Evidence emerges that Jesse Jackson fils is as much of a financial scamster as his old man. This story brings to mind the series of New York Post columns I did on how Jesse Sr. used his non-profits to spread money around, apparently illegally. My columns are hard to find online, but this piece I did for NRO years ago more or less sums up my findings:
As was reported last year by the New York Post, the Chicago dailies, Fox News Channel, and almost nobody else, Jackson threatened to hold up several media mega-mergers on spurious racial grounds. When the companies involved made donations to at least one of his organizations, as well as provided business for his family members, friends, and contributors, Jackson's opposition evaporated.Critics called the Wall Street Project a scheme by Jackson to leverage his moral standing as a civil-rights leader to make those in his inner circle rich. As I reported in my Post column, the tax-exempt CEF quintupled its revenue -- from $2 million in 1998 to $9.7 million in 1999 -- in the same year that Jackson signed off on the corporate mergers, all of which depended on the Federal Communications Commission for approval. The FCC was then headed by Jackson pal William Kennard.
This information was discovered on the CEF's [Citizenship Education Fund, a Jackson front group -- RD] publicly available tax returns, which upon inspection, turned out to have been incompetently executed. Whether there was intention to deceive is a matter of conjecture. There were glaring errors and omissions, including the salaries of CEF's top five paid employees. Under fire, Jackson's accountants tried to plug the gaping holes by filing an amended IRS Form 990 -- and flopped a second time.
Wells Fargo Bank was listed as having made a $200,000 contribution. The bank said it had no record of that. Coors Brewing did not give $25,000 to CEF, as the tax form claimed, but to PUSH For Excellence, another Jackson entity. A $15,000 contribution credited to the New York City Board of Education had actually come from the Securities Industry Association. And so forth.
Jackson's CEF lied to the IRS once, and got caught. They lied a second time, and got caught. And so far, nothing has happened to them. As Bill O'Reilly used to say, "You try that."
I had to go through the federal forms filed by Jackson's people. They were pathetic. Clearly the Jackson people never worried about being audited, and as it turned out, they didn't have to worry. He's Jesse Jackson, and you're not. Republicans were terrified of making an issue of this. The racism accusation thing, as usual. Those Jacksons are something else, I tell you. And nobody will ever lay a hand on them.
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What are civil rights, but an expression of true integrity? Integrity applied to recognized and unmistakeable principles.
We, as Americans, can wholeheartedly believe in and respect the idea that "all men are created equal". We can adopt those things without reservation. We can give without second thought, when our neighbor is need. We'll yank the last $100 bill out of our wallets to hand to the guy who just got burned out of his house and needs clothes and bed and place to stay.
But our indignation and anger, and even condemnation, when we find that the person who organized a fundraiser to get coats for kids for Christmas and then took some for themselves is both right and good.
When someone or some ones misuse our support for these principles, for selfish benefit, we should reject them, out of respect for the purity and goodness of those principles. In other words, integrity cannot be divorced from virtue.
Civil rights now exist. There are no leaps to be made. The battles have been won. And to now allow, look elsewhere, or even excuse corruption done in the name of those principles, is to completely betray them.
Everyone, ESPECIALLY those who have a personal interest in equal rights, should condemn Jackson's corruption. To fail to do so, is to equate corruption and civil rights. To call it racism to support integrity is just that. Jackson has shamed the notion of Civil Rights for a long time. And those who worked so hard to establish what he now exploits. He has sullied their names. And those who make character attacks for calling him out on his lack of integrity...shame the principles themselves.
Black, white or purple all politicians are corrupt.
Chris Mills
To be fair to Jackson, I don't think the inaccurate 990 is evidence of anything in particular. I had a research job once that involved looking through the 990's of a lot of different organizations, and it is very common for them to be sloppy and incorrect. My understanding was that in practice the IRS never comes after anyone for an inaccurate 990. No taxes are at stake afterall, so they concentrate on the bigger fish elsewhere.
According to the article, his actions appear to be legal. I'm not a fan of politics as a family business, but it's pretty common on both sides of the aisle for candidates to pay their spouses as campaign consultants. Unfortunately, this may be the only way for people who are not independently wealthy to run for office.
Bailey, Anne, sadly the minor issue of filings is not what really matters. What matters is that JJ hasn't been a model of integrity, and has exploited both his race and his claimed goals for personal gain. He's been caught repeatedly being dishonest, being self serving, and being far less than a beacon for the downtrodden.
That is what is really at stake here. What can Jackson fight for? Right to vote? Right to assemble? Against the old and now gone Jim Crow laws?
Jackson COULD take on the issues of black on black crime, the lack of two parent families in the inner city, the immense injustice many do to themselves, in failing to educate themselves, and end up face down with a bullet in them. But he doesn't.
That's the travesty of Jesse Jackson. And the fact that he blackmails large amounts of money from companies and then uses it to benefit himself or his family, and does nothing of substance for the people he claims to work for is an insult to the principle of civil rights and equality under the law.
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