EX- REP IS AMIX OF CONFIDENCE, CONFUSION, SELF- PITY
Former U. S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. stood before a bank of cameras Monday at the Daley Center to speak to a group of reporters for the first time in Chicago since he went to prison. Somebody should have talked him out of it. Jackson offered a rambling, disjointed explanation of his handling of the divorce proceedings against his wife, former Ald. Sandi Jackson, again relying on innuendo to level oblique accusations.
Jackson contended his subpoenas seeking information about Sandi Jackson from former Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy and two other men were intended to protect his children from reading about it later in a supermarket tabloid.
“It’s not my psychology that’s at stake. It is the psychology of our 17- year- old daughter who is aware of these issues for a number of years, including while I was in prison, and before my incarceration. And during my criminal trial, and during my medical convalescence,” Jackson said.
“I have a 17- year- old daughter who is aware of these issues at great length and has spoken about the matters. . . . I have a 13 year- old son, who is aware of many of the issues, but he said: ‘ Daddy, don’t worry about it. These individuals are going to take care of mommy. And it’s hard for me to hear it when I heard it.”
What does any of that mean? Who knows exactly, but it totally overlooks the fact it was Jackson’s subpoenas that put the issue of McCarthy and the others into the public record in the first place and intensified media scrutiny of the divorce.
Jackson finally slowed down long enough for a reporter to ask him a simple “How are you doing?”
“I feel fantastic,” he answered, allowing only for some “up and down days” from the divorce.
This from a man who draws nearly $ 140,000 in annual disability payments from the federal government because he’s been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and depression that allegedly has left him totally disabled and unable to work.
He didn’t look fantastic. He looked thin and haggard, although I suppose, not as bad as we’ve seen him at other points during this long ordeal.
In some ways, Jackson spoke with the smooth self- assuredness of old, the Jesse Jr. once regarded as a formidable Chicago mayoral challenger.
But he didn’t make a lot of sense, and there were also signs of the barely concealed anger and self- pity so prevalent in the years leading up to his conviction.
Excuse me for playing armchair psychiatrist, but I have never doubted Jackson suffers from a serious mental illness.
I don’t really see why that should entitle him to $ 140,000 a year at taxpayers’ expense, but that’s a separate issue.
The Jacksons, who both went to prison for their poor judgment, are now carrying that behavior over into their divorce case.
It’s enough to give me new appreciation for the power couples who manipulate the court system to keep out of the public record as much information as possible about their divorce.
Jackson arrived in court Monday clearly itching for an opportunity to testify about why he wanted the subpoenas enforced.
Then when Cook County Judge Carole Bellows turned back that effort, at least temporarily, Jackson acted as if that had been his preference all along, even as he fanned the flames afterward as he insisted he wanted to protect his children.
“I don’t want their classmates to see it, what I know, and what I’ve discovered,” he said.
The Jacksons’ story is sad and tragic, and I’m only too ready for them to retreat from the public scene and live out their days in peace.
Jackson suggested to reporters he might also be ready.
“I’m just grateful you guys would give me quite possibly my final hearing in public,” he said.
We all should be so lucky.