Jackson Jr., the phony reformer

The Tribune has a piece on how Jesse Jackson Jr. plans to start registering 150,000 of the estimated 650,000 unregistered voters in Chicago. This is the mark of a lousy, self-serving elected official. Apparently, the fact that there are 650,000 unregistered voters was of little consequence to him all these years, that is until he is ready to run for a new job. Now all the sudden, he's all about registering voters. His self-serving motives aside, I hope he is able to make a big dent in the 650K. The piece also covers Jesse Jackson Jr.'s rally of 300 supporters, many wearing "Jr." buttons. Do note that just a few days ago, the JJJ camp denied any connection to a city employee named Frank Coconate, who handed out a bunch of "Jr" buttons to his coworkers in the Water Dept. Now, if you are a breathing, blinking Chicagoan, you know the Water Dept. has been hit recently with the Hired Truck investigation, in which accusations range from taking bribes to dealing drugs. Daley, perhaps in an attempt to save himself politically, has begun his own internal crackdown on city-worker scams. And to show he means business, he's ousted a lot of top city officials. Then he cracked down on punchclock frauds. It's only going to get uglier. The Water Dept. employees who have worked so hard politically for Daley have got to be upset. Suddenly the guy who they've so loyally supported is threatening to hang them out to dry. And then these Jr buttons suddenly appear on the scene at the Water Dept., as if to say, "Stick with Daley and you might lose your job. Support Jr. and it's back to the status quo."