Who says Mayo Clinic has a clue? Prosecutors want Jackson health issue

All through the whole Jesse Jackson, Jr. saga, there have been those (usually with an ideological or racial leaning – if not both) who have insisted that all the talk of the now-former Congressman needing medical treatment was some sort of scam.

JACKSON: Will his health be on trial?

The fact that he got admitted to the Mayo Clinic and underwent treatment? Not swayed. They probably want to believe that the Rochester, Minn.-based clinic is somehow on the take; perhaps a part of a criminal conspiracy that perhaps they should be prosecuted for as well.

A WHOLE LOT of nonsense talk is what it really comes down to. The people who have wanted Jackson out of office for years, if not just over a decade, want him out for ideological reasons.

They’ll take whatever grounds they can get to find a reason to depose him.

And those people, I’m sure, are going to be loving the rhetoric that we’re going to get from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, where on Friday a federal judge scheduled July 1 as the date that Jackson will face sentencing.

Because the prosecutors with the U.S. attorney’s office who are seeking to get a prison term for both Jackson and his wife, Sandi (the former alderman) are making it seem as though they want to use Jackson’s bipolar disorder diagnosis against him.

THOSE PROSECUTORS SAY they want their own medical experts to examine Jackson, on the off-chance that defense attorneys try to bring the issue up as a factor in sentencing.

As much as people complain that defense attorneys are willing to exploit a medical condition for the benefit of their clients/defendants, it is just a true that prosecutors can easily come up with their own “expert testimony” to refute any point that someone tries to make on their own behalf.

Yes, it bothers me that prosecutors are going to be feeding off the sentiments of those people who are so eager to dump Jackson from power that they’ll believe anything.

SANDI: What she gets for signing tax form

It ensures that this particular aspect of the case will linger for far longer than it deserves to.

PERSONALLY, I DON’T comprehend much of the animosity – particularly since those who were opposed to the Jacksons ultimately got what they wanted. They’re both out of political office and in situations where neither is ever likely to be capable of holding a political position of authority again.

The critics are getting what it was they wanted (and putting the rest of us through that whole ordeal of watching that special election cycle that bordered at times on the absurd). It’s as though now they’re getting greedy and demanding ultimate punishment.

Perhaps they think it has to be something more than the roughly 14 years of real time that former Gov. Rod Blagojevich is now serving at a federal corrections facility in Colorado?

I noticed one anonymous (of course) Internet commenter who claims that anything less than five years in prison for each Jackson is unjust. Even though the maximum sentence Jesse, Jr. could get is five years, while sentencing guidelines say the maximum for Sandi is two years.

THE JACKSONS (AS in the political family, not the musical one) are out of office and headed for prison. They’re going to suffer. Like I stated earlier, the ideologues are getting what they want!

But let’s not overdo things. Retribution for retribution’s sake makes all of us in society look sorry – even those who don’t support it but do little to nothing to stop it.

Which is why I’m hoping the federal judge in this case (also named “Jackson,” but not related) has enough sense to not let this issue get all out of hand during the sentencing.

The last thing that a criminal sentencing needs to devolve into is a medical diagnosis!

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A Jackson ‘apologist?’ Or a political realist? ’Most candidates say little

JACKSON: A 'robo' Congressman?

The campaign for Illinois’ second congressional district took a bizarre turn when residents of the Far South Side and surrounding suburbs got one of those “robo-calls” from Jesse Jackson, Jr., himself.

It’s not the use of the “robo-call” itself. Campaigns use them all the time – hoping that a significant number of people who get the calls don’t immediately hang up the phone upon realizing it’s NOT a real-life person talking to them.

BUT JACKSON IS the public official who has been on medical leave from his Congressional post since June, and whom most people (including many of his top aides) haven’t physically seen in months.

That recorded message was Jackson’s attempt to reach out to the people whom he expects to vote for him in another 15 days, telling them among other things, “I am human. I’m doing my best.”

Now I’m sure that some people are snickering at the very attempt. Or others may claim it is some sort out outrage that Jackson would think a recorded message could somehow make up for the months of time in which he has told us nothing – and family members have tried to make us all feel guilty for even thinking we have a right to know what is going on.

Not that I’m on any guilt-trip. Jackson could have put all of this concern to rest early on, and the only people who would be complaining would be the ideologues whose real objection to the congressman is the fact that he is the son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

THEY’D BE JUST as outraged as they are now. But we’d all be able to ignore him.

Yet I have to admit I can’t get too worked up over the circumstances under which Illinois second congressional voters (I live just a few blocks over the line in the Illinois first congressional district, where long-time Blue Island Mayor Don Peloquin is challenging Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill.) will be confronted when they cast ballots on Election Day – or at early voting centers beginning Monday.

Yes, it is true that Jackson has not been publicly seen. He’s not engaging in the typical routines of a campaign cycle.

Yet if we’re going to be honest, very few incumbent candidates are ever all that active in campaigning for re-election. They adopt the “Rose Garden” strategy that has them hide behind their incumbency and use all of its advantages to get away with saying and doing as little as possible – while counting on the local political organizations to turn out the vote as much as possible to ensure their re-election.

EVEN IF HE were physically fit, we really wouldn’t have seen or heard much more from him than we actually have. Jackson had his “serious” campaign back in the primary cycle. If anything, I wonder to what degree the level of political activity he engaged in against former Rep. Debbie Halvorson added to the stress.

Which makes me wonder if it is an issue if he’s physically capable of serving in Congress. That might be worth considering.

But I think the idea that Jackson is going into hiding during this election cycle is a non-issue – no matter how much the ideologues want to use Jackson’s condition as cover for the political cheap shots they want to take at him.

I’m sure some people are going to want to believe that I’m being an apologist for the Jackson campaign by downplaying the reality of his campaign activity.

IT’S JUST THAT I don’t think it’s all that relevant. The only officials who actually get out on the campaign trail and aggressively court every vote they can get are the people who are in competitive races.

Some people would have you think that every Democratic candidate ought to be campaigning as publicly as Tammy Duckworth – who has her bid for the Illinois eighth congressional district seat currently held by one-term Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill.

That just isn’t realistic. It doesn’t work that way. It shouldn’t work that way.

Because if we really had every single political candidate hitting the stump every single day spewing all their campaign rhetoric, I’m sure we’d get so sick of hearing from them that we’d want to pass a law banning anybody from ever publicly campaigning for office.

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Jackson back home (the D.C. version), will the campaign soon pick up steam?

JACKSON: Back home, but which one?

Perfect timing, it would seem.

For Congress is scheduled to resume Monday from its summer recess. And Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., D-Ill., is out of the hospital, so to speak. He may very well be able to show up for session and claim NOT to have missed anything of significance.

JACKSON MAY WELL have the most interesting tale to tell among the members of Congress when they are asked, “What did you do on your summer vacation?”

For the Mayo Clinic confirmed Friday that Jackson has been released from the Minnesota-based facility. He has been on medical leave from Congress since June 10, and had been at the Mayo Clinic ever since July 25.

So those people who would claim the Illinois 2^nd Congressional district was being short-changed by Jackson might have to pipe down a bit, since it would seem that Jackson’s time off coincided with the time that Congress was out-of-session.

Not that they will pipe down one bit. The people who want to rant about Jesse Jr. are going to do so, regardless of what the facts truly are. Some people just like to rhymes with witch.

IN FACT, I’M wondering if they’re going to take the fact that Jackson, upon his release from the Mayo Clinic, went “home” to Washington – rather than the South Side.

It’s going to be seen as more superficial (and circumstantial) evidence that Jackson doesn’t really live here with us in Chicago (even though the reality of serving in Congress is that – unlike the state Legislature – one has to maintain two homes and spend significant amounts of time within the District of Columbia).

Learning that Jackson went straight to his home in the district’s Adams Morgan neighborhood makes me think he really will show up for “work” on Monday, resuming his seat in the House of Representatives.

Which also means it could be just a matter of time before we see him working the streets of the Far South Side and surrounding suburbs that comprise his congressional district – as part of his effort to get the majority of votes in the Nov. 6 elections.

I’M ACTUALLY LOOKING forward to his first campaign stunt, even if it turns out to be a completely pointless event whose only purpose is to show us that Jackson is physically capable of continuing to hold his current political post.

Because that really will be the only “issue” at stake in this election – no matter how much ideologues want to claim there is some higher principle at stake.

If Jackson can’t show himself physically up to the task, then the voters of the congressional district are going to have to weed through the other three individuals who have aspirations to challenge the congressman.

Not that I think any of them have much of a shot – even if Jackson were to turn up physically decrepit.

REPUBLICAN BRIAN BLOODWORTH, a professor at Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, and political independent Marcus Lewis can only dream of gaining the type of clout that would cause people to cast knee-jerk ballots in their favor – the way that some will do for Jesse, Jr.

As for the Rev. Anthony Williams (making his sixth challenge to Jackson, this time as a write-in candidate), I doubt he even dreams of winning. He just enjoys the chance to make his objections about Jackson’s record publicly known – in hopes that “the people” will force the Congressman to mend his ways.

Perhaps it’s also appropriate that Jackson is out of the hospital now, on account of the fact that the commission aligned with him to tout the idea of a new airport in rural Will County is having a meeting Monday in suburban South Holland. Which might make those people who desire the death of a Peotone-based airport and had hoped Jackson’s situation would bolster their viewpoint sad to learn that the project won’t die.

Just like Jackson, Jr.’s congressional career, it would seem.

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