 |
| Missing in action for almost half the year: Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. |
The conservative writer in New York City has the same concern that the MIA liberal Democratic politician's liberal and conservative opponents here in Chicago have: "The defensive posture assumed by Rep. Jackson’s family explains why
the congressman feels entitled to remain AWOL [for the past five months, as he undergoes treatment for bipolar depression], even as the residents of
Illinois’s 2
nd congressional district ponder both his future
and theirs. Truthfully, Rep. Jackson’s status is now less mere curiosity
than a problem demanding immediate resolution. This is no longer a question of privacy, or the
removal of stigma from an illness so misunderstood that none dare speak its name. Rep. Jackson’s situation – which coincided with
mushrooming ethics troubles
— has now crossed the ever-eroding barrier between the personal and the
political. If the news reports are to be believed – and sadly, that’s
all the public has to go on because the congressman himself has yet to
utter a word in his own defense – then Rep. Jackson is either unwilling
or incapable of performing the job he was elected to do."
Preach, Javier, preach!: "What is it about the civil
rights establishment – and their progeny – that makes them entertain
such notions of grandeur? Public offices are not meant to be sinecures
or inherited thrones, yet good luck explaining that to entrenched
politicians. Rep. Jackson’s disappearance, and his flagrant defiance of
public opinion, illustrates a disposition endemic to the black political
establishment. These elected representatives seem to believe a seat in
Washington is a job for life, and indeed it becomes exactly that. Many
are reelected year after year, regardless of whether they deliver any
substantive change to their voters. As a result, public office has
become an entitlement instead of a democratic privilege. Congressman Jackson, along with many of his Congressional Black Caucus cohorts, are the worst manifestation of the '
I am the state'
attitude normally associated with a deceased French monarch."
