORTS CAME out on Friday about how the former Congressman has signed a deal by which he will cooperate with federal prosecutors – in exchange for that cooperation being taken into consideration when the time comes that he pleads “guilty” to criminal charges and is sentenced to a prison term.

The charges, that contend he misused money that was donated to his political campaigns to cover personal expenses, could result in a prison term of up to five years – if he were not cooperative.

A judge yet to be determined will have to decide how much Jackson’s cooperation is worth in terms of time reduced from that five-year standard.

The reports coming out from the Chicago Sun-Times and WMAQ-TV on Friday were sparse on details.

BUT THE ONE thing that did come out is that Jackson’s focus in recent weeks has been in trying to persuade federal prosecutors that his wife was not involved in any of the activity that the modern-day G-men say is illegal.

Trying to protect his wife, he’d say. Although the Internet is already filling up with anonymous comments (some racially tinged) that Jackson sold his wife out in order to knock some time off his own potential for a prison term.

JACKSON: Now owned by the federal govt.?

In that context, Sandi Jackson’s comment that the furniture used for the Seventh Ward offices (centered around the South Shore neighborhood) was hers somehow just plays all too well into the hands of the people who are all too eager to see anyone named “Jackson” go down for the count.

Particularly if it is someone who’s the namesake son of the long-time civil rights leader. The only thing that would make them more happy is if it were the reverend himself facing a federal investigation and the possibility of prosecution and incarceration.

I FIND MYSELF skeptical whenever political corruption cases come about because there’s always the possibility that they turn into nothing more than excuses for partisan political prosecution.

The people who get most worked up and do their best to stoke the heat of the political fire are those who didn’t like what the candidates stood for. Prison becomes their ideal of what an opposition candidate should face.

And the reason for the incarceration ultimately does not matter too much!

Now personally, I don’t know if Jackson’s conduct (or that of his wife) rises to the level of criminal behavior.

IT CONSISTS OF activity that Jackson really doesn’t deny doing. His “defense” is ultimately going to come down to something along the lines of “I didn’t know that was illegal.”

Which means it comes down to a matter of perception, and degree. Although I do realize that in recent years, there have been changes in federal law to prohibit actions that once were perfectly legal.

We’re going to read a lot in coming months about that “$40,000” Rolex watch – which makes me wonder if it would be less offensive if it were just a cheap, $10 Timex knockoff.

DALEY: Would he be beloved today?

Things that Richard J. Daley once did without giving it a second thought now likely would get an assistant U.S. attorney all worked up – putting himself into career overdrive in terms of thinking about how much of a public boost he can get from taking down a “big” political name.

WHICH IS THE real reason why we don’t hear all too often about small-town political corruption. Who’d care? It takes something along the scale of that public official in Dixon, Ill., to gain any news coverage.

It also is something we should keep in mind when we regard the Jacksons in coming months. Just how different is their conduct from the many other public officials who toil away in obscure posts whose very low-key nature makes it possible for them to do questionable things without many people looking!

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EXTRA: Impeach Obama?!? I fully expect the effort, and a headache

As I write this, the sounds of Ray Charles are echoing throughout the McCormick Place convention center, and President Barack Obama is preparing to find the diplomatic way of giving a raspberry to the campaign of Republican opponent Mitt Romney.

OBAMA: Still the prez, w/ same enemies



But I’m also sure that there are other people who are preparing to make Obama’s political life miserable – perhaps they want him to regret that he ever had presidential aspirations.

FOR I DON’T doubt that some people in our society are p’o-ed at the idea that they voted against him in both 2008 and 2012 – and he still managed to win both election cycles.

It doesn’t help that the breakdown of our Congress won’t change. Democratic Party partisans will still control the U.S. Senate, while Republicans will keep the U.S. House of Representatives.

I never seriously thought we were going to get the return of “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.,” but current House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, made it clear he’s “not going to budge one inch” on issues.

Which means the second Obama presidential term has the potential to be just as much of a partisan pissing match as the past two years has been.

DESPITE THE FACT that we will now have Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., because his Republican opponent engaged in stupid talk when it came to talk about rape (while trying to appeal to the people who believe abortion ought to be a criminal act), the basic hostility of our political scene on the federal government level hasn’t really changed much!

So we’ll probably get the initiative in the House of Representatives to repeal health care reform, along with a lot of other partisan cheap shots.

I really believe the more hard-core of the ideologues will try to come up with grounds for impeachment hearings, although I’m not going to speculate what kind of partisan tripe they will claim the president did that would make his removal from office a necessity to preserve our republic.

They’ll probably go in the history books as being regarded about as ridiculous as the impeachment effort was against Bill Clinton some 14 years ago. But being ridiculous has never prevented political people from doing something in the past.

SO THE NEXT two years are likely to be more of the past two years.

Although the new line of rhetoric will focus on the popular vote. CBS News just went through a whole diatribe not long ago about how Romney at that moment was leading Obama by nearly 1 million votes (my mind imagines actor Mike Myers’ “Dr. Evil” character saying that figure), although later admitting that the gap was closing.

Will we get the rhetorical nonsense from conservative ideologues about how Obama doesn’t deserve to be president? Don’t bring up 2000 or George W. Bush. Consistency has never been important to political blow-hards.

So what thoughts do I have in these moments before Obama preaches to his choir at the McCormick Place?

TYLENOL. WE NEED to stock up on it in significant qualities for the next few years.

Because all the psycho-babble we’re going to hear emanating from Washington is going to give us a serious migraine headache!

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SMITH: Confident, for now



EDITOR’S NOTE: Just to give some of you more of a headache. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., D-Ill., got 63 percent of the vote – although if it had been up to the Kankakee County portion of the district, Brian Woodworth would have won (he took 61 percent of the vote there). And if that’s not enough mental pain, consider that Derrick Smith (the expelled state representative from the West Side) was leading with 62 percent of the vote. He’s back (at least until his indictment becomes a criminal conviction)!

Jesse, Jr., coming back. Or is he?

Some political observers are getting all worked up over the situation affecting Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., D-Ill., who may well go through the campaign cycle without making a single appearance.

JACKSON: Should he stay, or go?



His aides say he “sounds fine” when they talk to him via telephone from Chicago to his house in the District of Columbia – where he has been staying since his release from the Mayo Clinic.

BUT WE DON’T really know anything firsthand – as in any observations we could make for ourselves or any words from his own mouth.

It has some people claiming he ought to resign. It has others saying we ought to give serious thought to voting for any of the three people wishing to challenge him in the Nov. 6 elections (although one of those people is not actually on the ballot – fans of the Rev. Anthony Williams will have to write him in).

We’re hearing a lot of rhetoric about how some sort of scam is being pulled on the public – either in the form of putting a member of Congress in place who isn’t capable of serving, OR setting up some sort of bait-and-switch in which the political powers-that-be will replace Jackson AFTER Election Day!

Anything is possible in the political world.

BUT I HAVE to confess that my reaction to the rhetoric being spewed is to wonder why people are getting so worked up. They’re going to stress themselves out over something that they really can’t impact.

Perhaps if they had put such effort into the primary election cycle, they might have been able to give some support to Debbie Halvorson – the former member of Congress who wanted to have a political comeback by challenging Jackson.

HALVORSON: We took a pass



She could have been a credible alternative – unlike any of the people now facing Jackson on a general election ballot.

I wonder if we’d be worse off if we had a “Rep. Anthony Williams,” a member of Congress who has run a half-dozen campaigns under every political party viable – and is now a write-in largely because no party really wants much to do with him.

FORMER POLITICAL SCIENCE professor Brian Woodworth of Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais may be more out-of-touch with the Far South Side that comprises the bulk of the Illinois Second Congressional District as the people who live down around Kankakee will claim that Jackson is with their home area.

And as for Marcus Lewis, a political independent? I wonder if he might be the only one worth taking seriously. He works for the U.S. Postal Service – which means he may have a clue on what a bungled bureaucratic mess our federal government is capable of being.

I can’t say that I think any of these people (even the Chicago Tribune on Wednesday couldn’t bring itself to endorse any of them) warrants a vote over Jackson – which may well be a matter of voting to let the Democratic Party organizations in Cook, Will and Kankakee counties decide who should represent the district in Congress until said date that a special election can be held.

A financial waste such an election would be, particularly since the congressional term is only two years. Come 2014, we’ll be picking yet again.

I’M NOT TRYING to be a Jackson apologist. I wish I had a better handle on what his condition truly is, and if he himself is capable of serving his own term.

JACKSON: The next Stroger, if not careful

I’d hope that the Jackson camp (which is rumored to be considering putting his wife, Sandi – the 7^th Ward alderman – in the post if Jesse, Jr., really steps down) recalls how badly such a maneuver backfired when Todd Stroger ascended to replace father John as president of the Cook County Board. Does Sandi want to be thought of as lowly as many of us regard Todd these days?

But I also keep in mind that much of the rhetoric we’re hearing being spewed these days is coming from people with their own partisan agendas. Remember early on the speculation that all this talk of Jackson being ill was really just a cover for him undergoing treatment for alcoholism or some sort of drug addiction – if not both?

The man who was diagnosed as suffering from a bipolar disorder may still be the target of a lot of political trash talk. Giving in to such trash winds up degrading us all.

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